Fancy Moulds

For five years, we have been taking moulds for Isobel's Hearing Aid. This is the latex part that gets inserted into her ear so the sound is directed straight into her ear. Her moulds have always been pinky clear in colour, we had no idea there was anything different.

This all changed today, at Isobel's last hearing test, it was noted that her hearing had deteriorated a little and the Resound Aid wasn't working as well as it could be. It was therefore decided, that she should get a new HA and while we were at it new moulds. Being used to having the imprints done, she sat patiently while the moulding agent was pumped into her ear and set. Then the fun began, She was then handed a book and asked, "What colour mould would you like?" It was then the world of coloured, glittered, animal patterned moulds was opened up to us. The choice was unbelievable! After what felt like ages to the rest of us, Isobel decided on two different styles.

Today, we were back at Dorchester Audiology to collect her new HA and more importantly her new moulds. As you can see she has chosen some colourful ones.

Her new HA is a Phonak Nathos S+. It is a more powerful HA with something called SoundRecover technology.  SoundRecover is a technology that gradually applies some shifting and lowering to just the highest frequencies in order to move them to a space where those sounds may be more audible. Simply put, it will make her hearing better. So looking great and hearing great!!!!!





Since being back in the UK, we have become members of the Dorset Deaf Children's Society. They have provided Isobel some great opportunites for us all to meet with other families with deaf/hard of hearing children. We have been fortunate enough to go on day trips and gatherings completely free of charge. It has been brilliant for Isobel to connect with other children 'like her'.

Last weekend, Isobel and Daddy went away for the weekend to PGL at Osmington Bay with the DDCS and had a fabulous time:


Daddy and I went to PGL for the weekend, I had a wonderful time. I loved the activities, which were climbing, archery, zip wire, Jacob's ladder and the giant swing. We had lots of nice food and made friends with Lexi and Nathan. Lexi and I played together a lot and we did all of our activities together. Lexi was deaf too. My favourite thing to do was the giant swing and archery. I can't believe I scored gold on my first time at achery. By Isobel

The End of an Era

It's been over two years since my last post. The CI mapping and HA programming were set up, all was as it should be, we settled into our new 'normal' life - no real updates on the hearing front.

There have however, been other changes in our lives. September saw us relocate to the south coast of our home country, England. The girls are loving living in England, all they could possibly want on tap, plus doting grandparents. They settled quickly into school and Isobel moved up to the correct school grade for her age (skipping Year 2) and is doing well.

Moving back to England meant saying goodbye to the private health system we had 'enjoyed' in Korea and starting Isobel's care with the NHS. It was a rocky start with difficulties getting the referral for the Audiological Implant Service (AIS) at Southampton University and the Audiology department at the local hospital, (they deal with each ear individually). But now we have them we're making good progress. The best of course is not having to pay for cables or batteries.

This week, we travelled to the AIS at Southampton, I must confess I was a little nervous. Not sure why, I just wanted the computer at the AIS to be able to read the mapping and know the mapping was good and that they agreed with everything that we had done so far.

I needn't have worried, Isobel was marvellous! She upgraded to a d-coil and was able to hear sounds as low as 25 decibels. She 'performed' very well in all the tests she was asked to do, the doctor said she was fantastic! The computer read the map and the internal parts are working great too. So good to know that everything is working well.

There has also been a cosmetic change. Any of you who have followed from the beginning would have seen the headband contraption I created to keep Isobel's CI and HA on her head. She has worn a variation of this everyday since she got her hearing aids. Well, this is no more, she is a 'big' girl now and wears her CI and HA over her ear. We were all a bit nervous about it falling off so the audiologist gave us a funny tube thing call 'active wear'. So far so good, it's doing it's job. Isobel will show you...

This may seem like such a small thing, but for her (and me) it is huge! something about always having her hair pulled off her face made her look younger, now I feel like she looks so much older. She sure is growing up fast!

We're off for a follow up for the HA ear in a couple of weeks, there maybe more changes afoot.