Great news! June is now wearing both of her hearing aids on a regular basis! This has been two years of ups and downs.
As soon as June was able to put her hands to her ears my mom made special hats that covered her ears tightly. This way she couldn’t get her little chubby fingers on those pretty pink aids with nice rubber ear molds that were oh-so-fun to put in the mouth. Despite the fact that she probably heard a lot of rustling from the hat next to the aid’s microphone, we were happy she was hearing as many sounds of speech as possible before the age of two.
Last August she was 20 months old. The hat hadn’t been working for some time and she was wearing her aids on her own and was not taking them out of her ears as much. When we went to stores I would check before we left the house to make sure they were in, then before we left the car to go in a store, then a few times while in the store and then would check again when we got back into the car. Needless, to say it was a bit stressful for me. I dreaded the day where we might lose an aid. Michigan has a great insurance program for children with a hearing loss where the insurance will pay for an aid if lost once during five years. Its a great program, but five years for a young child is a long time.
One day we went to Joann Fabrics and then to Meijer. Catina tends to my little hawkeye and tattles on June if she’s grabbing her aids, which can be nice. I did my usual check a million times in and out of the stores but didn’t check when we left Mejier until we got to the post office. I looked in her ear and there was no aid! I searched and searched the car and started to panic. I called Joann Fabrics just in case and immediately started driving back to Meijer. I loaded the girls back into the cart and retraced all our steps scanning the aisles for a tiny pink hearing aid. I never knew the Meijer aisles were so stinking huge until I started looking for this little aid. Why did we not choose neon green instead of pink?!
Long story short, after weeks of calling lost and found, her audiologist and the insurance company, then switching audiologists, borrowing a hearing aid until finally a new one came in, writing a required letter to the insurance company stating how I will prevent an aid from being lost again (because I lost this one on purpose?!), the little stinker would no longer even tolerate putting the aid in her ear. She started freaking out when it was in and would scream and cry. She continued wearing her right aid but not the left and then one day wouldn’t even wear the right. We tried rewards, bribing and even force, but the aid was not staying in.
One day we visited her cousins, and when she saw two of them wearing aids she asked for them. I didn’t bring hers that day and so she wore her cousin’s old aids without a battery and was doing great. I went home and put hers in and she cried. I then put in her aids without a battery and she was fine. Really? We decided to give her a couple week break and not push the issue because we weren’t sure if it was a hearing issue or her being stubborn. We even began to wonder if the Lord had healed June.
After being persistent, I was able to get her to wear the one aid again but she would not wear the new one. She would yell “LOUD!” because to her it really is louder. She wasn’t used to it. We started discussing a volume button with her audiologist thinking maybe if we gradually made the aid louder until it was at the proper loudness than maybe that would help. The audiologist said we couldn’t put a volume button in until we had the latest test. Another long story I will not bore you with which includes switching audiologists.
Last week after bath time June asked to put her aids in. I put the one in assuming we were just putting in one but she reached for the other and said “in.” O.k. I told her if she wanted it in we’d have to put a battery in it. She repeated “battawee.” I put the battery and the aid in her ear and she was fine. Completely, fine, Jen! WHAT?! Then the next morning she asked for them both again and has been wearing them for over a week now.
I have no idea why she decided to wear them but I believe part of it was the Lord telling me that He will help me through all of these “special needs.” With Him, our schedules of four therapies between Ada and June, doctors appointments, preschool, dance class and living life we’re going to be o.k.
Thanking Jesus for being with us and taking the load off when times feel a bit crazy!
Ann
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Ann,
This is such an answer to prayer, that she is wearing her aids–even asking for them!
Jen
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