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Friday, September 19, 2008

How Chance hears in an underground mine...

On our way to the Cochlear Implant camp, we stumbled upon a little town that gave tours of a real gold mine. We figured this would be a fun learning experience for the kids so we pulled off and took the road less traveled. After winding up a dirt road, we reached the small opening that would lead us inside the mountain.

We had a brief orientation by a miner and then we were led into the tunnel. We were able to see mineral veins and follow them along the wall and ceilings of the cave. Chance found it quite interesting, but it soon became apparent that the acoustics in the cave made it very difficult for Chance to hear what was being said by our tour guide. We would walk along in the cave while the guide pointed out veins in the walls or talked about the mining process. The sound would echo off the cavernous walls and bounce all over the place. Everyone was very quiet while the guide spoke, but Chance just wasn't catching the bulk of what was said.

I tried to interpret what was being said by pulling Chance aside away from the group so that we didn't disturb the others in our tour. Chance got some information and was genuinely interested, he just could not hear as well as we would have liked.

There were parts where he got to see and touch things - like when the tour guide let him try to hammer a spike into the hard walls like miners used to do so that they could stick a piece of dynamite inside to blow a section of a wall out. Chance thought that was pretty cool.

He also got to feel the veins in the wall and see where the miners worked. And of course, there were the legs protruding out of the rock where a miner fell under an avalanche of rocks when he didn't follow safety procedures. Chance's eyes got huge and I soon had to explain that the legs were fake.

Chance got really excited when he realized that he got to pan for gold. He got his pan and headed into the stream seeking the precious little nuggets. He and his siblings found some small nuggets and entertained us with stories in the van about all of the things they were going to buy with their new found wealth.

I don't know if there is a setting on the implant that would have helped Chance hear better in the caves or not. There were many tunnels hooked together, and it was drafty. Sound just bounced all over the place. We actually talked to our audiologist when at our next visit about the mining experience and he suggested a setting we could try on the implant to see if that would improve the sound. Unfortunately, we have no immediate plans to go mining to test out any settings on the implant.

I guess this experience may dim any desires Chance may have been harboring about becoming a miner. He thinks the mine is cool, but he doesn't appreciate not being able to hear while in the mines.

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