Although life marches on, we're finally at the point where the appointments will begin to slow down a little - the first 3 months are the craziest with hearing impaired kids! We've finished Audiology, we've finished our initial round of Aus Hearing appts, all the big ones are over...now it's just maintenance. Consequently, this post will cover about 4 appointments :-)
Mon 13th Dec - a simple Aus Hearing appointment to take impressions for new moulds for Jonica. Because babies grow so fast, they out-grow their hearing aid moulds in about 2 weeks! Each set of moulds takes about 2 weeks to arrive after being ordered, so in a ironic sort of way the new moulds you just received are immediately too small...but better than the ones you had from 4 weeks ago! Anyway, impressions taken, moulds ordered, won't arrive before Christmas but hopefully not too long after.
Sat 18th Dec - follow-up osteopathy appt for Jonica. She's straightened out a bit since the last appointment but was still a little crooked. Sounds like some reasonable changes were made this time too, and she's been much straighter since. Hopefully that'll be it for now.
Mon 10th Jan 2011 - Aus Hearing checkup for Jarrah. This is the return appointment after his November checkup at which we discovered that his right middle ear was still blocked, and J has since had grommets replaced. Again, i approached this appointment with an open mind in terms of what results J might return...you never know what's going to happen with that kid :-) Fortunately J's been entirely well for most of the time since having his grommet surgery, which is a hopeful sign.
J was tested on his own while i minded Kaelen & fed Jonica in another room. He returned surprisingly quickly and his results were, for him, fantastic! No real change from the last set of clear results, which is great - all frequencies between 60-70dB. Back in the fluctuating days it was common for his 4kHz results to be closer to 80-100dB, so to have him responding to those high sounds at 60 or 70dB is just fabulous...means he has what's called a "flat loss" rather than a "sloping loss", because the lines on his audiogram are basically flat, instead of rising or falling.
Due to kids growing (as they do!), we had 3 sets of impressions taken today also :-D Jarrah's have been starting to not seal so well lately, and Kaelen's last set were not very good anyway - 2 different colours, & 2 different materials! Jonica was due for her next set, and was very co-operative today, didn't complain too much about the cold green goo being squirted into her ear canals...
Wed 12th Jan - today was supposed to be J's post-operative ENT appointment...except that part of the Brisbane CBD was under water & the rest had no power...so this appointment has been postponed. It's been an incredible week with unbelievable flooding in South East Qld...fortunately our house is well out of the way of any floodwaters, but so many have lost so much, it's truly hard to comprehend. Our thoughts are with those whose lives have been almost literally turned upside-down...
Next appt: Thurs 27th Jan - moulds for Jonica
Fri 28th Jan - post-op ENT for J