Happy New Year

Michael and I had a quiet New Year. We're keeping close to home lately, making the most of our family time together. We are so excited for the New Year and thrilled this will be the year Hannah will finally hear our voices. We can sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and know she will soon sing along.

We've taken all the necessary pre-op testing at NYEE. She had to have hearing tests with Megan, her audiologist with NYEE.. The first one was an unaided hearing test, meaning Hannah again had ear plugs placed in her ears and she was taught how to look at a tiny bow in the corner with a silly frog playing the drum when she heard a sound. So with Hannah on my lap in the sound booth and Megan piping in the sounds and observing from the booth, it looked like Hannah was hearing a lot because she kept looking over. I've always hoped she would surprise everyone and she would ace these hearing tests. When Megan came to talk with us after the test, her findings were still consist with a profound hearing loss. It's just a constant pull at my heart and I wish these tests would just stop.

The following week Hannah took an aided hearing test, meaning she went into the sound booth and took the hearing test with her hearing aids. Like before, Megan would pipe in sounds and Hannah looked over at the silly frog in the corner. The findings said Hannah had a moderate hearing loss with the hearing aids on. This level was not sufficient, meaning Hannah's hearing aids weren't providing enough sound through their amplification, she was no eligible for a cochlear implant.

We also met with Liz, the director of hearing habilitation with NYEE, for a speech evaluation. Like Hannah's therapy sessions, Liz played with Hannah using toys to see what her hearing levels were and how she responded to sounds. Liz had a whole new flurry of toys for Hannah. I really liked the way Liz was with Hannah. She is stern and certainly has high expectations but has the experience to teach Hannah.

Finally, we went to Manhattan Diagnostic Radiology for Hannah's sedated cat scan. We need to have the cat scan before we meet with Dr. Alexiades. It will show Hannah's cochlear and it will become the roadmap on the day of her surgery. If there was any abnormalities with the cochlear, Dr. Alexiades would need to know so there aren't any surprises for Hannah's surgery.