Since his tubes, we've seen an audiologist every 6 months for hearing tests. Usually they were very vague, without any definite results.
But in the middle of April, Audy was finally old enough to really show which sounds he could and couldn't hear. As a mom sitting behind him in the booth, I could tell that he wasn't hearing certain sounds.
And so, we are moving forward with hearing aids.
The day after the audiologist and doctor determined the need for them, we met with the people at the school district, thinking we would be exiting the program. But expensive hearing devices change all of that.
Last Thursday, Audy started going to the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (DHH) class at the district preschool. The teacher had been to our house when his regular home visit teacher was on maternity leave last year, so it wasn't an entirely new face. All of the kids (all 10 of them) were very friendly and did a great job of including him. Friday he went back, and was very happy when he got home.
Making New Friends on his first day
Yesterday we went back to the audiologist to get ear molds and order hearing aids.
Today we met with a psychologist who put him through a lengthy battery of tests - and our little boy thoroughly impressed me with his reasoning and thinking skills. I'm sure he's smarter than Jason and I combined.
Next week we see a speech pathologist.
And then June 9th we go to an IEP to decide if we will attend the DHH class permanently, but from all we heard, and those on the inside, it looks like he probably will.
When he was born, they originally thought he had a conductive and sensory-neural hearing loss. The tubes seemed to take care of the conductive part (getting rid of the fluid in the middle ear), but the sensory-neural loss has remained. It is obviously minor (or, at least, hasn't affected his speech much), but they have told us that when he gets into school, it will affect him more. When I was born, such a loss wouldn't have been determined until 3rd grade when he was falling behind in school. When we are at the store, or in a noisy room, he can't tell where sounds are coming from. He does shut down in noisy environments - because he can't determine what sound to listen to. He asks a lot now "What?" and "What are you asking me?" and "What's that sound?" Hopefully this will diminish with hearing aids.
We are praising God that it hasn't seemed all that bad up til now. Praising Him that hearing aids aren't going to sink us - yet. (VERY expensive and not covered by insurance, as far as we can tell.) Praising him that we live in such a fabulous district. Praising him that my parents have been around to help with all of these appointments, pick ups and drop offs. We continue to pray that the transition from his Christian preschool to this new one will be smooth (we don't know details yet.) Praying that the transition to hearing aids will be easy for us all. Praying that they open up a new world for our boy, rather than shut him down. Praying that his hearing does not get any worse - he will have check ups every 6 months to determine if it is.
Thanks for praying with us!
His teacher was so sweet and emailed us these photos on his first day!
***6/2/14 Update
We've had the hearing aids for a week now. It's 3 o'clock and we've had them in longer today than any other day. He doesn't like them, and it's kind of a fight to put them on any time. He's very shy at school - more and more reluctant to go. Makes me sad.
I did find out that our insurance covers his hearing aids. But you have to order them through a certain company, and I'm sure our office did not. We have a 30 day trial on these, so if worse comes to worse, we return them and order through this other company, I guess. Praising the Lord for that!
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