We started off with some lab work on Wednesday. Watching Ruby give blood is still not any fun…in her case I don’t think giving it is either! But this was the best blood draw yet! It actually went pretty fast which was a huge relief. This lab was to retest her Protein C levels. As of Monday we are happy to report they are at 35! This is still a little on the low side as they would like to see her levels in the high 30’s to low 40’s at this point. Thankfully the levels still do not justify having to put Ruby on medication. Dr. Hansen is confident we don’t need to retest until she is a year old. Yea!!!
Thursday was a marathon day for me! Ruby’s hearing test at the Elk’s was at 10am. I needed to take her in hungry and tired. The hungry part I knew I could do because I just wouldn’t feed her…the tired part made me a little nervous. Ruby is pretty good about falling asleep just about anywhere…so my concern was how in world I would keep her awake. Thanks to my mom giving me several ideas to keep her stimulated we made it. It got a little rough around 8:30am as we were both exhausted, hungry and ready to just throw in the towel and go to bed but we managed. Amazingly Ruby stayed awake until we walked into the waiting room. At which point I proceeded to strip the poor child and start tickling her to wake her back up! Once we were in the testing room I was able to feed Ruby (what little she was willing to take due to her exhausted state) and then she went right to sleep. She slept through the test…which was what we needed!
They ran two tests. The Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) and the Otoacoustic Emission (OAE). Here is the Wikipedia definition of each. I could try and explain it myself but I can’t do it as well as the mighty internet!!!
ABR - Auditory brainstem response (ABR), also known as brainstem evoked response (BSER) is an electrical signal evoked from the brainstem of a human or other mammal by the presentation of a sound such as a click. Auditory brainstem response audiometry or Brainstem evoked response audiometry (BERA), is a screening test to monitor for hearing loss or deafness, especially notable for its use with newborn infants. It is a method employed to assess the functions of the ears, cranial nerves, and various brain functions of the lower part of the auditory system, prior to the child developing to the point of describing a possible hearing problem. The procedure is to generate a brief click or tone pip from an earphone or headphone and measuring the elicited neuronal action potentials by surface electrodes, typically placed at the vertex of the scalp and ear lobes.[1] The potential of the signal in microvoltage is averaged and charted against the time (millisecond), similarly to an electroencephalography (EEG). ABR audiometry is a safe and painless test of auditory pathway and brainstem function in response to auditory or (click) stimuli.
OAE - An otoacoustic emission (OAE) is a sound which is generated from within the inner ear. Having been predicted by Thomas Gold in 1948, its existence was first demonstrated experimentally by David Kemp in 1978[1] and otoacoustic emissions have since been shown to arise by a number of different cellular mechanisms within the inner ear.[citation needed] Studies have shown that OAEs disappear after the inner ear has been damaged, so OAEs are often used in the laboratory and the clinic as a measure of inner ear health. Broadly speaking, there are two types of otoacoustic emissions: spontaneous otoacoustic emissions (SOAEs), which can occur without external stimulation, and evoked otoacoustic emissions (EOAEs), which require an evoking stimulus. OAEs are considered to be related to the amplification function of the cochlea. In the absence of external stimulation, the activity of the cochlear amplifier increases, leading to the production of sound. Several lines of evidence suggest that, in mammals, outer hair cells are the elements that enhance cochlear sensitivity and frequency selectivity and hence act as the energy sources for amplification. One theory is that they act to increase the discriminability of signal variations in continuous noise by lowering the masking effect of its cochlear amplification.
Ruby passed both tests with flying colors! At this point we are not scheduled for any further hearing screenings!!!
Thursday afternoon Ruby had her 2 month check up. Dr. Kim is very impressed with how well Ruby is doing…she is developing normal and is right on track. Neither Dr. Kim nor we have noticed any weakness on Ruby’s right side…something we will continue to keep an eye on. Ruby also received the first of a few vaccinations. We’ll go back in this week and next week for her last two shots (my choice!!). But she weathered her first shot quit well…we had a little fever on Friday but with the magic of Tylenol she bounced right back!
Oh and before I forget she is 24.25” long and she weighed in at 11lbs 14oz.
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