Caroline
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- Jan 8, 2005
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My name is Caroline, I am hearing and I have 4 Children the oldest three are all hearing, and Henry has unilateral hearing loss in his left ear and slightly reduced loss in his right ear.
Henry was born on the 27th March 2000, at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton, East Sussex. He was born at 26 weeks and remained in the Trevor Mann Baby Unit at the hospital for 6 weeks, before being transferred the SCBU at our local hospital in Eastbourne. While in hospital he was treated with gentamicin and vancamicin, and it is the gentamicin that is believed (by me and some of his health professionals to be the cause of his hearing problems). In September 2000 he had his first hearing test .
He has finally managed to get into the 25th centile on his weight chart, and isn’t far off on his height. I can actually but him boy’s clothes now and not just toddlers clothes. Not surprising when you see the amount he eats, more than his 7-year-old sister.
His health is improving, in the last year he has had his adenoids taken out, and grommets put in. Neither seems to have helped much, but at least the last anaesthetist to see him said she couldn’t believe he had ever had chronic lung disease, which is great to hear. He does still get breathless if you walk him to fast, and he also suddenly gets very tired.
I first became aware of his potential hearing loss when he was about 9 months, and Henry also failed 5 health visitor routine hearing tests, despite this I was told I was imagining his hearing loss. Eventually a health visitor did refer him to audiology who tested him twice, but could never get a good result from his left ear (they still struggle).
We moved to Yorkshire in September 2002, and after I battled with GP and HV, I managed to get Henry referred to Audiology again. Various things were tried to persuade me that there was nothing wrong, and that I was imagining it, despite Henry failing hearing tests constantly, in July this year he was given grommets, they actually seem to have made his hearing worse. Until in October this year when we saw a different consultant who announced that Henry was deaf in one ear and must have been since birth.
Henry has now had more tests done, and on Wednesday ((8th December) he had a mould done for his hearing aid, I don’t know what type he is getting, I forgot to ask.
Henry was fitted with a Hearing Aid on the 6th January, the day after he starts school full time. We have had a meeting with the lovely teacher from the local service for deaf and hearing-impaired children. He is Bilingual in as much as he can sign as well as he can speak. He also uses Makaton and can lip-read a little.
The good news is Henry has been discharged from The Paediatric consultant and the Ophthalmologist. He is still under the occupational therapist, the physiotherapist and speech therapy. And apart from two routine admissions to hospital Henry has only had one other emergency admission, when he had tonsillitis 2 years ago.
Sorry to ramble on.
Henry was born on the 27th March 2000, at the Royal Sussex Hospital in Brighton, East Sussex. He was born at 26 weeks and remained in the Trevor Mann Baby Unit at the hospital for 6 weeks, before being transferred the SCBU at our local hospital in Eastbourne. While in hospital he was treated with gentamicin and vancamicin, and it is the gentamicin that is believed (by me and some of his health professionals to be the cause of his hearing problems). In September 2000 he had his first hearing test .
He has finally managed to get into the 25th centile on his weight chart, and isn’t far off on his height. I can actually but him boy’s clothes now and not just toddlers clothes. Not surprising when you see the amount he eats, more than his 7-year-old sister.
His health is improving, in the last year he has had his adenoids taken out, and grommets put in. Neither seems to have helped much, but at least the last anaesthetist to see him said she couldn’t believe he had ever had chronic lung disease, which is great to hear. He does still get breathless if you walk him to fast, and he also suddenly gets very tired.
I first became aware of his potential hearing loss when he was about 9 months, and Henry also failed 5 health visitor routine hearing tests, despite this I was told I was imagining his hearing loss. Eventually a health visitor did refer him to audiology who tested him twice, but could never get a good result from his left ear (they still struggle).
We moved to Yorkshire in September 2002, and after I battled with GP and HV, I managed to get Henry referred to Audiology again. Various things were tried to persuade me that there was nothing wrong, and that I was imagining it, despite Henry failing hearing tests constantly, in July this year he was given grommets, they actually seem to have made his hearing worse. Until in October this year when we saw a different consultant who announced that Henry was deaf in one ear and must have been since birth.
Henry has now had more tests done, and on Wednesday ((8th December) he had a mould done for his hearing aid, I don’t know what type he is getting, I forgot to ask.
Henry was fitted with a Hearing Aid on the 6th January, the day after he starts school full time. We have had a meeting with the lovely teacher from the local service for deaf and hearing-impaired children. He is Bilingual in as much as he can sign as well as he can speak. He also uses Makaton and can lip-read a little.
The good news is Henry has been discharged from The Paediatric consultant and the Ophthalmologist. He is still under the occupational therapist, the physiotherapist and speech therapy. And apart from two routine admissions to hospital Henry has only had one other emergency admission, when he had tonsillitis 2 years ago.
Sorry to ramble on.
Welcome here!
