Guest guest Posted February 3, 2000 Report Share Posted February 3, 2000 Hello! I've been lurking for a few weeks now, ( " Lurking " makes it sound as if I've been hiding in your bushes with binoculars) and it's time I crawled out and introduced myself. This is long, so grab yourself a drink before you settle in. Preferably, a drink with caffeine to keep you awake. I have a 7yo son with severe hearing loss and a 4 1/2yo son with moderate loss. Both boys have bilateral sensorineural losses with a cookie bite configuration. All that would suggest a genetic loss, however my husband and I are hearing. Other losses among family are traced to damage. Arguing over whose genes are responsible is nonproductive, so we don't linger on it. Both boys are aided and oral. We sign some out of necessity in those too noisy/too quiet situations, mostly with the more severe 7yo. We also have a 2yo girl that is hearing. She talks a streak that leaves me gaping " is this what 'normal' is? " We have had our differences with the medical community over the source of our problems. We first suspected hearing loss when our oldest was 9 months. We ran into horrible audies that rubber stamped his hearing, even though I raised concerns. I was even yelled at that I had the problems, not my son. He was diagnosed as moderately-severely retarded, (even after being aided) ADD/ODD, and even a mention of autism. He was 4 1/2 when he finally received his aids. I've kicked myself a million ways for not getting them earlier. The doctors insist is it a progressive loss. That's their excuse for not finding it-it wasn't there. We disagree. Our second son seemed SO much better than our first. His speech was slow to appear, then picked up speed. He was the reason I got up in the morning when the thought of facing my oldest's behavior made me want to hide under the bed. I would look into his big brown eyes and dimples and swell with pride that we could produce a hearing child. Still, we wanted to be sure. We were floored when his test showed a moderate loss. No one suspected it. By this time we knew the drill, but it didn't stop us from grieving all over again. Our third child, a daughter, was a preemie. It was not procedure here to test all babies then, but preemies were. She has been tested since and there's no sign of that 'progressive' loss. The differences between our children continue to amaze us. They could be a study in effects of hearing loss. Our families have provided various levels of support. My father is visibly uncomfortable around my kids, but he's uncomfortable in any situation with children. My mother has always supported our decisions, sometimes getting in the way, which I overlook because I value the help. My in laws blamed our discipline with our oldest. They " knew it all the time " with the second child. They made snide comments under their breath about our daughter's hearing loss and how we weren't addressing it. Confused? Our daughter is hearing and only a copy of her records convinced them. I would not be so bold as to criticize another's communication choices. I hope that this applies to education choices as well since we are (gulp) homeschooling our children. We have found this option suits us. I do enjoy this list. It's so nice to be among people that understand. scratched and dirty from lurking in the bushes __________________________________________________ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.