Hear I am with my beautiful little girl! So those of you who know this amazing individual will all know that she is my miracle! And besides the obvious reasons, it is because of her miraculous recovery of her hearing! When she was very little we realized that she wasn't hearing the way she should. At the end of her first grade year we finally got her hearing tested. Not because we didn't care....but lets face it the girl read lips so well that we questioned our own thoughts on the matter. Lea
ving the audiologists office the first visit left me a little sad. Not because she was fitted for hearing aides but because of the challenges that she was going to face for the rest of her life. Lucky for her she is a very head strong determined individual....and just like the rest of our kids she is brilliant. She continued to thrive in school and test as an above average individual with straight A's despite her hearing loss. She worked with specialists in speech and continued to have a high speech descrimination.....which means that though she didn't hear language the way we hear it, she could still understand what was being said to her. We went in and had hear hearing rechecked every six months.....it was devistating eachtime because each time it had worsened........a few years into the loss they began teaching her sign language which was a blessing considering they had projected her loss to be complete at least by the time she was a teenager. When she was in the fifth grade we had taken her in for testing and her loss had progressed to the Severe range.....she was now lossing her hearing quicker than the Doctors thought she would. We then decided to take her to the University hospital to one of the Pacific Northwests Specialists in Cochlear Implants. now I can't say that we were leaning towards that or not, but what we were in the hopes of was finding a doctor that could tell us what had caused this loss and what was causing it to continue. We were kept away from home for almost a week while they ran a battery of tests on this gorgeous angel......she was beginnning to become scared. It was odd we thought she had the loss originally because of a horrible case of scarlet fever when she was a year old. But the doctors had assured us that it couldn't have been the cause only because if that had been the cause it would have been a one time loss....it wouldn't have continues. So here we are with a daughter with a NueroSensory hearing loss with no explanation. Since it is a loss due to damaged and dying nerves....there is no cure. It was something we were going to have to deal with. And then she was devastated to find out that because she was so smart and dealing so well in school she didn't qualify for an implant (which in essence is brain surgery) Thank God she didn't qualify then. Our most frustrating trip to the doctor happened in the spring of her fifth grade year when they said she was now deep into the Severe range and looking at being profoundly deaf by about February of the next year. They had tossed the idea of getting her stronger hearing aides but in the end decided it wouldn't do her any good anyway. We stepped up the sign classes and tried to stay positive. We went to Vegas where the girls all competed in the cheer nationals......and I stuck my head in the sand tempararily. Then the weirdest thing happened......the new school year was upon us and my daughter who never complained about wearing aides was suddenly refusing saying they hurt her head and she didn't need them. So with our friend from the school for the deaf and blind in tow we went back to the doctor.....to talk some sense into my head strong preteen. What we learned that day was that her hearing had come back completely! We took her to the specialist again.....he said....IT"S A MIRACLE. So we have been taking her in for rechecks......we did again today.....her hearing is still perfect! Any change is considered a medical emergency and we are suppose to get her right in.....But it is perfect right now! She is a miracle........Proof that they do happen when you believe........I believe! I have her as a perfect reminder!
ving the audiologists office the first visit left me a little sad. Not because she was fitted for hearing aides but because of the challenges that she was going to face for the rest of her life. Lucky for her she is a very head strong determined individual....and just like the rest of our kids she is brilliant. She continued to thrive in school and test as an above average individual with straight A's despite her hearing loss. She worked with specialists in speech and continued to have a high speech descrimination.....which means that though she didn't hear language the way we hear it, she could still understand what was being said to her. We went in and had hear hearing rechecked every six months.....it was devistating eachtime because each time it had worsened........a few years into the loss they began teaching her sign language which was a blessing considering they had projected her loss to be complete at least by the time she was a teenager. When she was in the fifth grade we had taken her in for testing and her loss had progressed to the Severe range.....she was now lossing her hearing quicker than the Doctors thought she would. We then decided to take her to the University hospital to one of the Pacific Northwests Specialists in Cochlear Implants. now I can't say that we were leaning towards that or not, but what we were in the hopes of was finding a doctor that could tell us what had caused this loss and what was causing it to continue. We were kept away from home for almost a week while they ran a battery of tests on this gorgeous angel......she was beginnning to become scared. It was odd we thought she had the loss originally because of a horrible case of scarlet fever when she was a year old. But the doctors had assured us that it couldn't have been the cause only because if that had been the cause it would have been a one time loss....it wouldn't have continues. So here we are with a daughter with a NueroSensory hearing loss with no explanation. Since it is a loss due to damaged and dying nerves....there is no cure. It was something we were going to have to deal with. And then she was devastated to find out that because she was so smart and dealing so well in school she didn't qualify for an implant (which in essence is brain surgery) Thank God she didn't qualify then. Our most frustrating trip to the doctor happened in the spring of her fifth grade year when they said she was now deep into the Severe range and looking at being profoundly deaf by about February of the next year. They had tossed the idea of getting her stronger hearing aides but in the end decided it wouldn't do her any good anyway. We stepped up the sign classes and tried to stay positive. We went to Vegas where the girls all competed in the cheer nationals......and I stuck my head in the sand tempararily. Then the weirdest thing happened......the new school year was upon us and my daughter who never complained about wearing aides was suddenly refusing saying they hurt her head and she didn't need them. So with our friend from the school for the deaf and blind in tow we went back to the doctor.....to talk some sense into my head strong preteen. What we learned that day was that her hearing had come back completely! We took her to the specialist again.....he said....IT"S A MIRACLE. So we have been taking her in for rechecks......we did again today.....her hearing is still perfect! Any change is considered a medical emergency and we are suppose to get her right in.....But it is perfect right now! She is a miracle........Proof that they do happen when you believe........I believe! I have her as a perfect reminder!
