I Can Hear You, I Can Hear Me

One of the really amazing things about Rori's school here in Utah is she has lots of access to the school's audiologist.  Finding an audiologist that was familiar with kids and willing to really focus on Rori was a real issue for us in Vegas.  The only services we have really felt confident in so far came when we traveled to Los Angeles to the John Tracy Clinic.  The problem there though was they were only really able to evaluate and test Rori as they didn't have the access to the software for her brand of hearing aids.  Plus she really needed someone local that could continually be monitoring and adjusting her hearing aids. 

So, it has been such a massive relief to already be in such close contact with the audiologist here.  I spoke with her on the phone on the first week of school for about an hour going over Rori's long and often frustrating history and I was immediately impressed.  She had us come in that Friday and she spent about 2 1/2 hours testing Rori, adjusting her molds, etc.  It was something we have never experienced to that level before.  What is crazy about hearing evaluations is it is so archaic.  Rori spent over an hour in the sound booth.  Every time she heard the bird chirp she was to respond.  Good places make it a more fun game for a kid, but what five year old really has the patience to do that for an hour.  Rori did great though and we all felt like they got some really good results out of it.  Hopefully someday soon technology will get better.

Last week the audiologist came in to Rori's classroom a few times and altered the hearing aids even more based on those results.  Again, it is all about the fine tuning, testing, finding the right hearing aids for the kind of loss, and adjusting over and over.  It is so great that she is so accessible and brings the services right to the kids in the classroom.  It is a work in progress and it is SO AMAZING to have someone focusing and really trying to get it right.  I also LOVE that she is communicating with me through phone calls and email on a regular basis.  Even better is the fact that she copies Rori's teacher and Auditory Verbal Therapist so they can all work together as a team.  Hooray!!! 

Last Friday she called and told me about the adjustments she had made that day.  She said she had really raised the high frequency level some and was curious to see how Rori did with it over the weekend.  About 10 minutes after we hung up I got Zuri up from her afternoon nap since we had to get to the airport and Rori went over and gave her a big hug.  Then she said:

 "Zuri listen to this.  Shhhh.  Can you hear that?"

We got in the car and the whole rest of the ride I could Rori in the back repeating that "SHHH' sound to herself at different volumes.  At one point I asked her about it and then made the sound myself.  She excitedly responded with a giggle:

"I can hear you, I can hear me".

Needless to say there were some tears on my part as we drove along.  It made me think that this might have been the first time that she was really hearing that sound.  Living in two places as a family is hard, but it is for moments like that that we are doing this.  We will keep working and trying to figure out how to give Rori the most access to various sounds.  For once it feels like we have someone who knows what they are doing helping us though.  Again tears of relief.