Bear slept and slept...until it was time for him to be poked and prodded AGAIN. Bless his little heart, he has been put through the ringer and I hate it for him.
Dr. Sipp is who Bear will be seeing from here on out. He was absolutely WONDERFUL! He had a positive outlook on the situation and had nothing but great things to say...considering.
He did say that there were 3 different cases of microtia (small ear): mild, moderate and extreme. Bear has a moderate case (grade 2). What makes Bear even that much more special is that he has it in both ears-bilateral- versus unilateral which is more common.
We loved the fact that Dr. Sipp was very candid with us about Bear's future and potential surgeries that could follow if we so choose to have his external ear reconstructed.
Trey made mention that we were people of faith and Dr. Sipp looked at us and said, "I am a man of faith but you are people of GREAT faith!"
That's exactly what we want people to say when they come into contact with us. We want Jesus to radiate through our family no matter what we face!
We met with the audiologist and she scheduled us for his ABR hearing test on the 25th of January. So, we ask that you begin praying now for the outcome of that test and that Bear sleeps for 3 hours during the test. It is making me nervous just thinking about it. If he doesn't sleep the entire time then the test can not be considered accurate and we would have to schedule another visit to try again. Ugh. Not fun.
Once Bear completes the test then Dr. Sipp will fit him for hearing aids. He will have to wear a head band with the hearing aids attached to it until he is 5. From there they will fit him with bone-conductive hearing aids.
The head band will have the bone-conductive hearing aids as well, it's just that when he gets old enough they will attach to his skull and he won't have to wear the head band any longer.
By the way, my husband can do a much better job describing all of this. As his momma, all I want to do is just give him my undivided attention and love on him ALL.THE.TIME. He deserves it.
Someone asked me if I was concerned about the expense of what may lie ahead. My answer? NOPE. Trey and I will do whatever it takes to see that Bear gets the best from this life. Now that I am a parent there is nothing that my child will lack esp. when it comes to his ability to hear and speak. I'm reminded that God will never give us more than we can handle and every time I look at my love bug's face...I believe it!
Every time you see this sweet little face please say a prayer for him. We are believing that God is going to do something great through Bear and that Bear will grow up with an amazing testimony!
