Monday, January 24, 2011

Emotions are weird...

OK, I'll admit to a tinge of sadness today.

A whole bunch of Jarrah's little friends/peers went off to Prep today for the first time...and he didn't.

I know it's for the best, i know that we're doing the right thing in holding him back a year...but i couldn't help feel just a little bit sad that it should have been him enjoying his first day at school, it should have been him in that little school uniform, it should have been me getting all emotional at my baby growing up, if only it wasn't for his ears...

I also know that i get the privilege of having him at home (mostly) for another year, that he loves Preschool (after 2 days!) and that he'll cope better with the school environment, that he'll get his turn and it'll be alright.

I just couldn't help but feel a little bit sad...

Sunday, January 16, 2011

A quiet time of year...

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

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Jonica - Audiology 3 with complete Air Conduction results

Thurs 9th Dec - OK, so it's taking me a while to get to these posts...it's an interesting journey this third time around, not as emotional as the second time. I think that because throughout my pregnancy with Jonica I was preparing myself to have another hearing impaired child I've found this time a lot smoother. While pregnant with Kaelen, i hoped so hard for a hearing child that when that didn't happen, it was a very emotional thing, i felt very let down (as evidenced by my blog posts from that period after July 2008) and every appointment was a reminder of that. This time, as i've said before, i went into this pregnancy expecting a deaf child so it's been no surprise, and there's been very little adjustment required. The appointments just happen - they have to! - they're not out of the ordinary or new or scary, they're just normal for us, there's nothing riding on them, there's nothing much to "look forward to" or "hope for"...the loss is there, we're ok with it, let's just do what needs to be done to help all the kids get on in life the best they can. So, sorry it's taking me a while to get to these blog posts, each appointment isn't such a big deal anymore...

Today was the finalisation of Jonica's air conduction testing. Last time we were there she was sick and coughing and all blocked up so there was no point doing any air conduction testing as the results would be incorrect. Today, however, her ears were perfectly clear so it was a great day for testing!

The audiologist we saw previously was away so we saw another today - who happened to be the same one who did Kaelen's audiology after he was born! So it was nice to see another familiar face :-) Results started coming in the same as the first set of air conduction results, so that was great - no fluctuating levels!

Here are the final results: (all have a margin of error of +/-10dB; Pass = 20dB)
Air conduction Right:
500Hz = 60dB
1kHz = 50dB
2kHz = 40dB
4kHz = 70dB
Air conduction Left:
500Hz = 60dB
1kHz = 40dB
2kHz = 50dB
4kHz = 70dB

For Bone Conduction & TEOAEs, see previous posts.

This is described as a "mild to moderately-severe to severe hearing loss". Hooray! We can still say the word "mild"! It's still not as severe as Jarrah's or Kaelen's, and i can see that in our interactions with MissJ when she doesn't have her ears in. There's still a difference once we put her ears in too, but she responds much more without her ears than the boys do.

Yay! Got that bit nailed down...just keep walking...

Next appt: Mon 13th Dec - Aus Hearing, impressions only
Then: Sat 18th Dec - Jonica Osteopathy