Meeting with Phonak

    After an unsuccessful trial and error with Naida IX with online help from phonak people on phone last week, we have another one tomorrow where the person from Phonak is coming down to see why IX is not working out.Hope it does and we find better hearing solutions for Prisha.

Its final now

     After trying out Naida III last 10 days, we have been observing her very closely.I realized that she was responding better behind closed doors, from the child seat in the car (not looking at my face),responding from downstairs while I was upstairs and from the other room.I was straining lesser and she is talking softer.But we wanted to be doubly sure before we narrowed down to our choice.Yesterday to be really sure about my choice, I decided to do a bit of my testing with both Naida III and naida IX.I covered my face and asked Prisha to just echo what I read to her.I am sure of her response as she has been well trained to replicate what she hears.I sat next to her and covered my face and read sentences and asked to her to repeat what she heard.And then I asked my son to say things from the room about 15 feet away from her.She could not see him.I was amazed that she made fewer mistakes with Naida III ! I ignored the mistakes like high frequency alphabets like C S F but she responded to numbers, alphabets and little sentences too.She also told me while travelling in the tram that she heard the sounds of tram much louder.The airport is close to our house and the other day she said she heard the sounds of the plane taking off above us very loudly.I asked if it was unbearable, to which she said no.
   Armed with these observations, we headed towards Mrs.W and gave her the update.She has cross checked with Phonak and they too seem to have no clue as to why III should be giving better sounds than IX. She changed a few frequencies and did the audiogram but there was no change.She made Naida IX settings and functions almost as close as III and realized, that nothing made much of a difference.She said she saw no value in our going and investing in a higher end aid when it was not helping her much and so this is it.We have now decided to stay on Naida III and we seem to be happy.We do have the benefit of 3 months when we can still decide to change the aids.I don't think that would be necessary but it still gives comfort.So hopefully we do not have to worry and this matter is now rested. 

Naida III or IX

     We have been using Naida IX last 2 months and started to realize that we were all talking louder and there are a lot of mistakes she was making in her speech.We keep postponing it to maybe getting used to or just her being tired.But last week got us on our toes when during a conversation my husband asked Prisha if she knew her name and she said no.We asked her 5 times each time a bit louder and she said no.It was also from quite close too.So we surprised and asked her a bit crossly and she said , she knew her name but we were talking about "game" and she did not know it.I was agitated at this and took the appointment for her with the audiologist.She too felt it was not possible that she could make such mistakes with Naida IX.So I asked her to take the puretone audiogram with both of them.She is trained well to respond to sounds and I knew she would give accurate results even though the change is too quick.
    Prisha was asked and given instructions and we started.The IX gave her responses at 35db and when we put the III her responses are at 20-25!!Why is there such a huge difference?Mrs.W was surprised too.When we had switched to IX and had taken her audiogram for it , it was at 35 and she had felt that maybe the responses of III at 25 was a shear fluke.But now she too saw that Prisha is very accurate with responses.She made some manual changes in IX in the channels , as normally the HA programmes itself automatically.But the responses showed just a 5db difference.So now she is calling up Phonak and asking them about this issue.I have a feeling we may have to stick to III.We are now using III to see her responses at home with them.She does tell me they are louder and clearer!!?? Am confused as hell and just hope we get the best HA for her.Have been so caught up with various things that my blog has been sitting on the back burner.And Mrs.Hudlikar did tell me that there are people who are a bit upset about me not being regular,am sorry about it but a small comment and query left behind by them would surely motivate me to write more appropriately and regularly.Itna to banta hai!!!

