Brain Stem Test

For those of you who dont know, jimmie needed to have a brain stem test done to check his hearing neurologically because he failed 3 separate hearing screenings. For more info on that, check out my previous post "The Hearing Situation"

First of all, thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. It has made a world of difference. Even though it wasn't a major surgery or anything it was enough to mess with our nerves and is always a little scary. I'm actually writing this as we sit and wait. We will be waiting here for several hours. The test alone takes about an hour and a half and then newborns normally take an hour or so to wake up from the sedation. So I've got some time. 

Because he was being sedated he wasn't allowed to eat after 4 am, his test being at 8:30 am. This made Mom a little nervous because she knows his reaction when he doesn't get to eat every 3 hours.  He's also been going through a growth spurt and wanting to eat about every hour and a half.  I fed him super well as close to 4 am as I could, changed him, burped him, swaddled him, and made him as comfortable as possible and then just prayed he would stay sleeping for both of our sakes. He woke up 3 hours later wanting to eat, but I was able to rock him back to sleep fairly quickly. He did not want to go back in his Rock n Play (where he sleeps), so I laid him in my bed for a second and he loved it. Jim had just gotten back from work so he was able to stay with him and keep him calm while I got ready. Totally crashed. 

I actually had to wake him up in order to get going to the hospital when it was time to leave. Quickly changed him, got him in the car, and got going. The car ride didn't put him to sleep, but it kept him calm. I was able to just sway his carseat as we went through checkin at the hospital, etc. 

He weighed in at 10 lb 4 oz, the little chub! Though he did still have his fuzzy jammies and his diaper on. But still, he's gaining a lot! The pediatric nurses have been great. We have 2 nurses and some kind of nurse that is the equivalent of a physician or something. I forget her title. They were all so good with Jimmie though and answering our questions. He got his IV and his little nose tube thing. Then they gave him the medicine and it took about 10-15 minutes for him to really go to sleep. 

He was not a happy guy with all the nurses doing all the things to him, but they were so good with him. The saddest thing were his pathetic little cries/whimpers as he was being forced asleep. 

The people have hooked up the electrodes now and began the test. They should be able to tell today whether or not it's a permanent or temporary thing. Whether its just the anatomy of the ear or something more serious.  If it is something more permanent or serious, it will take a little longer to determine what exactly that is. But we are optimistic and hoping that its just because of the narrow ear canal and the odd shape/orientation of them like the doctor suggested. 

So for now we wait while the nurses monitor him and his vitals and the hearing specialists administer the test and observe. This is our view for the next hour or so. 

 

He's totally sleeping with his eye open here. Silly guy! 

The Results:

The test concluded and they determined that he is definitely hearing within normal range. The way this test works is that they administer sounds that go through the ear and up to the brain, where the doctors read and analyze it. It is a more accurate and reliable test. The way the other test works is that they administer a sound which goes in through the whole ear and is supposed to bounce back.  We administered the previously failed test  again and he still failed. Therefore, there is some kind of problem or reason why the sound is not transmitting out. 

The good news is, you don't need sound to travel back out the ear to hear. The bad news is, because they're not sure what is causing it, it could be an indication if hearing loss later in life. Whether that's 5 months from now or 80 years from now, who knows. We are  just going to monitor the situation closely and make sure he is completing developmental milestones like he should be (ie. babbling, responding to sound, etc). If there is reason for concern we will do more testing, otherwise we will just follow up with it and retest at 1 year old. 

Currently he is recovering nicely. He came off the medicine at 10 and by 12:30 he's just starting to wake up to eat. Normally it takes 15 min-1 hr to wake ( closer to hour for newborns ) but he decided to wake up around 30 min enough that we knew he was starting to, but pretty much sleep sleep sleep unless really really stimulated. Normally they don't let you leave until you've nursed him and they see he can eat, but he was taking too long. So they let us leave w the instruction of if he doesn't eat in an hour, call us. Of course he starts eating the first time at home :) what a champ! Slowly but surely, he will eat more and wake up more. But I fully anticipate him sleeping all day and being up all night. Yayyy! 

We're glad it's done and thrilled with the results and recover process so far. My little rag doll baby will be back to normal in no time!