that is what Derek is doing. He prefers to not wear the hearing aids, can’t say I blame him, there still seems to be quite a bit of feedback. I did arrange with him that he MUST wear them to school and when he is out front riding his bike, with an adult supervising. He gets about 4-6 hours of wearing each day, give or take. They say he will get used to it however I feel like he will but I will continue to be positive and hope he comes around. He is doing better in school already and in the mornings, before we put his hearing aids in, I hear him singing in his room. I think his self-confidence is building. I’ll keep you posted but for now weare in a wait and see place hoping he takes to these hearing aids and wants to wear them, otherwise we will be taking some American Sign Language courses to start off 2009.
Archive for November, 2008
And The Silence Has Been Lifted (It seems that way)
Cast for the hearing aid mold
Yesterday Derek received his first pair of hearing aids. Steve and I have been working hard at building this event up for Derek, making it positive and a good thing. In the long run it is a good thing, Derek can hear. After the audiologist first put them in, his eyes filled with tears and he looked confused. The she asked him if he could hear better, he nodded yes. He was still frozen solid she then asked him if it sounded really loud and he nodded again, his eyes getting even more watery. Then Monet let out the highest pitched shriek and he bust up laughing and she kept doing it over and over – I was trying so hard to quiet her
Hearing aid from rear view
down my tears faded with his. Then last night he marched up to me telling me that he could hear his foot steps. After his shower while brushing his teeth he said “Mommy I hear the water coming out,” while pointing at the faucet. Life is new to him and things we hear every day and never really think about he is hearing “again for the first time.”
Hearing aid side view
is related to that surgery and a bit more of Derek’s life as a ”normal” child is taken away, while this surgeon lives well and probably never thinks of the little boy she nearly killed and NOW made deaf and escalated his kidney failure. Bitter? Why yes I am. She took many of the “normal” aspects from Derek and made life even more difficult for him, Derek will prosper, he will be a pillar of community, love and family. He is an extremely smart boy but unfortunately he will spend so much time proving himself because people will question his
Hearing aid from a front view
hearing rather than his ability and it as because of one arrogant person. I hope some day we cross paths again and I can really tell her what I think of her but until then I will fight to get Derek the eduction he deserves and fight the stigma people put on others with learning and physical handicaps. I will continue to make him strong and be able to stand on his own two feet but know he will always be loved.
Halloween 2008
We carved a pumpkin on Wednesday and then on Friday Steve took both kids trick-or-treating as I read my text book and handed out goodies to all of the “creatures” that stopped by…
