Re: getting the loaners

[Guest guest]

,

My son recently changed audiologists. This was not specifically because

I was dissatisfied, although I was not comfortable with her, but

because of other circumstances. After the change, I realized that the

audiologist is probably the most important hearing professional he

works with. Having someone we felt was competent and comfortable to

work with is very important. There were many questions that I should

have asked along the way that I didn't ask because of discomfort with

the original audiologist.

getting the loaners

we got my daughters loaner aids thursday. kylie is coming up on 14

weeks, i dont think i will ever forget how she looked when she turned

her head in response to my voice. i never thought something so

simple, would have my heart soaring for days. i cant describe it,

but here i guess i dont have too, you all have experienced it too.

she heard us, its still, kind of overwhelming. my son (he's 5,

hearing) said she looks like a robot with her aids. i told him that

she kind of does, and since he likes robots, i didnt discourage this.

i explained to him about how the sound comes into the mic, goes

through some electrical circuits and magically its loud enough for

the baby to hear. he thinks its cool now, instead of strange. i never

realized how small her ears were, i had to trim down my nails so that

i wouldnt hurt her while i was still getting used to putting the

molds in. that is some tricky stuff.

on a serious note though, i dont really feel that comfortable with

her audiologist. she seems well overbearing might be the word. i

became really uncomfortable when she was sizing that tubing that

comes out of the molds to fit the hook, she had them in kylies ear,

and these cutter things in her hand, and almost stabbed them in her

head. she said she was setting her aids conservitally (i think i

spelled that wrong) she didnt do any testing with the aids. and the

machine she used to set the programming didnt have what looked like

my daughters audiogram and waveforms. i'm not an audiologist, but i

dont feel confident in what shes doing. am i overreacting again?

should i wait and see how it goes, look for a second opinion, or

another peds audiologist? we go to a childrens hospital, Riley here

in Indianapolis, i would love to stay there, but is there a tactful

way to see if there is another audiologist without biting the hand

thats feeding you per se?

amanda

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[Guest guest]

thanks guys, its good to know that i'm not just sensitive. we'll give it a few

more appointments and feel things out.

the major thing with the audiologist, (i didnt mention it in the earlier post

because it usually is for the most part a sensitive subject in the deaf / HOH

circles)

she is completely biased with communication methods. she says " this is where

my bias really shows... " she doesnt respect our decision as a family, and kind

of talks down to us about the methods. i can appreciate her opinion, and

experience, but not in the slam it down your throat, i'm right, youre wrong, you

wont master that method, its a waste of time and money, your'e only making it

worse by using that method, dont want her to do this and that like she would be

able to if you used this method? the audiologist is on some board of the local

chapter in our town. because of this it feels like her pushing that CM, has some

type of motive, no idea what, but its just that feeling i get.

is it really an audiologists role to comment about the communication methods?

i assumed this was something that the EI team doing the ISFP would give me more

info, and exposure to families using them. (and she did).

who would i speak with at the hospitals audiology office about changing

audiologists? like an office manager? the audiologist also mentioned making an

appt with someone that she said would do a " communications assessment " , anyone

have any idea of what this is?

thanks

amanda

Kerry Dowling & Dan wrote:

Hi ,

Congratulations on having such an exciting first moment with the hearing

aids. You will be more comfortable with them in no time, both putting them

in and maintaining them, plus seeing your daughter with them on. I think my

daughter looks weird without her hearing aids-- and she does too!

Ask questions-- as many as you need to-- and have your audiologist explain

each step to you. If you are uncomfortable with anything, speak up.

Practice if you have to, but make sure you share any of your concerns or

questions with the audiologist.

When my daughter's aids are reprogrammed, the audiologist has the results of

the most recent audiogram already loaded into her file in the software

system. All she has to do is bring up Hadley's file, hook up the aids, and

sync them up. The audiograms that I see on the screen show the maximum and

minimum settings for Hadley's aids, and there are several screens that allow

the audiologist to fine-tune specific settings which pop up additional

audiograms. None of these screens look like Hadley's aided or unaided

audiograms. We use a different program (has two names, one is generic and

one is the brand, I forget which is which: AudioScan and Visual Scan) that

actually call up her specific aided and unaided audiograms.

As for switching audiologists, we've done it both ways, switching from one

practice to another and switching within one practice. Hadley was first

referred to an audiologist at a local rehab hospital that is a satellite to

the hospital in which she was born. The audiologist there had experience

testing children, but mainly children with conductive hearing loss, and had

a horrible manner with us. The ENT there told us to come back when Hadley

was 2 years old (she was 2 months old at the time) to get hearing aids, that

there was nothing we could do until that time. It took us until the fourth

visit to switch audiologists and find a practice near us that we just love.

I also switched ENTs at that time, to a local practice recommended to us

(and to the ENT who happened to see my brother 25 years ago for his

conductive hearing loss issues). The first ENT we had seen also was part of

this practice and I had written into Hadley's file that we were never to see

him for any reason, stating why. ENT#2 saw this before I had a chance to

even bring it up to him, was horrified that one of his staff would say such

a thing, and wound up sending this ENT to additional pediatric hearing loss

training.

We are now switching audiologists within one practice, as our

super-fantastic-too good to be true audiologist is taking on another

position elsewhere. It is too far for us to drive to regularly for

earmolds, so we are choosing another audiologist within the current

practice. Everyone thought we would go to a certain woman, but I discussed

my options with our current audi and we both agreed that Hadley would be

better served by someone else on staff.

