Troy's Test Day

Thank you all for your many thoughts and prayers during Troy's tests yesterday. We are doing much better today. Yesterday was rough for both Troy and I, Thom was able to handle it like a champ!

We arrived at the hospital at 9:00 am and went into the children's radiology unit. At this point Troy had not eaten for 10 1/2 hours and was a little fussy, but he's a very happy baby, so was able to do well. The nurse got us back right away and started putting numbing cream on the back of Troy's hands and inside his elbows for an IV. At about 10:00 am it was Troy's nap time and he started to fall asleep in my arms. The nurse told us she didn’t want him to sleep yet because he had to swallow some medicine to make him go to sleep (ironic?...just a little bit). We woke him back up and he was PISSED!!! At that point the nurses started trying to get the IV in. Yes, I said TRYING. It ended up taking 3 nurses 1 1/2 hours, and many, MANY pokes in the back of his arms and inside his elbows. Most of the time they were unable to find veins, and the few times they were able to his veins were so dehydrated (it had been 12+ hours without eating/drinking) his veins would collapse. Troy was SCREAMING this whole time and at some point during this I started to become very upset, especially when they noticed a good vein in his head and mentioned an IV would work there. I had to step out of the room and go watch "Finding Nemo" in the waiting room. After about 20 minutes they were able to get and IV in a vein above his right ear and I was able to return and rock Troy to sleep.

They rolled Troy away to his MRI and Thom and I were able to go visit our friend from work, Maria. On Memorial Day her husband and her were riding their motorcycles when an illegal immigrant pulled in front of her husband. He t-boned the car and ended up flying 30 feet in the air. At this point they think he is going to live, however they do not know what kind of mental capacity he will have. We were glad to be able to visit.

Upon returning to Troy's room, they were in the middle of the BAER test. This test measures activity of the brain as different level sounds are placed in his ear - it tells us the extent of his deafness. Yup…Troy's still deaf :). However, we were able to find out some good news. When they first did the test (when he was 4 weeks old) they thought they were able to see a 5th wave in Troy's right ear. We are not sure what exactly a 5th wave is, but it means that there is some level of activity in Troy's right ear when they test at a 90 decibels (we speak at 45 decibels, so 90 is REALLY loud). This is a GOOD thing because if there was no cochlea, then there wouldn't have been able to see a 5th wave at all. So, it seems that we have a "some-what" working cochlea at least on 1 side!!!

Troy eventually woke up and we were able to give him some apple juice which he gobbled right up. He then drank a whole bottle (what a pig!!)

We were able to leave the hospital at about 1:30. The rest of the day Troy slept on and off and was really wobbly. When he was awake he acted stoned.

While at the hospital Thom requested a copy of the MRI. When we got home he was able to look at the scans of Troy's head on the computer. It was really cool!! We were able to see his eyeballs, sinus cavities, top of his spine and other various things. During our 8 months of dealing with deafness, Thom and I have learned what a cochlea looks like and low and behold…we saw 2 beautiful cochlea in his MRI scan!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now, don't go getting too excited, because (this might surprise you) Thom and I aren't doctors and even though there are 2 cochlea there, they still might not be able to be implanted.

We are keeping our fingers crossed and saying lots of prayers. We should find out no later than 2 weeks if they cochlea are okay to implant!

Thanks again for thinking and praying for us! We will let you know what we find out!