Today was an exciting day for Sam because he got his first hearing aids. It turns out Sam has severe/profound hearing loss in both of his ears. He can hear loud, low sounds, but not every day conversation and other common sounds.
It took a few weeks after birth to confirm this, and we found out when Sam was six weeks. He failed the standard hospital hearing screenings, as well as the 10 day follow-up. Even still, we learned that’s not uncommon and it doesn’t mean there is a hearing issue. We scheduled the required follow-up testing at the audiologist. I took Sam, and while I was full of optimism outwardly, I knew I wouldn’t be shocked if the test confirmed hearing issues. Dan and I never discussed Sam’s hearing seriously, but if you pressed either of us, we could have told you he wasn’t responding to sound as Hailey had. He never startled to loud noises or turned his head to your voice.
Still, it was hard to hear the news. It was a lot of information to take in, and it was uncomfortable not knowing if hearing aids or implants would definitely help Sam out, or if we should be signing up for sign language classes without delay. What we came to understand is that we just take this one step at a time, and that’s something we can digest.
First hearing aids. The goal is to get more sound/stimuli into his developing brain, which is good. Sam’s hearing is bad enough that we don’t expect the hearing aids to allow him to hear normally. Our audiologist expects them to give Sam access to loud language or language about 6-12 inches from his ears. And we don’t know that he’ll hear all of the sounds, but we can tell already that he is hearing voices when held. His eyes widen to sound now and you can use your voice to calm him. A fabulous step for little Sam!
We also very quickly got in touch with other parents of youngsters with hearing loss, and they shared only positive stories and outcomes. There is a warm community out there and lots of resources to help us network with other parents and spend time with all sorts of folks with hearing loss. We’re also participating in the early intervention program in Kentucky, and they’ll get us connected with speech therapy and any other services needed at the right time. This is doable, and we feel well-supported as we learn how to tackle this with Sam.
So what next? It sounds like we just wait and see how the hearing aids are doing. They’ll do some additional testing to really get some more data on his hearing loss, and we may be looking at cochlear implants around the year mark. For now, we just get used to the daily hearing aid routine.
There’s something about all of this that just makes Sam seem even more special and precious to me. We know he’ll be a champ through this journey, and I’m sure big sis Hailey will be tugging him along (perhaps literally) every step of the way.
