One vs Two

Over the past week we have progressed through the final stages of our Cochlear Implant selection... 

Jaime underwent her final hearing test to confirm her level of hearing loss- it has been confirmed that Jaime's hearing loss is not fluctuating, she remains profoundly deaf on her left side (>95db) and has a severe level of hearing loss on her right (>85db). 

At the completion of testing I sat down with the audiologist to discuss what these results meant for Jaime... with her left ear practically incapable of receiving any usable sound an implant is automatically a yes, her right ear however remains borderline. Later that day the specialists at the implant clinic would have a meeting to determine if we would be preparing for single or bilateral implants. I was prepared for either answer...

We continued our week as normal, completing our first full term of swimming lessons, attending playgroup and taking the usual joy in watching Jaime's ever growing list of achievements... crawling, standing and scooting.

Then I received a phone call I had not expected... we were due to meet with our surgeon in a few days time and I had expected that he would reveal to me the clinical decision on Jaime's implants... it was now that I felt a slight panic... the decision had been made, Jaime was recommended for One implant, however, if we felt strongly about bilateral implantation this option was still open to us. 

After hearing this news I suddenly felt a great pressure, although it seems simple enough to follow the teams decision to proceed with one implant, we had been given the rare opportunity to choose two. There are many families out there that have had to fight for a second implant for their child, many more that have been unsuccessful despite feeling that this would be the best outcome for their child.

That night my husband and I had a long discussion about what we felt would be best for Jaime, it is not easy making a decision that will impact on the rest of your child's life. If we chose the second implant, there was no turning back, any remaining natural hearing would be destroyed and she would solely rely on the implant. If we chose not to implant and she did not progress as well as hoped with her natural hearing then we had lost a window of opportunity, did we wait for the possibility of medical advances or new technology, or proceed with the tried and tested technology available to us.

With our experience in deafness restricted to our own daughter I began making phone calls, in our minds we had made our decision, however I wanted to hear some affirmation that we were making the right choice... although unable to give any formal advice, I felt comforted in our decision after speaking with the staff at Taralye. 

Ultimately my husband and I know our daughter best, we are with her every day, day in and day out, we see her progress and when there is a lack of it, and in the last two months we have seen Jaime's verbal progress cease, we felt that the benefits Jaime would get from Cochlear implant outweighed the benefits of preserving her remaining hearing and waiting for technological or medical advances.

A few days later and the surgical consent forms are signed- Jaime will undergo surgery to receive bilateral Cochlear implants. 

Finally our journey towards giving Jaime the gift of hearing feels real... before August arrives Jaime will have completed her first big step to a much louder world!