GOOD NEWS

(phone pics)

We went to the doctor to get Matthew a preschool exam and kindergarten shots. While there I vented to the doctor about my distaste with Matthew's current audiologist and her concern with helping improve Matthew's quality of life. As in she has done nothing to try to help us figure out why he is deaf (other than he was born that way due to CMV as a fetus). She deemed him unaidable and kind of dropped us. So the doctor referred us to an ENT (ear, nose, throat surgeon) in Idaho Falls. He took a look at Matthew's files and said "have you ever heard of a BAHA? It would help Matthew hear great." Our old neighbors/friends the Jones' had a little girl matthew's age who had a BAHA, so it was vaguely familiar but I didn't know as much details as I would like so he referred me here to learn more. Basically it's just a device that mounts to a post inserted in the skull behind the ear, or is worn on a headband for children under 5, to transmit sound through the skull to the inner ear. Since Matthew's left ear's inner ear is perfect and it's a neural defect it would transmit sound across the head to the other ear. His would have to be possibly turned up louder, or one of the more intense models, but it would work. AND he would be able to eventually decipher directional sounds because those sounds coming from the left ear traveling through the skull would sound slightly different than going straight into the ear canal of the right ear. YAY!! The problem we have run into is whether we want Matthew to be a bionic boy and have a titanium tiny post inserted in his skull and what if we have the surgeries and then some better technology will come out in a couple of years. What we have decided is that we will probably go ahead and purchase a BAHA to be worn on the headband until Matthew is 8 or can decide for himself if he wants the surgery. His next appointment is in December. That gives us plenty of time to mull this over and keep praying about a decision. Until then thank goodness Matthew has never seemed to be intellectually effected by his hearing loss. Too bad a BAHA can't give him better balance too! We'll take anything we can get though!

We had a long wait in a hot office, so the kids made a playground out of the furniture. What could I do, I was bored too and watching them was entertaining! The wait was well worth it though for the seemingly simple help we were informed of.

They also spent a lot of time under this table as well as on top.