{Luke's Hearing, Part I}

Yesterday, September 2, Luke had a Sedated ABR.  If is a hearing test where they put you under and put sensors on your ears and forehead and measure your nerves responses to sound.  We had not been successful at testing his hearing in a traditional booth test, so our ENT suggested the sedated ABR.  For awhile now we have suspected some hearing issues, not responding to loud sounds, obvious lip reading, confusing words that sound similar...and in the back of our minds was his failed newborn hearing test. 
We were told the test takes about 15-30 minutes for a test on a normal hearing person, but if there are issues it can take about an hour.  An hour and a half into things, Joe went back to check on him and they were re-sedating him because they needed more time.  We knew that didn't mean good news.  So Joe suggested we walk down to the Mc Donalds and take a break, they had told us it would be about 30 more minutes.  While we were sitting outside Mc Donalds we were talking about how we were at an amazing children's hospital, where people are finding out all kinds of bad news.  We talked about how no matter what the outcome was it was better than hearing he had cancer, was severely injured in a car crash, was severely burned...etc.  As far as Kosair goes, hearing your child has hearing issues is probably one of the better things you can hear! 
We went back and they were ready to discuss the results...
Luke has moderate to severe hearing loss in his left ear and severe to profound hearing loss in his right ear.  His hearing loss is progressive, which means that at some point he had more hearing thatn he has now, and also means that at some point he will have less hearing than he has now.  The 2 main causes of hearing loss in children are genetic and CMV.  We aren't positive which one caused Luke's. 
The next hing she said was that hearing aids coould be a short term answer, but that long term, Luke would probably have the most success with a Cochlear Implant (CI).  Holy cow...so much to soak in.  We knew in our hearts that he had hearing loss, but truly had not even imagined it would be to that extent.  And when she said Cochlear Implant, WOW! 
Dr. Ashley was the audiologist that did the testing and talked to us and she was amazing.  She is young and has a heart for what she does, she was very compassionate.  She had been calling and e-mailing a friend who specializes in CI while doing Luke's test.  She called and got us on the schedule to have hearing aids (she did the molds right there while Luke was still a little out of it), and an appointment with her friend (Dr. Austin) the CI specialist.  She gave us her e-mail and phone number and we went on our way. 
Overwhelmed doesn't even begin to describe how we feel.  We are diving into research about CI and hearing loss.  We want to feel informed to make the decisions that we will have to make in the coming months.  It's going to be an interesting journey...   Please keep us in your prayers, especially little Luke!