We Could Use Some Prayers

Tomorrow morning we will be taking Elijah in to have an ABR hearing test, also known as a BAER. ABR stands for Auditory Brainstem Response and BAER stands for Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response, because I know you were totally wondering and are completely riveted with this information. ;)

In order to perform this test, Elijah will need to be sedated. SEDATED. Okay, so sedation completely freaks us out. You see, the one time Elijah was sedated he had some issues with it. I know Elijah was really young at the time and it should be easier this time around, but it's still scary. It's not something we take lightly. And, if I'm going to be completely open and honest with you all, in a lot of ways I know it's going to be psychologically trying for us. It'll bring us back (emotionally) to Eli's NICU days and I don't want to go there. I can hardly even think about watching him passed out tomorrow morning. It makes my heart hurt.

Andy and I have gone back and forth several times as to if we were even going to do this test. We've spent a lot of time weighing the pros and cons, discussing it, praying about it. We certainly don't want to put Elijah through a procedure unless it's absolutely necessary.

And here's where it gets confusing - we know Elijah can hear. So why, then, would we be doing a hearing test? The thing we're trying to rule out is something called auditory neuropathy. Supposedly, with auditory neuropathy, hearing can come and go, it can be mild to severe, and it could cause a person to have a hard time understanding speech. Basically, it would mean that the brain isn't receiving all of the messages it should be. Considering Elijah's history, it's quite possible that he might have some sort of hearing problems.

So, that's how we came to decide to do the test. There are possibly things we could do to help Elijah if he indeed had some hearing loss (such as hearing aids or cochlear implants). With that in mind, we are going ahead with the test. We really think it needs to be done to make sure we're doing everything we possibly can be doing for him.

We could certainly use some prayers. Prayers for a safe and uneventful sedation experience and for the test to show that Elijah doesn't have auditory neuropathy. Thank you to each and every one of you who care about our little Elijah. It means so much to us.

Tweet