To this day, I still remember how annoyed my daughter was with these hearing aids. The hearing aids were big and bulky. Not to mention, they were constantly falling off of her ears. My daughter was a pretty smart cookie, even for being just over a little over a year old, as soon as I would put the hearing aids in her ears she would immediately snatch them off. It was very difficult to make her keep them on. Besides that the hearing aids only provided her with minimal sound improvements due to the severity of her hearing loss. Her hearing aids only allowed her to hear sounds that were considered loud or very loud and she only heard a muffled version of the sound.
I continued exploring my daughter’s options and determined that she should getting a cochlear implant. In order to find out if your child is a candidate for a cochlear implant, you have to go through a series of tests, procedures, and evaluations to determine if child is a good match. It was a fairly lengthy process when we were getting her prepped to have surgery for a cochlear implant.
The first part of the evaluation, doctors wanted to try and determine what the cause of her hearing loss was. This helps them determine whether or not she is a good candidate for a cochlear implant. So the ENT, sent us to a larger hospital, which was over two hours away from where we were living, for genetic testing. Genetic testing is fairly easy and doesn’t require invasive techniques. In fact, it is done by simply drawing blood. It took a few weeks for the test results to come back. They told me that her results came back inconclusive. Thankfully, her hearing loss wasn’t caused by genetics; however, they weren’t sure what actually caused her hearing loss.
By the time we got all of the work up completed and decided to pursue the surgery, my daughter was almost 4 years old. Usually, the surgery can be done much sooner than this but it was a tough decision to make to determine if she should undergo a long surgery.
Looking back, if she had her surgery done sooner, she probably wouldn’t have the communication delays and troubles that she does today.
My daughter only received one cochlear implant because doctors felt that there was enough evidence that one implant provided children sufficient amount of hearing. Plus, doctors wanted to give the parents the opportunity to have the other side implanted at a later date, especially, if technology got more sophisticated or changed dramatically over the next few years.
As soon as you find out that your child is deaf, I highly recommend finding books or classes so that you can start learning how to use sign language. As you are learning, start teaching your child how to sign.
Continue Reading: “Cochlear Implant Surgery Was Successful – My Daughter’s Story”
Did your young child have to wear hearing aids? If so, did they like wearing them?
Comments
10 responses to “Hearing Aids Were an Epic Fail – My Daughter’s Story”
Our child does not use a hearing aid. My first cousin though would have benefited greatly with early detection of her hearing loss.
Cynthia thank you for sharing your cousin’s story. Early detection makes a huge difference.
My daughter needed occupational therapy for failure to thrive, but it took months to prove the need. She’s okay now, but I was bitter for quite a while. Bitterness didn’t help her — or me — to move forward. It’s tough wanting more for our kids than we can get.
I can’t imagine the frustration that you felt while dealing with your daughter’s medical condition. Thank you for sharing your story.
I know how frustrating this can be. My daughter is legally blind in one eye and has weak eye muscles that make her eye turn in. When we moved the closest pediatric opthamologist was three hours away and after we drive all the way down he spent less than ten minutes with use, basically called her last doctor and idiot and refused to even discuss surgery, which was part of the reason we had gone to see him. Eventually we found another doctor willing to see a child so young and we’ve gotten much better care, thankfully. I’m so glad you were able to find providers that worked with you and helped your family make decisions.
I always hate finding new doctors. Luckily, I have been lucky and haven’t had any issues.
What? So much work for what seemed like a much easier fix. How old was she when she began interactive playing to learn sign language?
Sharon she was roughly 6 months old when she started learning sign language. She is very fluent in Sign Language, I will discuss that in my next few posts. 🙂
Oh! I’m sorry your daughter has had to go through this. I really hope there is something that can be done soon.
Thank you Lexie.