Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Two Ears Again

Nolan last week, when he was missing a hearing aid.

Today was a little busy: Vacation Bible School followed by a trip to Nolan's audiologist in Buffalo. A wonderful friend volunteered to take Matt on a little "field trip" to a local swimming pool with her kids while Nolan and I traipsed up to the hearing center. This was a wonderful turn of events: Matt didn't have to suffer through another four hours in the car, and I only had one child to attend to on the trip. Some friends are simply awesome!

We got his hearing aid back, and the report does show that there was some moisture damage. It is now repaired, and we have a warranty for 12 months on the aid. That is $250 well spent: much cheaper than purchasing a new hearing aid.

Of course, there was a bit of drama on the way home. Nolan ripped out the recently repaired hearing aid and declared that it was dead. I reached back for it, and sure enough, there was not a squeal of feedback to be heard. I turned it on and off a few times to no avail. I checked the filter on top of the microphone, taking it off and replacing it. No luck. I couldn't believe it!

I tried taking off the earmold, and the hearing aid squealed to life. To my great relief, Nolan's right ear had simply developed an impressive amount of hearing aid clogging wax. A simple solution, thank goodness, and something we'll have to check for since that ear has been unfettered by an earmold for about a month.

We won't have to see audiology until January or so, when Nolan will have another hearing test done. He's still on an every-six-month schedule since his hearing loss has fluctuated and changed over time (albeit at a very slow pace). Hopefully he'll be stable and we can move onto an every-twelve-months schedule.

5 comments:

xraevision said...

Ah, ear wax, the bane of my existence. It's an ongoing struggle for us to get X's wax removed. Well, we've only had it removed once and we're on the hunt for an ENT who will sedate him for the procedure. Both of his ear drums have been occluded for months on end, and I can't seem to get anyone to care. We're hoping the two audiologists on the CI team that we're seeing next week will help us.

Thanks for your continued support. Even though we've never met, I feel like I have a friend who understands what I go through, which sometimes gets me through the day.

Herding Grasshoppers said...

Oh yah, we've been there too with the ear wax. I buy those over-the-counter kits with drops and a bulb syringe, which Tate tolerated really well, but if Nolan has tubes in his ears that probably isn't a good idea.

One ENT we've visited has a tiny, tiny little tube that vacuums the wax out, easy peasy.

Hope you find something that works! And SO GLAD he's got both his ears back :D

Julie

rouchi6 said...

Thank goodness, he has both his ears back,nothing more exciting than that.
Just this morning Prisha said her aid wasn't working, on off n again, nothing,out came the mold an lo...... squeal!!Ear wax stuck in the tube!!I swear its never ending!!

leah said...

Ear wax can be so troublesome with hearing aids! The drops are not allowed with tubes, so I hope it isn't too impacted in there. Trips to the ENT are never fun, mostly because the wax removal process scares Nolan (they strap him down with a papoose board). We are SO grateful to have 2 ears again - and we're happy to have the FM system up and running again, too!

Joey Lynn Resciniti said...

That's a relief to be able to troubleshoot it on your own!