Hearing testing, FM, and breakfast

Thursday we journeyed 3 hours back to Chapel Hill for new hearing testing and to pick up Olivia's FM system. She did great during testing in the booth and our audiologist was able to get a complete audiogram. Her hearing is staying stable and I am so thankful to God. I always breathe a sigh of relief when we compare the last two audiograms and they look the same!

We also got to pick up Olivia's new FM system! The downside is that it added a little bulk and weight to her hearing aids, but it's well worth it in my opinion and Olivia hasn't seemed to mind . We knew as an infant that sometime after her 1st birthday this would be an option. Because of the wonderful resources for children with hearing loss in our state we were able to get help offsetting the cost which is $5000.00!

 For those of you who don't know what a FM system is, basically it transmits sound directly from the microphone (which I wear) to the receivers (which are connected on the bottom of Olivia's hearing aids). She's already loving it and use more words. Yesterday, she was in the kitchen playing in her cup cabinet and I was in the living room.. I was able to say, "Oh, you are playing with the cups" and she heard it directly into her hearing aids, bypassing all the environmental noise.. aka.. Eli. She responded "cup" with a perfect /k/ sound!

The FM will be great to use in a noisy restaurant where typically she would have trouble hearing me even with her hearing aids in.  I'm sure we will be using it at the park as well... when she walks away from me I can call her name and she will hear it loud and clear. The car is another great place to use her FM. Car rides have been challenging because the road noise it makes it difficult for Olivia to hear me or hear her DVD. So on the way home, we turned on her FM and plugged the auxiliary cable from her DVD into the box and ta da... She loved hearing Sophia the First amplified right into her little ears. Another big perk is when she goes to pre-school or elementary school, her teacher can wear the microphone and Olivia won't miss any instruction!

Friday morning I was asked to invite family and friends and share my story at a breakfast hosted by BEGINNINGS.  BEGINNINGS is a non-profit organization provided to help parents of children with hearing impairment, by providing recourses and information. The breakfast was at 7:00 am in Asheville (which is a 45 minute drive) so it was tough finding anyone crazy enough who wanted to drive to Asheville that early. Thankfully we had some sweet friends and family that volunteered! Josh fussed at me on the way up and said for me not to volunteer for anymore 7:00 breakfasts! I had no idea what I was going to say until I got up there (like usual!) but Josh said he was proud of me so it must of gone okay.

I've also been asked to be a support parent for hearing loss, so I attended a training on Sunday afternoon. I feel that God has blessed me tremendously by giving me knowledge about hearing loss and language development and I want to be a blessing to others. Early identification, amplification and intervention is the key. The two other parents at our meeting shared their story about how their pediatrician brushed their concerns away, an audiologist didn't do correct testing, referrals were not made and how this has negatively impacted their children. Because a professional dropped the ball and parents didn't have accurate information, their children weren't amplified until age 2 and the time for critical language development was missed. I want to help other parents going through a similar situation to make sure their child doesn't fall through the cracks and can benefit from being amplified at an early age.

At the mall before our appointment

Playing in the grass

Oliva's hearing aids with the FM receivers on the bottom. You can see where they made her aids longer.