A possible different route...

One of the hardest part of being a parent is making decisions for your children and not knowing if it's the right one or not.

According to hearing tests Faith is at the very end of the severe range, borderline profoundly range for her levels of hearing loss and the hearing aids she has are programmed to her level of hearing loss yet we are not seeing any clear responses to them. I always though that once we got the hearing aids we would see the expressions on her face but we have never seen that, when she first got them she slept through the switch on which was disappointing but they said it was early days... it's now been almost 6 mths since she first got them and despite them being turned up we don't see any of the typical responses, she doesn't turn her head at sounds, she doesn't jump at loud sounds, no sounds wake her from her sleep, she doesn't respond to her name and so on...but she is hearing something as sometimes she pauses and looks confused but it's only fleeting...despite all this she is extremely vocal lives to screech or says "aaaaaaaa" .

At a recent appointment with the consultant the mention of cochlear implants was raised again..we were first suggested them when she was diagnosed at 4wks old but we put it to the back of our mind as we were reeling from this diagnosis and wanted to give hearing aids a chance. After seeing the lack of response, feeling disappointed that her hearing aids didn't seem to be benefittig despite her wearing them from morning till night we agreed to be referred and get her assessed. Even if she doesn't qualify for implants at least we know we've tried and maybe there are different aids that would benefit her..who knows... so referral was put through just before Christmas. And within wks we were given an appointment for her first lot of assessments.

Last week we met up with the cochlear team who I already know as I am currently undergoing assessment for myself. First on the agenda was hearing test. After a while they said she could hear something but it was unclear to how much she could actually hear through her aids as she wasn't turning head to the flashing toys but they said they did feel she was a bit young to understand what they had wanted her to do...they did some sound work while in the same room as her using their voices and she never responded, they tested if she responded to vibrations like banging on the floor while she was sat on floor but again she didn't turn.

They asked me if shw ever pulled her hearing aids out... I replied that we have never had that issue and right at that moment she decides to show me up by reaching up, grabbing hold of her hearing aid and yanked it out!!  I couldn't believe it! Since then she pulls them out all the time! So I need to be extra vigilant as she is putting them in her mouth and I'm scared that she will choke.

We were told to go for some lunch before the next assessment so off we went. Sitting in the cafe surrounded by doctors and nurses she was the centre of attention as with her loud screeches she had everyone looking at her! Such a wee charmer! We met up with the speech therapist who basically went over some paperwork to get an idea of what sounds she could do...it was actually quite hard to answer her questions as with being deaf myself I didn't know what her speech sounds were like! But I remembered what her teacher of the deaf told me so just told her that. Faith decided that this was the right time to have her nap so therapist didn't get a chance to assess her but she said that it would be better if she was a bit older so she is to come back when she is 10mths old. As soon as we got out of the room into the waiting room she decided it was time to wake up! Typical!

Next up was the surgeon consultant who basically went over her history, my pregnancy and birth, he checked her ears and she is very congested on one ear. She will be coming back at 10mths old where they will give her a GA and she will have a ABR test to give an exact reading of what her hearing loss is then an MRI will be done if she needs it  (he going check her previous MRI to see if he had enough info) depending on those results they will then decide if she will benefit from implants. If she does they will implant her between the ages of 12 -18mths! 

So we just carry on as we are doing with persevering with her hearing aids until she is about 10mths old and we will go from there....

Sleeping through her speech therapy assessment!!!