Audiology

Contrary to my past experiences, I have been informed by a professional that Lily hears just fine. The exam was hysterical to watch. They have cool gadgets these days so 2 of the tests just require earplugs and the computer does the rest. The actual range of hearing test is another story. The first test involves the audiologist explaining to Lily that when she hears a sound, she needs to clap. She imitates the sound, and claps. Lily looks at her with a goofy expression. As a parent, I feel like I somehow need to translate- like the audiologist wasn't perfectly clear...Lily looks at me with the same goofy look. The audiologist retreats to the booth and we are well into the test when Lily realizes that there is a window through which she can see the Audiologist. We will call her Miss Amy because that is her name. I, on the other hand have been trying to repress giggles as Miss Amy has been making faces trying to get Lily's attention. I am not supposed to talk, but after the 5th chime I tell my little Monkey- YOU are supposed to clap when you hear that! Miss Amy at this point laughs hysterically and is very well natured, so I do believe she is forced to administer this test to 3 year olds fairly often. Lily finally catches on and is clapping on cue- except when there are 2 chimes in close succession- she then feels the need to add a 3rd clap. This prompts a reminder that she is only supposed to clap after she hears the sound. Unfortunately her father exhibits OCD tendencies surrounding the number 3, so I find this even more amusing. After about 5 chimes, she gets bored. If there is more than 5 seconds between chimes, she gets bored. This results in shuffling, coughing, waving and face making. And then there is the time when she completely turns around to say" I love you Mommy" . Aw shucks. It took a lot of restraint not to yell at her when she started losing focus, but Ms. Amy usually reeled her back in. The final test involved earplugs and Lily having to repeat multisyllabic words. Since I could not hear the words- I had to guess. Another potential flaw to the test..but amusing. These words were in different ranges and you could tell if they were quiet or loud based on Lily's response. She would barely whisper and then practically break out in a shout. It reminded me of when Phillip got his Ipod and would randomly yell questions at us because he had the volume too high on his headphones.

The reason for the hearing test is to establish a baseline. The drug cisplatin which will be used during her chemo can cause permanent hearing loss. We will be going in for these same tests a couple days before each treatment to see if the previous treatment has caused any damage. I am guessing if there is any permanent damage- it will be at whatever range I speak in- because that would be my luck. Tomorrow is the pre-op. Hopefully they won't have to type and cross again, but I have a feeling they will, which means another poke. Fortunately today involved no owies. Lily attributes it entirely to her wearing her new "lily no owies" anklet that one of the preschool moms made for her.