Hearing Aids

Isobel's Hearing Aids

We took Isobel to get her Hearing Aids today. The weather was awful, pouring with rain, but we managed to get to the appointment not too wet.

And here they are. The one on the left (the darker coloured one) goes in her right ear. This is on loan from the hospital until it is replaced with the cochlear implant in February. The one on the right, goes in her left ear and is owned by us.

As you can see, the moulds turned out well from the impressions last week.


I'm not sure what I was expecting when the hearing aids were put on, but there was a serious amount of ear pulling, poking and pushing. An experience that I can't imagine I would have liked myself.

Check it out for yourself:

Hearing Aids and Equipment

Hearing aids come with quite a bit of equipment. There is a cleaning kit (per unit), 6 months worth of batteries, travel case and night time drying kit.


When they are not being worn, we need to make sure they are open with the batteries out, to conserve them. That way they might just last 15 days!

Hearing aids with the batteries out

Drying Kit

Then at night, we have to put them in this container that is filled with de-humidifying balls. The cool thing about these is they change from blue to pink when they are filled with water. 1 minute in the microwave and they change back to blue, ready to de-humidify again.

We have to start slowly with the wearing of the hearing aids. 1 hour today, 2 hours tomorrow, 3 hours on Saturday, building up to 8 hours. She also isn't to wear the hearing aids outside of the house for two weeks.

She wore them for an hour this evening and did a great job, after the initial 'getting them in' which Mummy clearly needs to practise, she hardly touched them at all. She was fantastic! And the beam on her face when she heard Estella say "Thank you Isobel" was precious.

I am so proud of my big girl with her 'special ears'! It was a truly special day.

Isobel 'Special Ears' Corben

Speech Banana

I came across this diagram, it is a really good example for explaining the hearing levels of different sounds.

Isobel's levels are 80 in her left ear and 85 in her right ear. So looking here, there really are a lots of things that she really doesn't hear very clearly.

This version, makes it all seem more realistic, rather than a series of numbers.

In the middle of the audiogram there is a part called the “Speech Banana.” Most of the sounds of speech fall into that range of pitches and loudness. 

Our goal for Isobel is for her to be able to hear in or above the Speech Banana with her hearing aid and cochlear implant, that way giving her access to the sounds of speech. 

In the speech banana, are the sounds a, u, i, sh, s, m, these are called the Ling Six Sounds. These sounds span the length of the Speech Banana. 

When Isobel (hopefully) responds (through a behavioural response or imitation) to a Ling Six Sound Check, we can be reasonably sure that she has access to all of the sounds of speech. Having access to all the sounds of speech means she will be able to develop her own speech.

D-Day

Exciting and nerve-racking! The date has been set for Isobel's cochlear implant surgery. 7th February. It is amazing how far we have come in such a small amount of time. She has lots of tests to go through, blood, urine, MRI and another hearing test, all to take place mid January. The most important test is to make sure she actually has a cochlea nerve. There is a less than 1% chance that she doesn't have it, but her doctor just wants to be sure. Without the nerve, the implant won't work. So I guess it's better to be safe then sorry!

The following animation and diagram explain what a cochlear implant is and how it works.

Once Isobel has had the internal processor and electrodes implanted, she won't immediately hear. We will have to wait until her scar has completely healed before it gets activated. This will take about 4 weeks.

In the meantime, she will wear hearing aids on both ears. We'll be collecting those on Wednesday. We're excitied to see what her reaction will be to hearing all the sounds around her.

Ear Impressions

Today we took Isobel to have impressions taken of her ears so the moulds can be made for the hearing aids.



This consisted of having a small piece of cotton, with tails inserted into her ear, followed by a large squidgy syringe full of silicon.

She did a fabulous job, not too much wiggling. And the result? A set of turquoise ear impressions.

We go back next week to get the hearing aids.

Special Ears

It took me some time, lots of searching and patience, but I found a doll that wears hearing aids. I actually got it here in Korea, but it was through he US company Lakeshore Learning. Here she is;

Isobel was thrilled when she saw her and loves to show everyone she sees the 'special ears' that her doll has. She even refers to the doll as Special Ears, I know, not a conventional name for a doll, but we're going with it for now.

We have great hopes that this will ease the way into Isobel wearing her own hearing aids. She can see what they (kind of) look like, and she will have someone who will have the same special ears that she will have soon.

I just have to figure out how to turn the right hearing aid into a cochlear implant when it's time for her surgery...

Isobel

This is Isobel.

She is almost 4 years old, she was born, and lives in Seoul,  Korea. Isobel loves to swim, collage, paint, read and jump on the trampoline. 

She also has severe Sensorineural hearing loss. This is when the inner ear nerves become damaged and do not properly transmit their signals to the brain.

She was not born deaf, this is something that has developed in the last 2 years. It was discovered when we realised her language skills weren't matching up to what they should be at her age. She can talk, but she doesn't talk in sentences and her pronunciation of words isn't quite right.

So, we find ourselves at the beginning of a journey to help Isobel to hear and develop her spoken language. To do this she will wear hearing aids for 2 months whilst all the testing is done for her to have surgery. She will be getting a cochlear implant on the left ear and will continue to wear a hearing aid on the right ear. The reason for this is that the implant produces a digital sound and the hearing aid provides a more natural sound. The idea being that Isobel will get the best of both worlds. The doctor was able to tell us that because Isobel was not born deaf, but this is a situation where her hearing has deteriorated the prognosis was for a higher success rate after the procedure.

The hearing aids and cochlear implant, are only half the story. In order for her to really talk properly, she needs auditory verbal therapy. This is very different to speech therapy. Without this the surgery is useless, she needs to learn to hear. The trouble is, all the therapists in Korea, speak Korean, as they should. However, we have been in contact with an Auditory Verbal consultant who has told me of a couple of organisations in Australia that offer the therapy via skype/video conferencing with the additional possibility of visits to their facilities, or therapists visiting us a couple of times a year. Australia is the leading country for this type of therapy and luckily in the same time zone as Korea!

So, task number 1, get impressions of her ears so the moulds for her hearing aids can be made...