And the audiogram says...

"Nothing at all," according to the testers. Meaning they couldn't tell anything from it. Ella didn't turn to the sounds or lights and although she quickly learned the tech in the room with us wanted her to put another toy in the bucket and she'd do that, she didn't seem to do it in response to the request from the audiologist in the other room who spoke over the intercom. She wouldn't hold still for a tympanogram (sp?) (putting little cone-shaped things with wires connected in her ears to test for fluid) and what they did get from one ear was "flat", meaning she may again have fluid. She has been on antibiotics for ear/sinus infections three times since her last set of tubes were put in in August.

The ENT then cleaned and examined her ears (with much hard work invested by several in the room) and pronounced one tube out already; lying in the left ear. He said, "Let's get an ABR done on her today and order hearing aids if she needs them. Tubes are very difficult to get into her ears, have to be altered and then fall out quickly."

Providentially, it was nearing Ella's nap time and so when they gave her the sedative this time she fell asleep and they were able to do a successful ABR. This tests a child while they're sleeping to see how their brain reacts to sounds. I didn't get to see it, I was the one watching Timmy and Lucy in the waiting room. Ella fell asleep on Papa's shoulder because he's a big warm teddy bear and she loves him to hold her. When she was good and asleep they put her in a crib in the testing room for about 45 minutes.

She passed the ABR in both ears! Hurray!!! But because she struggles with so many ear infections due to the anatomy of her ear canals (smaller than even most kids' with Down syndrome), and has been deaf much of her life and her hearing will most likely continue to be intermittant-- long sentence, breath-- we were instructed by the audiologist to "continue to teach her sign language". Which we try to do with each of the kids. She did actually sign "more" and "all done" during the audiogram.

Timmy's ears were fine, both tubes were still intact. YAY! And we go back again in three months.

*Oh, and the specialist that has been testing Ella's blood has ordered more labs again, he's had us get her extra vaccinations, and has written "immune deficiency" on her paperwork. The pediatric nurse explained that this means Ella has less ability to fight off illnesses. Hopefully her immune system will get better over time.

She is an extremely endearing child and I just wish I could capture more of her smiles on film.