More of our Journey

In April, 2001, I took Daniel for a speech and language evaluation with the local school district. He was 3 years 10 months old. As they took him to another room to do the evaluation, I was instructed to wait there & fill out paperwork. As he walked down the hall with them, he began to whimper. Soon, his whimpers became cries, then screams of "No! No!". They wanted to put earphones on him for a hearing test. I'd forgotten to tell them that he was afraid of earphones and loud noises. He covered his ears a lot, and screamed in public bathrooms.

Once in a bathroom at Wal-Mart, he was screaming and crying. An older lady asked me what was wrong. I told her that he just doesn't like the sound of the toilets flushing - I told her I guessed it was loud to him. She snorted and said, "Has that baby ever been in the bathroom with someone you didn't know? Something has happened to that child in a bathroom, and you need to take him to the doctor to see what happened to him!" I just stood there with my mouth open for a second, then I told her, "I assure you he has NEVER been away from me in a public restroom. The noise just scares him!" I was infuriated, and a little scared.

The evaluators weren't able to accomplish anything that day, so they brought him back to me and asked me to get a private hearing test by an audiologist, and to bring him back after his 4th birthday.

I took him to an ENT doctor, and she was unable to even check his ears, so we scheduled a sedated hearing test for the next morning. She asked me to keep him up late that night, wake him early, and not feed him breakfast. The next morning, we arrived with a sleepy, cranky little boy. They administered some form of liquid by mouth (Chloral Hydrate, maybe? I don't remember.) to sedate him, and we were told to wait until he'd gone to sleep. We waited and waited, and waited some more. After over an hour, they administered more of the liquid. He began to get drowsy, and eventually drifted off into sleep. I carried him to a darkened room to do the test. The technician stuck a little electrode into his ear, and he stirred but settled quickly. She was able to successfully complete the testing of that ear. As I rolled him over to do the other ear, he again stirred. We waited until he'd settled and she attempted to insert the electrode into the second ear. He woke up and was immediately wide awake.

The doctor decided to see how Daniel fared in the hearing booth. They allowed me to go inside with him, and he sat in my lap. They warned me not to give any indication that I was hearing anything as they didn't want me inadvertently signaling him. I was careful to sit very still and look straight ahead. He turned toward the sounds appropriately (little monkeys in the corners of the room, lights at the front top and front bottom), and they were able to determine that his hearing was within normal limits.

In August of 2001, I took Daniel back to the evaluators at the school system with ENT results in hand. They were able to conduct their testing this time, and told me they'd contact me with the results.