A Busy Afternoon

Finding your way around a hospital can be difficult, when all the the signs and directions are in Korean, the challenge increases. We learn things quickly though, pick up 'landmarks' along the way. Go down one floor at the first set of stairs, turn right down the hall decorated with bronzed fist impressions of Cancer survivors. At the end turn left and follow the corridor as it loops around until you reach the Audiology department. It has been a while since we last walked that route, but, we have it memorised, we found our way.

The route was the same, the little girl we walked it with however, wasn't. We walked those halls with a skipping, chattering little girl whose highlight was belting out 'Let It Go' as we entered the waiting area for the hearing test.

We had four back-to-back appointments yesterday afternoon. Mapping and a discussion with our audiologist was first. Isobel's CI needed a little tweaking, it was so much easier this time around not only because Isobel understood what was happening, but she had the vocabulary to really explain. She described the sounds as 'too loud, too soft, a little bit quiet, medium, OK, quiet, very noisy.' 

A proud moment!

Next we went into the sound booth for the hearing tests. First Hearing aid only, then CI only and then right ear unaided.

Right Ear Hearing Aid (Red) and Left Ear CI (Blue) and Right Ear Unaided respectively

What the diagram on the left shows is with her devices, Isobel is only suffering a mild hearing loss and can access all the sounds within the speech banana. It shows that her CI and HA are balanced and working well together so there is no need to implant the right ear at this point - Hooray.

Looking at the diagram on the right shows that she is clearly still very deaf, but on the up side, no deafer than when this journey started. Therefore her hearing is stable, which is a great thing.

Next up was tweaking with the hearing aid program, so everything is working tip-top!

Our last appointment was with the Professor. He was very impressed with Isobel's speech development, the results of the hearing test and how her ear looked inside. He finished our visit by stating that he thought 'Isobel would have no problems integrating into society with her peers'! 

Fantastic news!

We finished off the 'trip' with, as far as Isobel was concerned, the most important part. Chocolate milk and a muffin from Dunkin Donuts.

All in all, a busy (but well worth it) afternoon!