The Lesser Evil

When Cooper was (mis)diagnosed with a moderate hearing loss in both ears at age 2 I thought the world was ending. Dramatic…YES. But, I am an honest person and that is how I felt. I kept picturing him getting teased. He had just turned 2 and it was the beginning of the bad. (although I didn’t know that at the time.) I had a new baby and I was fighting the baby blues and nursing and I was told that my 2 year old would never hear birds chirp or…

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Your Son Can Hear It All

 I took Cooper alone to meet with the School Audiologist. I didn’t want Sawyer or my husband with us. I wanted it to be quick and painless. I wanted it to be easy. For the millionth time I prayed that life with Cooper could be easier. Why did it always have to be so hard? The School Audiologist met us at the Scottish Rite Clinic. This place is amazing. They specialize in working with children that have speech and language disorders. It was calm. I liked calm. I think angels…

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Hearing Aids Are Expensive

Hearing aids are expensive. I will add that at the time we had really good insurance and hearing aids are still expensive. We had to bring a check for $1600 when we picked them up. That is a lot of money to us. So we were pretty stressed out putting the hearing aids on our wild toddler with sensory issues. How the hell is this going to work? I want to add a little info here about the hearing aids themselves. While we waited to get the hearing aids I googled…

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Stop Talking to Your Child

During the two-week wait for the hearing aids our lives got turned upside down. I call this the beginning of the end. The school district came to our house and introduced us to a deaf teacher. This person would help Cooper. She was very, very nice. I actually really like her. We also met a woman from Minnesota Hands and Voices. Also, very nice. But as this progressed we started hearing weird things. Here were the worst two: You may want to stop speaking to Cooper and switch completely to…

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Hearing Aid Fitting

I remember the day that Cooper got his hearing aids so well. I felt sick to my stomach. I want to try and put into words how I felt. First, I didn’t believe that he needed them. I just couldn’t see it. And trust me, I tried. I tried because a hearing loss would explain why he wasn’t talking. Simple, right. He can’t hear so he can’t talk. Get the hearing aids and he will start talking. Since I am obsessed with research and information, I started googling. I scoured…

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Tube Surgery From Hell

So that title might be a little extreme. But Cooper’s tube surgery was one of the worst experiences of my life. First, the days before the surgery, Cooper stopped sleeping. He stopped playing with his toys. He stopped interacting. He turned into a complete crying, whiny mess. He was a different kid. The only thing he would do was watch cartoons on PBS. I would try and get him to set up his train or read or engage him in activities that he liked and it wouldn’t work. My husband…

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