Can you HEAR me now?

Now you see it.

Now you don't.

 

Braden's ear was molded a couple of weeks ago so that a hearing aid could be made to fit his inner ear.  It finally got here and we went in for the fitting this morning.  This little gadget is molded to the cartilage of his inner ear and feeds the sound through a tube and back into his ear canal at a higher volume.  It's set to filter out background noise and amplify voices he hears in an attempt to compensate for a disfunct neuro-sensory nerve that has reduced his ability to hear to less than 50% in his left ear.  The device is very "customized"...since he got to choose the color of the hardware and inner piece.  He picked camouflage for the interior, and beige (to match his hair) for the exterior.

 



 

His discriminatory hearing in the left ear is very lacking and there's some speculation to whether the hearing aid will even work since his ability to relay the sounds back to brain may be hindered by the nerve's lack of function.  The audiologist thought either it will be a total success or a complete failure. And with his success in school riding on his ability to hear--we had to give it a shot.  So far, it looks to be a success.  In just under a minute, Braden had to adjust to all the things that he hadn't been hearing before.  What a wonder that must be!  It was kind of funny that after school, he was sitting at the computer by where I was hanging some pictures, and I raised my voice slightly so that one of the other boys could hear me all the way across the room.  I wasn't yelling...just talking louder, and Braden started telling me to tone it down--I was being too loud.  Wow.  Not bad for the once hearing-deprived!

 And the irony of the whole event: he said that he can talk quieter now, too, because he can hear himself differently and doesn't have to speak so loud to know that others are hearing him!! 

I took him out to breakfast at the Little Euro breakfast cafe and he gave me a list of places he was going to wear it...followed by a list of places that he wouldn't. He said that some of the kids at school noticed it right away and asked him what it was.  I told him that he has $1100+ stuck in his ear...and it better stay there--no messing around!  He's been given a new lease on what's going on around him.  I think he's pretty excited about it.  He wants to play the violin this year...in addition to the piano lessons he's already started.  I think he'll do so much better with the music, now that he can hear better.  But he was doing pretty well before.  Hearing loss wasn't stopping him from practicing and moving on.  Something to think about...Beethoven was already deaf when he wrote some of his greatest masterpieces. Maybe Braden's been hearing music with more than just his ears ;)