Shout it from the Rooftops!
...or whisper if you like - it doesn't matter because Ryan can hear you either way!
I haven't said anything before, because I didn't want to look for trouble where there might not be any. However as part of the battery of tests they put newborns through before leaving hospital there is a hearing test, and Ryan failed it. Twice. For both ears. The hospital notified us of this, and let us know that we needed to schedule a follow-up hearing test. On the positive side, we were told that on average they have one child fail the screening each week, and of those only 1 in 50 actually has any hearing loss. (I did a little math and realized that meant that 98% of kids that fail the screening could hear just fine, and decided that those were great odds so I wasn't going to panic, but it still isn't the kind of news you want to get.)
The way they notified me wasn't great though - a doctor walked into my room first thing in the morning (before 7AM), turned on the light (I was still asleep) and proceeded to tell me that according to their initial tests my son was deaf and they would be calling me the next day to schedule another hearing test. I was still trying to wake up as I was digesting this information, and was not in any state of mind to ask the necessary follow up questions that I might otherwise have had for the doctor.
When I later told H about this he was irate about how the whole thing was handled (as I was) and we decided that instead of working with that audiologist we would speak with our pediatrician and work it from there. Thus not giving the guy any additional business - we didn't want to work with him since he handled the initial conversation so poorly.
Our pediatrician recommended an audiologist, and suggested that we not schedule the subsequent hearing exam until Ryan was a month old. In addition he downplayed the situation, saying that he thought it very unlikely that there was anything wrong with Ryan. He let us know that the initial newborn hearing screening is often wrong because either the baby's ear canal is simply too small for an accurate reading, or sometimes there is still fluid in the ears. Either situation could cause a false reading, and he made us feel a lot better.
I wasn't entirely relaxed about it, but knew that whatever the situation we could handle it. And I'm head over heels in love with the kid anyway, so it really just didn't matter. But we still spent the past month micro-analyzing Ryan's reaction (or lack of reaction) to every sound, loud or quiet. Until this morning.
We headed in to the hospital and went to the Speech and Hearing center, where a very nice audiologist performed the re-screen. He first did the same test they initially did on Ryan, followed by a more detailed test which evaluated the basics from the initial test and additional higher and lower frequencies. And Ryan passed the more detailed test with flying colors for both ears! So thankfully we are now completely in the clear with the little guy. He has perfect hearing.
Ryan: this means that in a year or two when you decide to ignore your mother, there's no excuses. I KNOW you can hear me, and ignoring me will simply be a demonstration of Male Pattern Selective Hearing, which does run in the family, but will not be tolerated. You've been warned!
I haven't said anything before, because I didn't want to look for trouble where there might not be any. However as part of the battery of tests they put newborns through before leaving hospital there is a hearing test, and Ryan failed it. Twice. For both ears. The hospital notified us of this, and let us know that we needed to schedule a follow-up hearing test. On the positive side, we were told that on average they have one child fail the screening each week, and of those only 1 in 50 actually has any hearing loss. (I did a little math and realized that meant that 98% of kids that fail the screening could hear just fine, and decided that those were great odds so I wasn't going to panic, but it still isn't the kind of news you want to get.)
The way they notified me wasn't great though - a doctor walked into my room first thing in the morning (before 7AM), turned on the light (I was still asleep) and proceeded to tell me that according to their initial tests my son was deaf and they would be calling me the next day to schedule another hearing test. I was still trying to wake up as I was digesting this information, and was not in any state of mind to ask the necessary follow up questions that I might otherwise have had for the doctor.
When I later told H about this he was irate about how the whole thing was handled (as I was) and we decided that instead of working with that audiologist we would speak with our pediatrician and work it from there. Thus not giving the guy any additional business - we didn't want to work with him since he handled the initial conversation so poorly.
Our pediatrician recommended an audiologist, and suggested that we not schedule the subsequent hearing exam until Ryan was a month old. In addition he downplayed the situation, saying that he thought it very unlikely that there was anything wrong with Ryan. He let us know that the initial newborn hearing screening is often wrong because either the baby's ear canal is simply too small for an accurate reading, or sometimes there is still fluid in the ears. Either situation could cause a false reading, and he made us feel a lot better.
I wasn't entirely relaxed about it, but knew that whatever the situation we could handle it. And I'm head over heels in love with the kid anyway, so it really just didn't matter. But we still spent the past month micro-analyzing Ryan's reaction (or lack of reaction) to every sound, loud or quiet. Until this morning.
We headed in to the hospital and went to the Speech and Hearing center, where a very nice audiologist performed the re-screen. He first did the same test they initially did on Ryan, followed by a more detailed test which evaluated the basics from the initial test and additional higher and lower frequencies. And Ryan passed the more detailed test with flying colors for both ears! So thankfully we are now completely in the clear with the little guy. He has perfect hearing.
Ryan: this means that in a year or two when you decide to ignore your mother, there's no excuses. I KNOW you can hear me, and ignoring me will simply be a demonstration of Male Pattern Selective Hearing, which does run in the family, but will not be tolerated. You've been warned!
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