Ava's ABR Hearing Test

After Ava's second set of ear tubes we found out that she couldn't pass a hearing test and hadn't since her first set of tubes had been put in. Dan and I had been concerned about her hearing for a while so our doctors agreed she should have an Auditory Brain stem Response test where they sedate her into a deep sleep and test both ears all pitches, more specific than a simple pass fail hearing test. 

There was a 2 month wait to get the test done and over that time waiting we could see a huge improvement in Ava's speech and response. She still had sensitive ears and was covering them alot possibly having issues with sensory processing but thats also been improving.

It was finally time for the test, we drove up to Salt Lake to go to Primary Childrens Hospital. We got checked in really quick and they started setting us up. It took 1 hour from the time we got to our room till they started her sedation (we had to wait 30 minutes after her IV because they had to give her fluids before they could give her the meds). She hated having her IV put in of course but we put on Tinker Bell and that helped.

She was calm when they started her sedation meds. She started laughing which of course made me start laughing. She went to sleep happy. Oddly enough once she was out she started crying/moaning in her sleep. It was very strange. They can't do the test unless the child is silent so this made doing the test very difficult. the moaning got worse and all the doctors and nurses were stumped. They said very few kids respond like this and its usually the ones who fall asleep crying, however she didn't.

Next thing we know theres 7 people standing in her tiny room as her blood pressure, heart rate and oxygen rates are dropping like crazy. They had set up a bunch of precautions and they started pulling out oxygen masks and moving her around trying to figure out what was going on. Her air way was somewhat blocked because of the position she was in so they laid her flat and covered her up with a blanket and got her some oxygen. They then decided to give her more meds to try and get her to sleep deeper.

I sat at the end of the bed rubbing her chest or face trying to get her to calm even thou she was totally asleep. They finally were able to finish the test and with great results. They said she passed both ears, all pitches and can hear great! Such wonderful news even if it was so hard to get the test done.

As soon as they unhooked her she went totally quite and it took nearly 2 hours to wake her up. Dan came up on the train so that he could drive home with us so that he could sit in the back with Ava so that her head wouldn't slump over in her sleep and cut off her air way. It was a long day but glad its done and that she is hearing well!