In Between...

In the meantime while all of this hearing testing was going on they did a whole other battery of tests on her. We visited with the geneticist and he went over our family history with us to see if hearing loss runs in the family. He did a physical on Sydney to rule out various syndromes related to hearing loss that are physically visible. He checked her heart and had her blood drawn to test for additional more common syndromes and ran some genetic tests.

We also saw a cardiologist so he could review Sydney's EKG results and chest x-rays and rule out syndromes related to the heart and HL. The EKG went smoothly she slept through the whole thing. The x-ray was hard to watch. They strapped her into a giant test tube with her arms up in the air while they took a couple of x-rays. Sydney was not happy about this. Thank goodness the techs were very quick with the process though. Her ticker checked out ok.

We also visited with an opthamologist. He checked her vision to see if she was tracking objects with her eyes. He shined a bright light in her eyes. She was more intrigued by the light than upset which was cause for concern for him. So he dilated her eyes to check more closely. He said everything looks good as far as he could tell. He said they don't usually test for Ushers Syndrome unless she has balance and posturing issues. Then they will perform an ERG.

We were also referred onto an early intervention program called Early Start through the county. A Teacher of the Deaf (TOD) met with us and did a thorough assessment of Sydney and her development. She discussed the program with us and our various options moving forward. We meet with her on a weekly basis and will eventually begin meeting with a speech therapist. She has been teaching us sign language and we've labled our house with some common household words in sign. We have decided to use pidgeon sign for now as well as speech to communicate with Sydney. We figure she won't be able to hear us when her hearing aids (H.A.) are off so we need some way to communicate with her. There are many different communication options to consider though and it may change and evolve over time.

Needless to say it's been an emotionally taxing roller coaster ride trying to get to the bottom of her hearing loss. All we can do is remain hopeful and take it day by day and love the precious gift that was given to us.