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.