Chance, his dad and his brother all headed to a football game tonight. Our family won two tickets at the the A.G. Bell Speech Fair. Both Chance and his brother wanted to go so we just bought an extra tickets and they were off.
My husband and I actually switched the kids in Salt Lake City. I was in Salt Lake for a conference all day, so Chance and the rest of the family just met me there. I drove the boys to the arena, dropped them off at the corner, and then headed up the block.
It was not until I was halfway through my right hand turn and coming around the side of the police cruiser parked on the side of the road that I realized that there was a sign indicating no right hand turn. The situation did not look to be going in my favor. As I headed up the block, I kept looking back expecting to see flashing lights at any moment.
Then suddenly, someone was knocking - no, banging - on the passenger side of the van when I stopped at the intersection. At this point, I figured if I was going to be car jacked, maybe I did want the policeman to be heading my way.
Alas, it was not a criminal wanting my car, but my oldest son panting and asking for implant batteries (just in case...). He must have sprinted the entire block to reach me before the light went green and I started to move.
I had to wonder as I pulled away if Chance needed his implants for an indoor football game. The decibel level must be staggering inside the arena. (Dad's note: Yes, it was!)
Chance actually told us a few weeks ago that if we stand right next to him and yell, he can hear us when his implants are off. I don't know if he can make out any of the words if we yell next to him or if he can just hear the sound of our voices. This came about after Chance's younger brother let out a howl in the tub and Chance said," I heard that! I can hear you if you yell next to me."
So when all is said and done, maybe Chance's cochlea will be in better condition than the rest of us who can hear. After all, after his MRI the doctor told me that his cochlea looked perfect.
If things get really loud in the arena, Chance can just turn his implants off. The hearing people in the room will just lose hearing. (Dad's note: Chance's brother and I both wore earplugs, but Chance said it wasn't too loud for him - I wonder if the program he was on accounted for extra loud sounds?)
2 comments:
Next time Chance gets mapped, ask for an autosensitivity map. That will make it so much easier for him in extremely loud situations. He'll be able to hear enough to converse, and some of what's around him at a very manageable level!
Hadley says she can hear things sometimes, too, although all of the sound booth tests indicate otherwise. I wonder if it's vibrations and since all of the sound they have ever experienced is through electric stimulus, it's not too different from the vibrations and they perceive them as the same thing. I'll never really know, though, right? But I'm glad that Chance it doing so well. It sounds like he's really made tremendous progress this year. So much fun!
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