RETURN TO THE BATTLE FIELD

After some time, I decided that I needed to call the Audiologist in Colorado who wrote the guidebook for Infant Hearing in Colorado. Vickie Thomson was very sweet she was concerned that no one had given him intervention especially with as much effort as we were putting out. She gave Arkansas Children’s Hospital a call for us and at her request they called us to talk about our concerns. They told us that if we thought that he needed hearing aids they would get him them.

So we returned to ACH it is now October 2009. We were relieved to know that we would finally be getting our son hearing aids. You would never guess that despite their reassurance over the phone and the fact that Alex’s hearing was 5dB worse, they sent us home without hearing aids. I was out of energy I felt dejected, and think I actually ‘threw in the towel’. I decided that perhaps I really did not know what I thought I knew, perhaps I WAS crazy. (If I wasn’t I sure was going there. . .you are so glad if you did not have to witness this!!)

It is at these times that the spirit usually speaks to me or Heavenly Father sends someone in my path; when I am out of physical strength and power, and my ‘will’ has all but died; when I am running on energy that has only been lent to me. In mid December 2 weeks from our perfect benefits expiring , we went to Chili’s for Dinner. It was a Thursday and usually if we went out to dinner it would be a Friday night or Saturday and it is a place we don't usually choose due to the high number of cheese laden dishes. There was a family in the waiting area with 3 children 1 had two cochlear implants, 1 had two hearing aids, and the other had no hearing aids. I started to talk to the Mother about what we had been going through. She told me about how they were received when they came to Arkansas. Their son with implants had received one before they moved here (Implants at the time were done one at a time). After they moved here he was scheduled at ACH for the second, but when they went for it, the Audiologist did testing and told them that his hearing was fine on that side; he did not even need a hearing aid?! They took him back to North Carolina where their doctor retested and placed the second cochlear implant!! She finished by telling me that if I thought he needed hearing aids, ‘then hang in there and fight for them! And if you need to go to Colorado for them do it!‘ (Hooray!! Maybe I am not crazy.)

We scheduled an appointment for Alex with the Baby’s audiologist for December 22. In our previous discussions as she tested the baby, I let her know that I felt Alex was reading the Audiologists in the past. From the beginning she turned Alex so his back was to her and there was no minute chance he might see her even from the corner of his eye. What happened next, I was never in the slightest bit expecting. His hearing scores were at 40dB, she scheduled us for more tests 6 weeks later. Tests in February revealed the same. So either his scores dropped a full 20dB in 2 months or he had been reading the audiologist to perform at 20dB for the last 2 years. (Now for those of you unaware, this is a huge drop. It could only have been due to a Cholesteatoma or a Brain tumor if the loss had not already been there.  These issues also rarely affect both sides and if they do the possibility that both sides are affected equally is highly unprobable.)