It’s been well over a year since we posted on here and I can’t believe that our little Sage is 15 months tomorrow! He is such a happy, healthy and thriving boy these days. He is almost walking, always smiling, laughing and being his silly, happy self. 

I wanted to share some news on here about his hearing and specifically ask for prayers. We know full well the power of prayer and find myself reflecting on how an army of prayer warriors rallied around our boy last year while we were in the NICU, which we believe was a big part of his miraculous recovery. We’re asking to lift him up in prayer as we recently received a pretty significant diagnosis of hearing loss in both ears. We thought we were in the clear earlier this year when he was showing normal hearing on a test called the ABR (auditory brainstorm response) test. He wasn’t ever passing the newborn hearing screen so we continued to follow up with the audiologist every few months to stay on top of it. We saw an ENT to check out his ears but they were both impacted with wax so their recommendation was to clean out the wax under sedation, place ear tubes if there was fluid, and perform another ABR test sedated. This surgery was in mid-November. He did great, got the tubes, but after surgery we got the surprising news that they did show mild to moderate hearing loss in one ear and moderate to severe loss in another ear, and was diagnosed with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. 

This was confusing because he had normal hearing earlier this year, is starting to say words and responds to many sounds. We didn’t know really how to process it but were told that at the post-op appt another behavioral hearing test (in a sound booth) would be performed to determine if he would be a candidate for hearing aids. 

Fast forward earlier this week I was finally able to speak and meet with the audiologist and learn all about this and what it means. A booth sound test did match up to show this hearing loss and because it has  increased, it is progressive. They believe the loss is in the inner ear, in cochlea, which is why he never passed the newborn hearing screen which sends sound waves to/from the cochlea. His hearing loss is in the higher frequencies meaning he will have trouble hearing s’s, whispers, etc… but he is absorbing a lot from what it sounds like. He is already so expressive, talking, babbling nonstop. He can say mama, da-da, ba-ba for bottle and starting to try and repeat other words. So all in all, he got fitted for hearing aids and will get them on Jan 5th.