Little ears.

As I type this, little chicken wing is fast asleep in a hospital room behind me having an ABR. She has already had a CT scan and a MRI earlier today. All while sedated.

So, a synopsis of the last 24 hours...I kept her up super late playing in the tub so that she would sleep super late this morning. We weren't scheduled to come to Kosair until 11:30am, which meant no food after 5:30am. Not a good scenario for my very scheduled eater. She got a huge bottle beefed up with cereal at 5:30 and slept til 10:15am. I got her up and whisked her straight to the car. It took her about 5 minutes to figure out I wasn't getting her a bottle and she lost it. LOST it. I feel her pain. I don't like to miss meals either. And I actually eat food that tastes good.

They were able to get her back pretty fast once we got here. Of course, the screaming baby may have motivated them to move a little faster than normal. All was going well, they had given her a shot of silly meds in her little nose, so I had drunk baby on my hands, when the MRI tech informed us that the order from the doctor didn't specify a body part. Really?? And while we all knew what needed to be MRI'd, that's not something they can just take my word on.

That nurse lady thinks she's putting these cords on me, but she's got another thing coming...

So a call to the pediatrician. Oh, they are closed because its lunch time. Fantastic. Let's try the insurance company to see what had been pre-certified. But I had to call to give them permission to talk to the hospital....and off the nurse took with my phone to let them talk to the appropriate people. All while drunkard is getting the floppies and is being hilarious because she is just grinning ear to ear. In between falling over. She refused to lay down. Because that would have been too easy.

At least she had forgotten that she was mad at me for not feeding her.  And I got a few cuddles in.

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Tests are done now and EK did well in the aftermath.  Fortunately, no adverse effects from anesthesia.  Instead she sucked down two bottles and decided tonight would be the night she ate some actual solid food.  We watched in awe as she crammed bread and scrambled eggs in her mouth faster than she could chew them up!!  Remember, this is the kid who barely tolerated stage 1 baby food a few weeks ago.  And that was just a fluke!  I'm wondering if starving her this morning was what helped or if she had lingering effects from being knocked out most of the day and she really had no idea what she was doing.  We'll see in the morning, because I'm trying those eggs again!

I should probably rewind a bit and fill you in on why we were at the hospital in the first place.  I know...if I would blog on a regular basis, you would know.  This ain't China, folks.  The people that live here demand my attention.  A lot.

We had a fairly easy well-child check right after returning home.  She got caught up on her immunizations.  And we got caught up on why she was pooping so much... 

We followed that with a visit to Heuser Hearing Institute to see a pediatric audiologist the end of July.  That visit revealed a no response sound booth hearing test (which we expected) and while we had her good and ticked off, we made molds for hearing aids, should we decide those will benefit her in the future.  This required three people holding down 15 pounds of mad while we got this nice, not-at-all-messy, pink goo in her ears and waited patiently for it to dry.  Between the hearing test and the molds, I felt like I had been wrestling a wet pig by the time the appointment was over.  I was pooped.  And she passed out in the car almost immediately.

But we left that appointment with a little more information and a better understanding of what will happen over the next several months.

Which leads us to today.  They sedated her and completed a MRI, CT scan and ABR all at one time.  My elementary understanding of it all:  the MRI was to check for the presence of an auditory nerve, the CT scan was to look at the physical anatomy/structure of her ear and the ABR is just a more precise hearing test.  You know, since a fighting mad 21-month-old with little doo-hickeys stuck in her ears isn't exactly the easiest way to determine the level of hearing that she may have...

Yes.  Doo-hickeys.

The only results we got today were another no response test.  But there is also still fluid on her ears (same as the test in July, even after a round of antibiotics).  The audiologist told me we will probably have to repeat the test since the fluid doesn't allow them to get full results, but we will wait until after our appointment in September with Dr. Gadre (oto-neuro-ENT-surgeon-guy...That's his official title.  Look it up.) to see what the plan of action there may be.  And we also follow up with the audiologist at Heuser that same week.

I'm done here.  Let's go home.

All this testing is really to give us a better idea of what her level of hearing is....if there is any...and what's going on inside those tiny little ears of hers.  And to see what types of treatment options may benefit her best.  Will hearing aids help her?  Is she potentially a candidate for a cochlear implant?  Do we need to focus more on learning sign as a way to communicate with her?

Honestly, I can tell you what I think.  She is perfect.  Complete.  Whole.  Just the way God intended her to be.  She's not broken.  She's not disabled.  She's not handicapped. 

She is mine.  And I love her just the way she is.

If there are options to help her hear and communicate and we feel that's the best path to pursue for her, we will.  If she will never hear any more that she does now and we use 100% sign to communicate with her, then fantastic.

Just keep praying with us that the Lord will guide us as we make decisions that will affect her for the rest of her life...

In the mean time, we are also having an OT work with her soon to help us get past our feeding issues.  Although, if we keep cramming scrambled eggs in our mouth, that may not be necessary.  And she will also have a Teacher of the Deaf/Hard of Hearing working with her.  All these folks are from my former First Steps stomping grounds.  And while it's odd being on this side of things as the parent, it gives me a little more perspective on what we put parents through.  But also thankful for the expertise of others.  Because I don't know everything. 

But don't tell Ellie Kate.  She doesn't know yet.