An unexpected letter...well, sort of...

Thurs, 2nd Oct - taking the kids out for a walk, collected the mail from the letterbox on the way out, thought maybe i could read it along the way. Hmmm, from the Mater, what could that be? Open...newsletter, from the Cochlear Implant Team. Oh.

Our ENT had said he would get the Mater Implant Team to contact us and have a preliminary appointment for Jarrah, just to see if he would get more benefit from an implant than just his hearing aids, even though he seems to function quite well. I hadn't heard anything yet, so i was just waiting for a phone call to arrange an appointment or whatever. Interesting that they sent us a newsletter before we've even had an appointment, maybe they'll call soon...

Next letter - hmmm, Mater also...odd. Oh, "we've made an appointment with the Cochlear Implant Team for you", nice, thanks for checking that it was convenient, good thing it is. Tuesday 28th Oct 11am, about 4wks time, in between Kaelen's Aus Hearing follow-up & Jarrah's next Aus Hearing check-up. Well, that just completes the circle, doesn't it, at least we'll have some news for the Aus Hearing ppl.

Well that was a bit deflating. A clear reminder that major surgery is still a possibility, an "in-yr-face" reminder that all is not as it should be with Jarrah's hearing, despite him functioning so well, that this is a decision that we may need to make one day. *Sigh*, i guess this is the job of a parent, to make the best choices possible for a child while they're unable to make those choices for themselves, and this is a toughy. I know there is some debate around as to whether parents should have the right to make these choices, and i don't plan to enter that debate here, but even just looking at the possibility makes me sad, knowing that such things are necessary.

I know, you're going to say, "just be thankful there's something they can do, 50 years ago they would have been institutionalised, isn't technology amazing these days with what they can do, be grateful you found out early and do something for them" - yes, all those things are true, and there's always someone worse off than me, i'm not claiming to be the most hard-done-by person in the universe...but that doesn't make actually dealing with it any easier. I'm sure every parent who faces this challenge finds it hard - otherwise it wouldn't be a challenge, by definition, right? I guess it just felt a little out-of-the-blue because i was expecting a phone call, expecting to be consulted in the appointment-making process...yeah, that's probably it, it happened in a very different way to what i expected, caught me off guard.

So, the saga continues, a new set of experts to get to know...