Say What? (Audiology Appointments)

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So yesterday (Sept. 1) we were in Seattle most the day, again ...   We left here super early because the last few times we went through Seattle the traffic was terrible.  When my Mom takes us ... she drives more cautious ... Dennis grew up in a big city and can wiggle in and out of traffic a little more easily ... so I forget, it takes him less time.  We left the house at 10:00...  got to our Children's Hospital exit at 11:30 ....  so we just kinda kept driving for a little while.  Ended up at some Fred Myer to use the bathrooms, let the boys each pick out a book before they knocked each other's heads off...  

So we leave there and get back to Children's a few minutes before 1, when Noah's first appointment was.  He had to see an ENT quick to make sure his ears looked clear and un-infected, etc ... so that they knew they could do the hearing test and get accurate results.  That took all of a few minutes ... 

Then off to Audiology Room we go ... 

So ....  this is the audiology computers and the window on the other side looks into the sound proof room where they put the kids for the tests. 

Noah's testing came first, and she hooks him up to the Tampanagram machine, and when I called it by name and knew that if he had a flat result we had issues in his ear with fluid and when he got a normal result I was happy!  She was all impressed .. LOL..  with my knowledge of what would happen and explaining it to him and what not.  I kept telling her, we'd already been through this all a lot, and she was still impressed with how informed I am... 

So after all was said and done, this is what Noah's hearing results looked like... 

The red marks/lines with the circles is the results of his right ear which is completely normal.  (You want the results to fall between 0-20 at the top of the chart.  His were all between 15-20.)   The blue marks/lines with the X's ... are his normal hearing test results with his left ear.  The first two are normal but the rest are all ranging from mild to moderately severe hearing loss.... the half square looking marks (backwards boxed C's) are the nerve/bone results where they place a device on the bone behind the ear and it tests the nerves and ear bones to see if the problem is with in the ear or in the nerves and bones .. or both ...  and as you can see, Noah's hearing loss isn't just in his ear but also the nerves and such...  so she gave us the news, he qualifies for a hearing aid for his left ear. 

Oh my ....  

I kept being told the appointment was for hearing aid fitting ... and I kept thinking .... yeah right ....   yeah right on me I guess. 

Noah was scared at first, but the lady told him he'd have a little computer for his ear, he kinda liked that idea.  First, she asked him which model of hearing aid he liked better, and he picked the smaller one of the two - not because it was smaller ...  but because it was blue...

For the actual ear piece ....  (the example she let Noah see)

she gave us the examples of all the colors it comes in and told us that he could pick out up to 3 colors to swirl together....

So he picked out the blue (closest to the booth B tag) ... black, and clear w/ dark blue glitter...

 here is a little bit closer up of the clear with dark blue glitter

Here is the ear piece next to the hearing aid....

And then she started to get set up to do a mold of Noah's ear so they could do his ear piece ...  here is her tub of goodies ...  where she got the molding goo from

 that pink and clear little device, it looks more sinister then what it is, it's just to apply the goo to his ear...

 Here she had put a little piece of foam in his ear (pretty deep) and this string she wrapped around the top of his ear to pull it out - in his case, it came out with the goo ...

Here he is with the goo on/in his ear... 

He was really worried the stuff wouldn't come off (or out) of his ear ... 

And here is Nathan's results, again - normal range is 0-20 ...   his normal hearing test is the S marks with lines, and the little - marks above are the nerve/bone results.  His hearing loss isn't in his nerve/bones like Noah's is those were with in normal range.