Finding Out

One of the first things that people always ask us is 'How did you find out?'.  This is, believe it or not, a complicated answer.  When Shea was born, the hospital performed their routine newborn hearing screening. While we were in the hospital, they informed us that Shea had "referred" on her hearing screening.  When we asked what that meant, we were told that it means she would be "referred" for further testing, because they did not see the results they were looking for.  She was tested again, and "referred" again, before we left the hospital 2 days later (I was there for 5 days total because Shea was induced and then, after 22 hours of labor, we had an emergency C-Section).  When we were released we were given a paper that states: "Your baby received the hearing screening and is being referred for further testing.  A referral for further testing is often due to vernix still in the baby's ear at the time of screening.  While a referral does not necessarily indicate that your child has a hearing loss, it is important that a re-evaluation be performed at the well baby check up at two weeks of age."
Sounds rather innocuous, doesn't it?  That's what we thought, too.  No big deal - this will work itself out.  Wrong.
We did have another test at the two week well baby visit.  Same results.  And then another test at the 1 month check up.  Still the same results.  At the 2 month check up, the Dr. referred us to a specialist for a more thorough test.  We did that at 3 months with, you guessed it, the same results.  And by this time we had also received the letter from the State Department of Public Health letting us know that the test results from the hospital were reported to them and that we should thoroughly review all the information we receive regarding hearing loss.  As if we hadn't already read everything we could get our hands on!  We had even started teaching Shea American Sign Language!
Then we were referred to another Dr. for yet another test.  This time it was an ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response) test.  During this test the child must be asleep and they attach electrodes to the head and behind the ears to "read" the brains response to sound stimuli, which is produced through tiny earphones placed inside the ear canal.  This was a tough day for us seeing our tiny little one all hooked up to wires.  It wasn't a difficult day for Shea at all, because she just napped peacefully while I held her.  Because she was still so young and slept so much, she did not have to be sedated.  (For any parents about to go through this with a little one who will be held....bring a cushion for your behind!)
About a week later we went back to the last Dr. for the results.  They were very reassuring.  We were told that Shea's hearing loss would "most likely not affect her at all.  She may have some trouble in school, but that would probably be all."
But we knew something wasn't right with that diagnosis.  We knew that our daughter could not hear us.  After yet more tests and more Doctors, one brave speech therapist wrote down in her evaluation that Shea had a "Severe to Profound" hearing loss.  We were not shocked by this, but we still grieved.  And oh the worries that ran through my head!  I am a worry-wart by nature, but this....this was too much!  And we were still in denial for a while.  But once we embraced the fact that Shea was, in fact, deaf, oh the places we would go....together!  And besides, by this time Shea was almost 2 and had learned to sign just about anything and everything in her daily life and then some......and so our journey continues......

Learn some signs with Shea at Signing with Shea on Facebook.