4/15 - Leo and his hearing aid

In Kate's last post, she talked about our trip to my hometown for Easter. Overall, the trip was a success. It was really nice for Leo to meet family members for the first time and for us to spend the holiday together as a family with our loved ones. Leo didn't enjoy the car ride so we are exploring other car seat options that would make him more comfortable so that we could travel more than what we have. Below is a picture of Leo sleeping in his bed in the camper. 

Leo is extremely sensitive to light. Ever since he has been home since May of last year, I can count on one hand the number of times that he has been outside other than just going from our van to buildings. However on Saturday with the help of sunglasses, Leo stayed outside for a couple of hours and actually seemed to enjoy it - maybe not enjoy it but definitely did not get upset like he normally does. I'm hoping this is a trend that continues so that we can be together as a family outdoors. 

And now for the actual topic of this post - Leo's hearing aid. Before I talk about the hearing aid itself, I need to explain the actual hearing test so that you understand the effect of the hearing aid. In a normal hearing test, the audiologist sends a sound wave at difference decibels and pitches and expects a certain reaction in normal response. In a normal response, the audiologist will see three distinct responses - this of course is an oversimplified explanation (1) the cochlea (i.e inner ear) (2) auditory nerve (3) brain stem processing the sound. In Leo's left ear, there was no response at all which is consistent with the previous hearing test. However, in Leo's right hear, the first two responses were present but the third was not when sounds at higher than normal levels were used. They were able to clamp the ear tubes and not get any response at all in the right ear.

So what does this all mean? The hearing tubes helped get a response which is showing they will help. In terms of Leo's left hear, it appears there is no auditory nerve because of no response in the test which means no chance of hearing. For his right ear, the hearing aid should help him hear sounds at normal levels but because the third response i described above wasn't present in the test, we don't know if Leo's brain will actually process the sound or not. It could be the test is trying to measure a normal brain stem response which is the root of Leo's issues so the test may be flawed. Or it could be a neurological issue of processing the sound. Only time will tell.

Leo received the hearing aid on Friday and thus far, no major changes or reactions. However, we have noticed him wanting to lay more centered and on his left side which he never usually wants to do. He also seems more alert and attentive than normal when he has the hearing aid in his ear. We think sometimes we see a reaction to sound but not 100% sure. So while nothing drastic so far, something is different in him because of the hearing aid. Again, only time will tell and from what was have seen with other kids that have Leo's condition, it could take awhile before we see a significant change. But there is hope and that is all that we can ask for at this time. Here is a pic of Leo rocking his new hearing aid.