Ears that Hear

As many of you know, I was born with a 10% hearing loss that has, of course, gotten worse as I've aged, but I get by with a little help from my friends - and lip reading does wonders for me!  However, it's not something I wished to pass on to my children.  Both girls failed their newborn hearing screenings in the hospital and had to follow-up with audiologists at Children's.  Catherine Ellis was released at six months and hasn't looked back.  Sweet Caroline, not so lucky!

Many of you know she's had chronic ear infections all of her life.  Tubes and having her adenoids removed made a huge difference in her life, but her ear infections continue and her hearing hasn't improved over time. Caroline has seen the audiologist every 3-6  months since birth.  She loves Ms. Erin, our fabulous audiologist, so very much.  It's like going home every time we visit - she's very comfortable and at ease when she sees her "hearing" friends.

About six months ago they told us that they thought it was probably time for hearing aids, but they wanted to wait until she was three, because cognitively she could understand and do so much more (they test hearing by putting her in a sound proof booth and asking her to play games with toys based on the sounds she hears).  She loves it!

Working hard in the testing booth

Caroline has a damaged nerve just like me - we even have the same curve in our hearing loss.  Sorry sweet girl!  So two months ago she had molds made and we picked out hearing aids. She picked pink of course - and we waited patiently while they were being made.

 What her hearing aids look like - except the mold in her ear is clear

Getting fitted for her molds

July 1st was the big day and off we went (with no nap, mind you!) to receive our pink hearing aids and receive training.  She did just fine!  Didn't miss a beat!  And so far, two weeks in, we're good. She doesn't put up a fight to wear them - I guess because she can hear the sounds so much better than she could before - and her little friends haven't paid them a bit of attention.

She has a bear that has hearing aids, so we took him and a book about an elephant who wears hearing aids to share with our friends at school and that was that.  No big deal to these three-year-olds.  

You can barely see them with her wild hair!

Picking out big girl stickers!

We head back in a few weeks to have her hearing tested again to see if the hearing aids are doing their jobs. These little suckers are expensive and of course insurance doesn't cover them "because hearing is not medically required to engage in normal living."  So, I'm interested to find out if they help as much as we hope they do!  She's so ready to get her prize for wearing them every day!  We are so proud of this sweet, spunky girl!