The big Indian wedding

Prisha dancing on stage

   We went to India on the 4th of December for an engagement and a wedding of 2 of Prisha's cousins. Well what a jam packed programme and what fun we had.Prisha enjoyed every bit of it.She danced and sang on the musical night and was dressed at her best in all the Indian attires.Thanks to her aunt Nisha who visited us, she was taken care of while I did all the things that needed my help.The 3 days of celebrations were something that she thoroughly enjoyed and participated in.She was the centre of attraction with all spirit and many reltives we have not seen in many years were very happy to hear her talk and respond to sounds like normal kids. We did loads of compliments and we did feel how much efforts have gone in to get her where she is with all sorts of wrong amplifications and advise in India from our audiologist, our job was tougher.
We did meet an ENT specialist and we were told how well she was talking and it was not there so with other kids.he did talk about CI and related issues and I would have loved to have detailed chat with him about it and about the conditions of speech therapy and lack of awareness etc in India, but time fell short.We were there just for 5 days and with all the celebrations, I missed on that.All in all a lovely trip!Posting some pictures of her.
    I have also noticed that Naida IX has been great for her but she may need more amplification as there are times she does not hear things and needs repetition.We heard her hearing aids and feel we need to increase her loudness for her to hear better.So we have an appointment tomorrow morning where she gets her new mold for the left ear {needed change again as sound was leaking}, lets see what changes and fine tuning are needed.She definitely has suffered long term due to bad amplification in India, we need to work harder on her speech .She is alright with regular day to day speech but finds it difficult to express anything new in her own words. She halts and her intonation is forceful and it worries me.She is very spirited and her speech therapist in school loves that fact that she takes all the corrections very well and never gives up.We need to find a good English speaking speech therapist outside the school too.Despite our efforts, we have not been able to find one here.Speech therapy in English is quite a weak area in Germany.So we have to work on her all by ourselves, following our instinct.She has made huge improvement in that last 4 months here but the graph has to be steeper still.We are not giving up but are working full force.Loads of reading ,writing, corrections and input in all ways possible.We are here at home for our winter break and so we hope to make the most of the 17 days and make sure that when she is back at school, she is more clear.The school too is finally realizing our efforts after their initial resistance to our working with her.By next June we definitely hope to see her at par with the curriculum {the IB curriculum was difficult for her to follow with its open ended style, where she had to express herself more}.Keeping our fingers crossed.

Riding the horse to the bride's home

Upgraded to Naida IX

   Today was the day for hearing aids trial of Naida IX.Prisha had her ballet and she did not want to miss it.Requested her teacher for a special favour.She was put with the youbger group at 4 pm and so we could meet the new audiologist Mrs.Wiesel who is looking after Prisha as Mrs. Z is still sick and would be in the hospital for surgery.Mrs.W is again a lovely person and gave us loads of information and we love it that Geers really looks after their customers and each person working is so sincere.We love them all!
  Out came the new HA with Fm attachments.Looked very big and since they were already set to her required needs, Prisha wore her new NAIDA IX.She loved them instantly.She said she hears more clearly and loudly and when I asked her if she wants the ones she wore before, she refused! That means there was a huge difference.Mrs.W told me that this model has 20 channels as opposed to the 6 in Naida III and so were tuned for finer details and it would help Prisha make the details in the consonants specially. They are also great for focusing on speech more and also they make listening to music also possible.We are happy.We tested her and she was able to make out all the differences and is happy with them.We tried the FM , she said it was wonderful and liked it that she could listen to us from so far.But we do have issues and our reservations on the FM system.Like Prisha's teacher pointed out, that she is always walking around in the class and is talking to each child and it would interfere with Prisha's concentration when she is talking and helping other kids.She told us Prisha was listening very well in class and she did not feel the need to wear an FM but she is willing to try.We are going to India for a week for a wedding and after we are back she would go to class with and FM.We would like prisha to have the FM when we are in the wedding as the 4 days are going to be full of celebration, music and dancing to bollywood songs and running around in public places and  it would help Prisha to be in touch with us always. New journey again and lets see how we are able to work on this new path.

Naida IX

   Prisha's hearing has definitely improved in the last 1 month with Naida III.This has 6 channels.She is picking up new sounds and tsking corrections much better and we too have to stress our voices lesser.So we thought that we should try out Naida IX which has 20 channels and can be fine tuned much more for clarity.Till now under insurance the amount is covered by insurance and so the FM and these are covered.But we decided to pay up the difference and upgrade so that she can get better hearing.We ordered them and today we got the news and we are going on Monday to try them out.We are really excited.We want to see how well she performs with the 20 channels and how she likes them and if she can make out the difference, it would definitely affect her speech and we would decide to keep Naida IX.The FM system too is arriving soon.We asked the class teacher, she ready to try it out but does not feel necessary to have it as all the teachers feel that Prisha is very attentive, gives eye contact and understands things told her.So we shall still keep it with us so that we can use it in public places specially when we are in India for the wedding on 8th Dec of her cousin.It a whole new journey.We still haven't been able to get any English speaking speech therapist in Germany.Next week we do have an appointment with a center who is ready to interact with Prisha and see what we can expect.So next week , our another round of appointments and trials.Look forward to some more positives.