I've also had the experience of having an audiologist-in-training sit in on

and assist with appointments (a graduate student in audiology completing her

field training). After three visits, where this woman was unprofessional,

immature and did what I think is unforgivable-- waited until my daughter was

unaided to say something completely inappropriate about her--, I let them

know that she was no longer welcome at our appointments and why.

Just remember that while you might wind up becoming friends with

professionals who help to support your daughter, they are there to help her

first. If it's not working and you've done your best to improve the

situation, don't feel any qualms about moving on. It is much more painful

to stay with someone you don't like.

Kerry

getting the loaners

we got my daughters loaner aids thursday. kylie is coming up on 14

weeks, i dont think i will ever forget how she looked when she turned

her head in response to my voice. i never thought something so

simple, would have my heart soaring for days. i cant describe it,

but here i guess i dont have too, you all have experienced it too.

she heard us, its still, kind of overwhelming. my son (he's 5,

hearing) said she looks like a robot with her aids. i told him that

she kind of does, and since he likes robots, i didnt discourage this.

i explained to him about how the sound comes into the mic, goes

through some electrical circuits and magically its loud enough for

the baby to hear. he thinks its cool now, instead of strange. i never

realized how small her ears were, i had to trim down my nails so that

i wouldnt hurt her while i was still getting used to putting the

molds in. that is some tricky stuff.

on a serious note though, i dont really feel that comfortable with

her audiologist. she seems well overbearing might be the word. i

became really uncomfortable when she was sizing that tubing that

comes out of the molds to fit the hook, she had them in kylies ear,

and these cutter things in her hand, and almost stabbed them in her

head. she said she was setting her aids conservitally (i think i

spelled that wrong) she didnt do any testing with the aids. and the

machine she used to set the programming didnt have what looked like

my daughters audiogram and waveforms. i'm not an audiologist, but i

dont feel confident in what shes doing. am i overreacting again?

should i wait and see how it goes, look for a second opinion, or

another peds audiologist? we go to a childrens hospital, Riley here

in Indianapolis, i would love to stay there, but is there a tactful

way to see if there is another audiologist without biting the hand

thats feeding you per se?

amanda

All messages posted to this list are private and confidential. Each post is

the intellectual property of the author and therefore subject to copyright

restrictions.

[Guest guest]

I'm trying to put off some post-holiday clean up that needs to happen in my

house....

Our audiologist does not share our views on communication choice (she's TC,

we're AVT), but she is very aware that the family makes that decision. She

has been nothing less than supportive of us all along. In fact, it's been

nice because we are one of the few AVT families in our area and she has had

limited experience with AVT in the past. In the nearly 4 years that we have

worked with her, she has been impressed by the results and we have been able

to educate her a bit. So, it's not necessary that everyone agree on

communication method.

However, if someone is not supportive of your choices and these are

decisions you have made after great thought, it's time to let them know that

this is not working for you. That's their chance to reevaluate their

behavior. If they can't do it, it's time to look for someone else.

Our EI office really pushed us to work with a speech pathologist who was on

staff with them. I was all for it until I learned that she signed; signing

was so engrained with her that she never stopped (the joke was that even if

she sat on her hands, they would still be moving!). That was a case where

it just was not a good match, for many reasons. At Children's Hospital,

where we go for regular hearing evaluations, there are several audiologists

who just can't understand why a family would not choose to sign. As a

result, they tend to see families who have chosen ASL or TC as their method.

It took us nearly six months to find the right players to support Hadley,

and I'm always reevaluating the team when we have to bring in replacements.

You are just doing what is right for your child. If it doesn't feel right,

it probably is not.

Kerry

RE: getting the loaners

thanks guys, its good to know that i'm not just sensitive. we'll give it a

few more appointments and feel things out.

the major thing with the audiologist, (i didnt mention it in the earlier

post because it usually is for the most part a sensitive subject in the deaf

/ HOH circles)

she is completely biased with communication methods. she says " this is

where my bias really shows... " she doesnt respect our decision as a family,

and kind of talks down to us about the methods.

[Guest guest]

I just wanted to tell you that Hannah's hearing aids were set " conervatively "

too at that initial appointment. They said they didn't want to turn them up all

the way on the first visit. So every couple of weeks for the first few months I

brought her in and they were turned up a little more. And still to this day, if

I feel that she isn't hearing me they will bring her in and turn her up some

more.

She did have some testing with that first visit -- the " booth " test. But they

don't always do it whenever she gets them turned up.

About the audiogram. I can't seem my daughter's audiogram on the computer

screen when they hook her aids up. What I see is what the aids are reading. If

they set the aids at a lower level this first time then it wouldn't look similar

to your daughters audiogram.

Just our experience.

> " head. she said she was setting her aids conservitally "

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[Guest guest]

.. I was all for it until I learned that she signed; signing

> was so engrained with her that she never stopped (the joke was

that even if

> she sat on her hands, they would still be moving!).

I am slowly becoming like your audiologist; I even sign to co-

workers sometimes who have nothing to do with deafness or hearing

loss (I work for DoD).

For us, if the SLP we worked with did NOT sign, that would not have

been a good match either. Hayley worked with one SLP at school who

did not sign - so she did " ok " with her and then she worked with a

wonderful woman in Thousand Oaks, CA, who did and does (and adapts

her methods depending on the child - for example, one boy was

implanted since the age of 2; she no longer signs with him; one girl

is a Deaf child of Deaf parents, so she does sign with her. Writing

this, it dawns on me how fortunate we were to have her.

That was a case where

> it just was not a good match, for many reasons. At Children's

Hospital,

> where we go for regular hearing evaluations, there are several

audiologists

> who just can't understand why a family would not choose to sign.

As a

> result, they tend to see families who have chosen ASL or TC as

their method.

>