Hearing

A couple of posts ago, I mentioned about the very basic, rudimentary, test that Caleb underwent during his 6 year well check that he failed. Today was our trip to the audiologist and our beloved ENT to have all this investigated.
The first step when we arrived was the actual hearing screen with the audiologist. Now, if you've been around this blog for a long time, then you will remember a very ill-fated 3-4 month span where we had at least 3 hearing tests with 3 different audiologists, with each one returning as inconclusive. We finally found a pediatric audiologist who could handle a crazy 3 year old boy and get a good test, which he passed with flying colors. So, I was a bit nervous about this go around but Caleb, as he is known to do, surprised me and cooperated and did great!
The long and short of the hearing test is that his right ear is just great, but his left has a measurable, but mild, hearing impairment.
The ENT did a very thorough exam of both his ears, looking for issues that he felt could be the cause, but found nothing. So, there are 2 options as to what is causing this. Either he has some calcification of the bones in his middle ear or he has a degenerative, genetic condition. With the first, Caleb could potentially have surgery at some point to have the calcification removed and restore his hearing. That issue is not progressive and he shouldn't have more hearing loss. The second, genetic, progressive condition will worsen with time and there is nothing to do about that short of fitting him with a hearing aid when it gets to the point at which he can't hear any longer from that ear.
We will go back in 6 months and will know pretty quickly which issue this is. Jes has always had issues with hearing, having trouble when we are in loud, busy places, which we've seen in Caleb. Jes's hearing hasn't worsened over the years, so I'm hoping that this is what this issue turns out to be like. The ENT and I discussed getting Jes in to be tested as well, which will give us another piece of the puzzle, so I'm working on him on that too.
So, that's the long and short of it all. Not great news, but not the absolute worst either.