When Leah was a younger, she was frequently seen at Children’s Hospital’s ENT and at their Audiology Department. She would have frequent and reoccurring ear infections, so they decided to remove her adenoids, tonsils and to put tubes in her ears. All in hope that this would help with her hearing, because during this time Leah would get her hearing checked with the audiologist every 3 months and each time, they could not get a good gauge on the hearing in her left ear.
So, after a year of inconsistent tests, and Leah still not responding to certain sounds, and still being nonverbal they wanted to rule out hearing loss. So, Leah was scheduled to be sedated for a BAER test (Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response). The BAER test is used to evaluate the function of the auditory nerve which the nerve carries sound through the ear to the brain.
When we got the results that Leah has perfect hearing it was such a relief as we were able to close this chapter in her diagnosis, but it just meant we had to keep pulling back the layers to uncover on how we can properly support Leah.
This is a picture of Leah after the BAER test, and for years Leah had to carry everything in her little bucket of her Mickey Mouse and Friends with her everywhere she went.
