Today I took Chance to the doctor. He has not been feeling well, and his symptoms have morphed each day into something new.
While we were at the doctor's office, he asked "what?" much more often than usual and I had to repeat things that people had said to him.
There was a medical intern that came in to look at Chance first before the doctor came in and I must say this guy was great. It is not uncommon for people who first see Chance and have no experience with deafness to ask me questions instead of Chance. This man sat down and asked Chance how he was feeling and asked him about his symptoms. Even when I had to repeat some of the questions to Chance, the intern kept focused on Chance and asked him more questions. It is good for Chance when people give him the opportunity to converse, and I feel a certain affection for people who don't see his implants as a barrier and are not scared to interact with him.
When we got to the pharmacy to fill the prescription, I told Chance that we were going to go inside but he had not heard me. It was just Chance and me, and I was wondering why Chance did not seem to be hearing as well as he usually does.
"Chance. are both or your implants working?" I asked him before we got out of the van.
"No." Chance replied simply as he rooted through his pocket for a sucker.
"Which one is not working?" I asked him.
'This one. The batteries are dead." He said pointing to his left ear.
I KNEW IT! 99% of the time when Chance is not responding like he usually does, it is because one of the implants has gone dead. We do not have as much of an occasion to experience this anymore, because Chance is really diligent about changing the batteries when they go dead .
I think that since we were at the doctor's office and he has not been feeling well, he just didn't mention that one of the implants was dead today. Usually Chance will just change the batteries out when they die. He knows where all of our stashes of batteries are. Or he'll at least ask me for the ones in my purse.
There is such a difference though in what he can hear! That second implant just really adds to Chance's overall ability to hear well.
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