Hear Better, Live Better!

This past week has been a crazy wonderful one. As I mentioned in my last post, it was big news that Skylar has hearing loss, and we've been overwhelmed trying to learn about the issue and all of its potential ramifications. Things seemed to move at lightning speed from our pediatrician's recommendation at her 3-year check-up to get her hearing tested, to the first audiologist appointment (where results showed a moderate to severe loss of hearing in both ears, but due to some fluid and a cold we were asked to return in two weeks to repeat the test), to the second appointment with Dr. Swem, where we received the same results and a recommendation to go ahead and order the hearing aids. She could pick out her own colors, was she ready to do that? She was. I wasn't. It was a hard day.

This past Monday Skylar got her hearing aids, and this week has been one of the most amazing transformations I have ever seen - in her life, in our family life, in my experience parenting Skylar and Paige. I frankly had no idea how much we had adapted to communicating with Skylar differently than with Paige. The moment she put them in, her face turned bright red and she turned quiet, listening to everything. After having them in for a half hour or so, she began experimenting with talking, which clearly sounded different inside her head. At first she was whispering, and we had to encourage her to speak up. Gradually, she seemed to get that these magic little computers were helping her hear better, and she was eating up how much more easily she could communicate with us. She's responding to questions immediately and participating in back and forth conversations to a much greater degree than ever before.

Here's the super star at the doctor's office, and going for ice cream after.


Skylar calls her hearing aids her "hear betters" (so cute!). And from our first week wearing them, I'd say they are a hit. Wow. Oh. My. God. What a difference. The most amazing thing of all has been her attitude. She patiently lets Jim and me put the hearing aids on and take them off, and wants to put them on first thing in the morning and right after her bath. If one makes a feedback noise she says "owee, my hear better" and points to it. If one falls off her ear, she says "uh oh, my hear better!" and shows us which one so we can fix it. She LOVES them!

I'm still walking around with my mouth half open from the degree of change. I really didn't expect it. And although of course I have had thoughts of why didn't we find out sooner, we did have suspicions, why didn't we get her hearing tested sooner?, there are a million good reasons and I won't go into them here. We're moving forward and feeling really positive about the gifts modern technology has given her. One of the books I ordered calls hearing loss a great teacher. I'd say that's true, but Skylar herself is the teacher, as well. Talk about a model for perseverance, trying your best, being resourceful, figuring things out for yourself, staying positive and showing your passion for life. She's the teacher.

Okay now that I'm crying (with joy!) I have to go. One more thing: she picked orange and pink, of course.