April 16 - new ear molds arrive and fitted for 1st time wearing both aides (30 weeks) audiology: April has been a very productive month but quite frustrating at the same time. After waiting more than 4 weeks, the ear molds that were taken and ordered last month, from Virginia, finally arrived at the Rota Naval hospital. The audiologist was very good at keeping us informed on the status of the delivery and promptly called us when he received them. Apparently, the Phonak company makes the hearing aides and subcontracts out the ear molds through Westone then they go back to Phonak who delivers them to the audiologist who then fits them on the patient.
This is my understanding of the process that delayed the delivery: Ear mold remakes were ordered by the audiologist in Virginia. Then Phonak forwarded them on to Westone. Westone made them and sent them back to Phonak. Phonak had issues with the military not prepaying for them and kept them. They were suppose to fall under the 90 day warranty due to poor fit but one of the companies (not sure which one) argued that it wasn't poor fit due to faulty manufacturing since the patient simply outgrew them. The military agreed to just pay for them as a new order but requested them to be shipped overseas ASAP as they worked out the payment issues. Apparently, it took them a couple of weeks to come to this agreement but I think they are still dealing with payment issues. Thank goodness it's all covered by our military insurance and although I had to wait it out I'm glad I'm not the one dealing with the warranty and insurance issues. (free health care is a blessing!) And finally, shipping overseas takes longer than if we were stateside. All of this combined made it a long, irritating wait.
After 4 weeks, I started feeling very frustrated for several reasons. 1) Because he had outgrown the original ear molds within 7 weeks and couldn't even use them by the time he was first fitted with hearing aides, so I was anxious about him not fitting into these again. 2) Here I was with a baby almost 7 months old who hadn't been able to hear since birth and we "knew" he couldn't hear when he was only 2 weeks old but he still wasn't aided! 3) I was frustrated with the system in general. If newborn hearing screening is becoming a routine thing nationwide, there needs to be agreements with the hearing aide companies to accommodate the fact that infants grow out of the ear molds within 4-8 weeks due to the nature of who they are: a growing baby! They shouldn't be discriminated against with extra costs and arguments because they need new ear molds more often than full grown adults. There needs to be an accommodation of warranties or something so the ear mold/hearing aide companies are prepared for multiple re-makes for the very young and rapidly growing infant hearing needs. Okay, that's my soapbox stand... I now digress.
early intervention: So he's been wearing bilateral hearing aides for two weeks now! I was hoping for a grand acknowledgement of full hearing but have realized that it doesn't work that way. He's still a baby with baby-like reflexes and responses! Early intervention started five days after his hearing aides. His therapist comes to the house twice a week and plays simple sound games with him to help him recognize sounds, locate the source and then be rewarded with happy facial expressions or hands-on touching, etc. It's fun. We're not sure if the hearing aides are set exactly correct for his hearing loss but only time will tell us after we've worked with him, he matures and has his next ABR at twelve months old. He is definitely hearing better with them and for that I'm very happy. It's just the keeping them on his ears that's most difficult. Between getting them out of his mouth, pushing them back in place, keeping his ears (the microphone parts) away from rubbing on clothes, blankets, etc., keeping finger foods off of them, and just consistently using them day after day is the challenging part for all of us!
We've also been working on his sitting and rolling over skills. He does both with support and help but needs to work on building more strength to do it better. I first declined physical therapy but the last few days he's been worrying me a bit so I think I'll have the physical therapist visit us again. He only rolls to the left and only lays his head down on the left side. When I try to get him to lay it down on the right, he bumps his face on the ground until I use both of my hands to turn his head and guide it down on the right. This may be due to the way I hold him and the way I lay him down to sleep but it could also be due to the fact that he hears better out of the right ear so he naturally hasn't been laying on it due to his hearing. Worse case is that he's doing it due to some muscular problems but my gut instinct is that it's not too serious - just one more thing to be diligent and observant about.
optometry: I was a couple weeks slow on getting Isaac to his six month well-baby check. While I was there, the doctor directed us to go over to optometry for the easy, in and out, no appointment needed, routine 6 month eye exam that they do for all babies. (my older children didn't have this so it must be a new thing) So last week, we visited the eye doctor. The test is simply a "photo shoot" of the eyes. He just had to have his eyes open and looking at the camera. Results: He didn't pass and is diagnosed with NEGATIVE ACUITY. "AHHH! Are you serious?" I ask, "what exactly does that mean?" As if that's not bad enough, the bad part is, is that this doctor is not a pediatric optometrist and doesn't have experience with infant vision problems. This is very troubling news for us and we are now in the process of finding out how to proceed. Being overseas is really causing problems and stress for me. Next week we're going back in to see the optometrist's wife who is apparently an optometrist also and is employed part time at the hospital. I'm really not sure what her experience or plan is so this new issue is looming over us... I don't know if we'll have to go back to America for this or not. If not, we'll definitely have to add it to our medical needs if we end up in Virginia again for the audiology needs at twelve months old. I'm so sad and upset over this finding. My poor baby!!! I've really felt that since his sense of hearing was bad, his other senses would be extra powerful. I know he sees! But is everything blurry for him? I just don't know what to do with this "negative acuity". I can't imagine how he'll wear glasses and hearing aides. Does he need glasses now or can he wait? How bad is it? What is causing it? Why????
baby things: Due to his constipation issues, I decided to ask the pediatrician about it and he prescribed laculose medication. I'm giving him 1/2 tsp daily at this point. The good news is that he's now pooping about twice a week now. For 5 weeks, he only pooped 3 times and that was after multiple suppositories each time! Don't know if this is symptomatic of anything bigger but it's been a concern so I've been tracking it and I guess I'll include it on my list of "Isaac issues."
