Finn Henry

Last Tuesday we went back to the Royal Children’s Hospital to have some more testing of Finn’s hearing done to determine the level of his hearing loss.

The Munchkin had to be sedated for these tests because he wouldn’t sleep for long enough and I’m glad that we won’t have to do that to him again. The drug was given to him orally and, apparently, tastes really bad. I felt kind of mean holding him as he screamed while the nurse squirted it into his mouth.

The result of the tests is that Finn’s hearing loss is about 40 decibels, which means that he can’t hear sounds lower than that and falls into the range of Mild to Moderate hearing loss. This is not too bad. It does mean, though, that he will not always hear the softer parts of human speech and will have particular difficulty in noisy environments and when people are at a distance from him or not facing him. It also means that he probably need hearing aids at least until he learns to speak properly. And that we have more people to see.

Tomorrow we’ll go back to the hospital to see an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. I gather she’ll have a talk to us about what Finn will need and answer any questions we have about future management of this.

On 4th March we will go to Hearing Australia and talk to them about hearing aids. I’m not sure whether Finn will actually be fitted for them at that stage, or if that’s a premilimary visit.

All in all, the result was pretty much what we expected and, while we would rather that The Munchkin’s hearing was completely normal, it’s a Very Good Thing that his hearing loss has been diagnosed and that we know it’s extent early so that he can have the best possible chance of it causing minimal difficulty in his life.