Turns out, there was a cancelation in the schedule at the Audiology center. So we got our appointment bumped up to today! A whole month early. I was cool with that. The faster we get these things out of the way, the faster we know things.
I had a feeling it would be quite the hurdle to jump. For one, Nolan has, out of nowhere, gotten pretty solidly back into stranger danger mode.
When we arrived he was fine - had a little too much fun pushing buttons in the elevator. We had to wait about 10 minutes past our appointment time, after arriving the suggested 15-20 minutes early for paperwork. So, before the appointment even started, Nolan was pretty over being there. Whataya gonna do? Toddler attention spans, amiright?
We went into a pretty scary sound proof room - if I do say so myself. Reminded me of a vault, or underground bunker. With like a giant metal door, that squeaked loudly when opened. I get it, it needs to be a quiet environment, but geez, does the metal door have to be dark gray and do all of the walls have to be black? Maybe they do, I don't know.
Nolan had a firm grasp on me as we entered, but wasn't upset about being there. Yet.
It was a small room, just big enough for a few chairs and the equipment they needed.
The lady running the tests was very nice and gentle with Nolan. After a few questions she got right down to business.
First, she just looked in his ears. I liked that she talked to him, letting him know what she was doing and even letting him play with the tools first. The otoscope didn't bother him at all. But then she got out a camera device that was going to take pictures of his ears and it started to go downhill.
It had a soft, squishy end and he got to mess with it first, but as soon as that thing went in his ear he got pretty upset. He didn't like it at all. And it had to stay put for a few minutes to get the pictures.
And it was so hot and stuffy in that room. The more upset Nolan got, the more sweaty and uncomfortable he got.
She tried to cheer him up after that with some toys and such. And tried to get him excited about playing a game.
He got to sit on my lap during everything. There were little speakers on each side of us, and in front of us off in the left/right corners of the room were black boxes.
A sound would come from the left or right speaker, and if Nolan correctly looked in that direction, the coordinating (right/left) black box lit up brightly with a Mickey or Mini Mouse that was dancing, or something. (Positive and visual reinforcement for acknowledging the sound - brilliant)
He did that pretty consistently for quite some time. He even looked in the correct direction a few times when I barely heard the sound.
Next, they wanted to do the same basic thing, only with him wearing headphones. I knew this would not go well. We got him headphones to wear for his iPad during flights and he is just not that into them.
Plus, the headphones they had were pretty bulky and kind of heavy.
The lady tried to put them on him and he said no... and cried again. So I put them on for a minute and talked about how cool they were and told him he had to check them out. He tolerated them then, but was still upset about it, and kept asking if we could "go home." :(
For a bit, I know he was too upset to be paying attention to any sounds. Then the lady pulled out this treasure box toy. It had giant coins inside that she handed to him. There was a slit in the top for him to drop them back inside the chest. She couldn't have picked a better toy to try to calm him with. He loves putting quarters in the the parking meters here (lol) and I'm pretty sure that's what it reminded him of.
That was a pretty effective distraction for the rest of the time he wore the headphones.
The last thing they were trying to do was something that tested the nerves in the eardrum. I personally think the lady just didn't select the right size of squishy cover to go over the tube. Because I noticed that when she placed it in his ear, the squishy part sort of bunched up, and just the tube was going beyond his outer ear part.
He flipped out when she did that. He started pulling at it and saying he was all done, and kept trying to hold his ear. He was still on my lap for this, so I tried to hold his hands and keep him calm, but something about that thing was just not working for him. He was very very against that being in his ear.
She got some readings out of the right ear before Nolan got a hold of the tube well enough to yank it out. She said it was fine and moved on to the left ear. On this ear, the squishy cover wouldn't fit hardly at all, and the thing kept just falling out on its own. She did replace it with another one (thought I think it was one of the same size). And, yeah, the thing wouldn't hardly stay in at all on that side. Eventually, Nolan was upset enough that she said she had enough information.
And, she told us that his hearing is just fine :)
She said he responded appropriately to all of the sounds, and for the readings that she was able to get out of the last thing everything looked great, and the pictures they took showed his eardrums were healthy, etc.
I wasn't expecting any problems with the hearing part of this, but I'm glad now we know for sure.
Hurdle jumped. Next.
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