Saturday, October 11, 2008

Boys Town


We made a quick trip this week to Omaha for some appointments at Boy's Town. Boy's Town is internationally recognized for the study and treatment of childhood deafness and related communication disorders. Our ENT recommended that we go there for Hudson and we had our first initial appointment this summer.
Our main issue is that Hudson is hearing everything he should be to aid in speech development. We also HOPE to get some answers as to why his hearing loss occurred. The doctor we saw this summer referred us to the Genetics Clinic and that is where our appointments were this past Wednesday.
We first met with an Audiologist to do some repeat hearing tests and also to have his aids checked too. Lee asked a question that we both have been wondering.... at times Hudson acts like he can hear normally without his aids in. Lee will put a song on TV that Hudson loves and Hudson will come running. The Audiologist explained that not all frequencies are checked during the ABR test and that he may be able to hear normally in some frequencies and not normally in others. A really simple answer that cleared up ALOT for Lee and I. The next appointment was for Vestibular testing which checks for balance. They put Lee and Huddy in a dark, little room with probes on his head and a camera on his cute little face. Then they spin and rock the chair back and forth and watch for Hudson's eyes to go side to side. We were not concerned with balance because he is walking (almost running) and does fine! He passed with flying colors. Second to last we met with Dr. Lutz and his entourage of professionals. He explained there are two types of hearing loss they look at... syndromatic and non-syndromatic hearing loss. Meaning that there may be a syndrome associated with the loss. He DOES NOT think this is the case with Hudson. He looked him over really good and said he is very healthy. Now we are just waiting for one blood test to be ran from his newborn blood spot card, collected in the hospital at birth. This may take a couple of weeks, but we MAY have some initial answers... YEAH!
Lastly, we met with the ENT and he said Hudson looked good as well. We were at Boys Town for 4 hours, but it really didn't seem like it. They had so many toys and Grandma Helen was there to help chase after and occupy Hudson while Lee and I talked to the doctors. Grandpa Ron stayed back at Aunt Val's house with Carter and played
all morning!! A big THANKS to my Dad, Mom and sister for everything! The day wouldn't have gone as well as it did with out your help!!!

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