Elizabeth's Hearing Loss

I am not sure how much we have shared about Elizabeth and her hearing loss on this blog, but I thought I should post an update. 

Elizabeth was diagnosed with moderate to severe rising hearing loss in her right ear and severe hearing loss in her left ear.  What does that mean for Elizabeth?  In simple terms, it means that in her right ear she can hear high pitches but really struggles to hear the lower ones. In her left ear she struggles to hear most pitches.  Those were the conclusions determined after several Audio Brainstem Response (ABR) tests.  Here is the general timeline of what has occured since we learned that Elizabeth has significant hearing loss:>

At 4 months of age, Elizabeth received her first pair of pink (of course pink!) hearing aids. 

At 5 months of age, Elizabeth began learning how to do behavioral hearing tests. 

At 6 months of age, Elizabeth began going to speech therapy sessions once a week for an hour at a time. 

At 10 months of age, Elizabeth began going to speech therapy sessions twice a week for an hour at a time. 

At 11 month of age, the frequency of Elizabeth's hearing tests were increased to every other week. 

Also at 11 months of age, Elizabeth's audiologist, Miss Johanna, decided that we should see how Elizabeth responds/grows without wearing hearing aids. 

At 13 months of age, it was determined that Elizabeth does indeed need some audio assistance (i.e., hearing aids).

Despite the increased testings we still cannot get consistent results.  This past week I thought we were going to go ahead and give Elizabeth her left hearing aid back.  We "think" that Elizabeth is hearing better in her right ear than we originally thought and that maybe her left ear may have a rising hearing loss.  However, at our appointment this past week, Elizabeth again was not responding with her right ear, so we are all left very confused. I am making an appointment to get Elizabeth another visit with her ENT to have her re-examined to see if the ENT notices any new issues in her right middle ear. 

Within the next two weeks, our team at NYEE Children's Hearing Institute will make their recommendations as to what what they think will be best for Elizabeth.  At this point, I want Elizabeth to return to wearing the hearing aid(s).  I want to know that she hears sounds around her.   I feel like she has stalled with her speech development, and I want to see her progress.


We will keep you posted!