June Discoveries

We brought our bundle of joy to Dr. Susan Levitzky, Hannah's pediatrician, for her first checkup. We told her about Hannah's hearing and our concerns. We were hoping she would see the fluid in her ears. She took one look in her ears and said there was no fluid. We were crushed. She recommended we see Dr. Janie Bartlett, a distinguished audiologist who specialized with children.

We met with Dr. Bartlett the following week to perform a behavioral hearing test on Hannah. While this is a subjective test performed on a newborn baby, Dr. Bartlett wanted to see if Hannah reacted in any way to sound, either by moving her eyes or have a change in her mouth as she nursed. Michael, Hannah and I went into a listening booth while Dr. Bartlett piped in different sounds. While Hannah slowly moved her eyes when a really loud sound occurred, she didn't startle the way a normal hearing baby would. She recommended us talked to Dr. Ronald Hoffman, an ENT with The Ear Institute at NYEE.

At the same time, my father contacted a family friend Ali, an ENT doctor for his recommendations. He suggested we speak with Dr. Simon Parisier, one of the early pioneers of cochlear ear implant surgery and a colleague of Dr. Hoffman at The Ear Institute. We felt we were going to the right place for Hannah.

We met with Dr. Parisier at the end of June and he assured us Hannah would be ok. Michael and I were so overwhelmed with the possibilities of Hannah's hearing loss. How do we interact with her? Do we have to shout at her for her to hear? Dr. Parisier said to treat her like any normal hearing baby and continue talking with her, singing with her, hold her close and let her feel you talking.

It's so hard to be certain what a baby at this age may or may not hear. Did she turn to sound, did she hear us sing to her, did she hear that siren or that jack hammer as we went walking with her?

We made an appointment for further testing.