Back to ears...

Having decided that an implant was really the only viable option for Jonica's left ear, we had an initial appointment with the Implant Surgeon. Of course this involved getting the whole family into the city by 8:15am on a Monday morning, so that was an adventure in itself...

We asked questions, Surgeon described how an implant works. After viewing her audiograms he agreed that an implant was the best solution. Again, not urgent, but best not left too long. But nobody seems to be able to give us any idea about the process, what happens next, what even needs to happen. I'm sure there's some sort of standard-ish procedure, but nobody seems to be able to tell us what it is!

Around the time of this appointment, I received a letter from the Implant Clinic, telling us we had an appointment on Tues 27th May, at the hospital's audiology department. I just love it how they consult families about these appointments. One phone call, what days work for you, then they just make the appointments for you. Anyway, looks like this is starting to get real.

The following Friday, 23rd May, we had an Aus Hearing appt already booked. Back in February I had ordered Jonica an FM system cos I thought it might help her at Kindy. Basically, the teacher wears a microphone transmitter and Jonica has a receiver that plugs into her hearing aid. That way, the teacher's voice goes straight to her hearing aid and she hears instructions and directions more clearly, no matter where in the room she is. After all the appts in April, we decided to keep this one, and turn it into a full FM fitting rather than a hearing check.

The FM fitting was a resounding success. They're actually no longer FM's in the true sense of the word, they no longer use FM channels for transmission. They actually use 2.4Ghz wireless transmission, which solves a bunch of technical issues found with FM. In essence, each transmitter creates its own ad hoc wireless network and receivers can join that network and listen in to the stream of sound being sent from the microphone. This means there are no crosstalk issues as there were with FM systems (two systems on the same channel in close proximity would hear each other), and it's now a digital signal so it's even clearer in the hearing aid. The receiver automatically detects and joins the network when it becomes available, and the transmitter can still transmit an FM signal at the same time as the wireless signal. Brilliant. FM receivers find the channel automatically too, so when I pick Kaelen up from school while wearing the transmitter, his FM receiver automatically connects to my transmitter, no button pushing required. It's simply amazing. It's how technology should be - it just works!

Technical distractions aside...I used the transmitter with Jonica all day on Friday, and it cut the instance of "What?" down by about 75%. Which is amazing, because that was probably the most common word coming out of her mouth. If she couldn't see my face, she was really struggling to understand anything I said, even in good listening environments, and I was getting really tired of (a) repeating myself, (b) yelling, and/or (c) speaking like a tortoise so she could understand me. I used it in the car on the way home, and it was like a dream - I could talk in my normal voice and she understood me! Because she really only has one functioning ear at the moment, I'm using the transmitter all the time to give her the best access to our speech. Sure, she might become dependent on it, but I'd rather she understand me than wear herself out trying.

Next appt: Tues 27th May Implant Clinic Audiology & Speech appt