Shannon and her hearing

So, when Shannon was born she failed her newborn screening the day after she was born. No biggie, they were going to try again the next day. Then she failed it for the second time and we were told to come back three weeks later to try again. So when Shannon was three weeks old she had her third hearing test and she failed again. We were then sent to an audiologist in Salt Lake to do a more extensive hearing test. Once there we found out she had a 10% hearing loss. Doesn't sound like that much of a loss but we listened to an audio file of what things sound like for Shannon and I was surprised for just a 10% loss how much the hearing was decreased. We then went back two more times for the same test over the next couple of months. By the time she was four months old her hearing was just outside of normal and the audiologist told us she would give her a pass but watch her milestones. After watching Shannon for the last year I decided that there was something wrong. I made a few calls and she was evaluated by Kids on Move and she is developmentally delayed in almost every area. She doesn't answer to her name, she can't say any words, she can't walk or stand alone. They told me it would be a good idea to have her hearing tested again. I called UVRMC and they scheduled a sedated ABR for the 18th of May. Last Friday, the 18th, the procedure didn't start until one o'clock in the afternoon which was hard because Shannon couldn't eat all day. They gave her a couple different meds up her nose to prepare her to receive an IV. They tried to get the IV in and blew a vein so then they tried the other hand. She then started to get the medicine to put her to sleep. Man, she fought going to sleep, the nurse had to hold her down. An hour and a half into the test I asked the doctor how everything was looking. He said it's not a mild hearing loss, it's a severe hearing loss. I started to get teary eyed. He said he was going to try a couple other tests. He then measured her hearing through her bone instead of through her ears and found she could hear a little better. After another test he found out that she had so much fluid in her middle ear that her eardrums weren't moving at all. Weird, since she has never had an ear infection. He said she would need tubes put in, then they would have to do this sedated ABR all over again, and if she is still just outside of normal would need hearing aids. As of right now it is as if Shannon has ear muffs on, onto of another set of ear muffs. The doctor said she can't hear a regular conversation, just muffled sounds, speech isn't audible. 

Shannon during her test.

 Today we went to the ENT doctor, Heidi Heras, she scheduled Shannon's surgery for this Thursday. I then scheduled her ABR test for next Tuesday the 29th, so within a week and a half Shannon will be put under three times. Poor thing. I am so excited that Shannon will finally hear her name and will hopefully get her balance so she can walk, she wants to walk. So grateful for modern technology!