Wednesday

This morning I meet with the account manager of a home health agency.  Next step is to meet the medical director.  All steps in the journey homeward.

Bella had the ABR hearing test done today.  She needed to be sedated for this.  Good luck!  You can tell when an Attending doesn’t know your daughter well when he says, just order a second dose to have at the bedside if you need it.  After 2 does of sedation, she got through the first part of the test and woke up.  So then they tried to figure out what else they could give her to keep her still for another hour.  Not easy with Bella.   She is so used to sedation that she requires so much more than normal.  So far the results are: right ear is fine.  Left ear is showing some abnormalities.  That’s why it’s so important we do this 2nd test.  Is there really a hearing loss in the left ear or not?  I knew that Lasix could effect hearing, but I didn’t realize that the Gentamicin could cause hearing loss.  The audiologist made it clear that she doesn’t necessarily have any hearing loss, but that her screening is abnormal on the left side and we need to take a closer look.  After almost three hours, the Audiologist suggested we re-schedule.  We’ll either have to have the attending here or have anesthesiology come and help.  Where are my anesthesiology fellows when I need them?  :)  Bella got so mad when she felt the first effects of the sedation.  It took me almost a half hour to calm her down after everyone left.  Now she’ll probably sleep the afternoon away.  :)

Bella before the sedation wore off

I was reading through the audiologist’s referring documents and was sad to see the long list of diagnoses.  One I hadn’t seen before was: Respiratory Distress with Impending Failure.  Ouch.  I am so grateful Bella is a fighter.