Ryan's Hearing Tests

On October 28th, Ryan had his 2nd set of tubes put in his ears.  While still in the OR, they also did an ABR hearing test.  You might remember that Ryan had this same test done last August and that it showed 60-70% hearing loss then.  Well, this year the ABR showed his hearing loss to be 80-90%.

In light of the other skill losses, I suppose we anticipated these results.  It was still disappointing to learn that he has had such significant loss.

So today we met with an Audiologist and she made molds of Ryan's ears for hearing aides.  Within the next couple of weeks, we'll go back to the Audiologist's office to do a hearing test for an audiological exam.  I'm quite curious how they will do that with Ryan.

I thought you might enjoy seeing pictures of the molding process.  Dr. Board first put a little spongy material on a string.  She placed that into the opening of Ryan's ear.  Then she filled a syringe with some squishy green material. I wish you could feel the texture of the material.  It was a seafoam green and was very oily feeling.  Dr. Board put some in Ryan's hand before she put it in Ryan's ear.  She even let me play with some too. 

After just a moment or two it became set, and the doctor took it out.  Ryan didn't seem to mind the process at all.   This is what they looked like:

(We did have to repeat the first one, which is why you see 3 below.  Don't worry; Ryan doesn't have 3 ears.)