Chance had his second appointment to adjust his new implant today. All went well and again Chance hardly ever said that the implant was too loud during adjustments. I don't know if the Audiologist believes Chance that it is not too loud more often, but we are keeping an eye on Chance to see how he does. Since our last visit, Chance has never told us that his implant is too loud. He just goes on with life as usual. In fact, the other night, Chance who usually hands us his implant as he heads off to bed, told me that he wanted to keep both of them on. So I just went and took them off after Chance was asleep.
One thing that Chance still struggles with is hearing on our regular phone. When grandparents call, they can call on the cell phone, but I am realizing that we have an issue with Chance calling to tell me where he is.
Chance is branching out in the neighborhood, which is really good considering that the two boys he regularly plays with are still quite fickle sometimes. He has been playing with some of the other boys in the neighborhood. The problem comes in the fact that the other boys live around the corner, and since I can not just look out to see Chance ,I told him that he needs to call and tell me where he is. We practiced today what should happen when Chance calls me from a friend’s house. I had him tell me what our phone number is, and then he wanted me to review how to dial our number. So I showed him that he would dial, the phone would ring, I would say "hello", and then he would tell me "Mom, I am at ------‘s house." Chance knows all of this, but he has not called on the phone as he has not been able to hear what is said that well. Our new cell phones allow him to hear but even our old cell phones caused issues. After our little review session, Chance got a big smile on his face and he left.
Sure enough, about 5 minutes later the phone rang. We have caller I.D. so I figured it must be Chance calling from his friend’s house. Chance did a great job of remembering to call and tell me when he goes inside someone’s house. However, I don’t know how much Chance actually heard.. He went through the routine that we practiced though. I picked up the phone and said “hello”. There was a long pause and I could hear an adult in the background telling Chance that I was on the phone now. I said “hello” a few more times, then Chance said “I am Cory’s house.” I said “ok” knowing that saying any more was not going to be heard anyway probably. Chance sounded skeptical but he kept going.”My other friend was not home.” I said “ok, have fun at Cory’s.” Then Chance’s doubtful voice said goodbye. Chance remembered the routine, but I don’t think he heard me hardly at all.
Over dinner, we asked Chance if he had heard me on the phone. He said yes. Then we asked him if he heard a lot or a little bit. He said a lot. But when we asked him if we needed to get a phone that helped him hear better, or just keep our old one, Chance enthusiastically told us that we needed one that helped him hear more.
This could be a challenge. What do we do, give Chance a cell phone? I can just see Chance’s older brother’s face as we tell him that we are giving Chance a cell phone. Plus, what kind of shape could a cell phone be in that belonged to a 6 year old? Not to mention that the phone would most likely be dropped in the irrigation canal, fall off of trampolines, skid off of bikes and generally get lost? I don’t want Chance to get discouraged and quit calling though because I need to know if he goes into someone house and where he is. Hmmmmm.
Some phones cause interference with the implant while others are fine. Each neighbors phone is going to be different. And we can’t very well go demand that they all go buy new phones that Chance can hear out of. So, hmmmmmm. This branching out thing is creating some interesting challenges
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