Naida III eventually

     Yesterday we had the appointment with the audiologist to see if Naida S V could work with Prisha.As we had tried it on, Prisha was not happy with it an had taken it off the very same day.We thought we could see if there was any possibility of still making it still work.Prisha was under stress already and she told us to tell Ms.W that she did not want to change her Naida III and if she really wanted, she could give it to her and Prisha would use it on the week ends !!! We smiled at her innocence and assured her, she would be given the aids she was happy and comfortable with. She looked relieved but I could see her eyes still looking doubtful.
    We discussed and Ms.W said there was nothing more she could do and it would be better that we stuck with Naida III as Prisha was happy with that and see how things go. The next aids are now 4 years away. So we came back with mixed feelings.Her aided audiogram shows average 30db and at 8K it shows sudden loss of 10db more,we are wondering about that one. We plan to get another audiogram in 2 weeks when she is more fresh and more attentive.I am hoping she gets the best aided audiogram, as her 1st one was done with these aids on 15th October 2010 and it showed 25 db average.Am surprised at the difference as her unaided is still the same and so her hearing loss hasn't deteriorated. Sometimes these things just make you so vulnerable and insecure.
    At the school her teacher is very happy with her work.She says she is very attentive, listening well and is 100 % into the subject. But she is still wondering if she is getting everything as Prisha hasn't been asking for any extra help.They are still getting to know each other and so hoping it would work better as the year goes by. I have requested her to ask her now and then if Prisha has understood all that she speaks and have asked Prisha too to ask Mrs.O if she does not get something too. Her concern is that prisha is too dependent on her partner and if she finds it too much ,she may need to give her a new one to break so much dependence.I trust her judgment and asked her to do what she thought was best for Prisha.Sometimes it works best that way.
    meanwhile I have started to volunteer at school for art,lunch room and also mentoring.Its a great way to understand the school and keep myself busy too. Hoping this year has a fantastic ending.

Trial of Niada S UP V

Prisha's list of complaints for her new hearing aids !!

       Since we were still hung on more clarity with Prisha's hearing aids, Geers called the Phonak people and they suggested we try the new range of the Naida S series.It is more advanced and so we decided to go ahead and try them.We put them on and Prisha was very happy as they were clearer and she tested for an audiogram and we realized her readings were 10% better. We got them home and she was very hassled as she found she had many issues.
1. She found them softer- as it has more channels,16 nos, the sounds are softer and she was straining to hear. A big let down.
2. She found some whoom sounds- guess it was the zoom working,was very uncomfortable with those sounds.
3. She could not hear too well when someone called her from behind- we cannot ignore the sounds coming from behind,danger could be anywhere.
4. She found too many confusing sounds as if many spoke at the same time around her- the zoom was confused probably.
    After wearing it for 5 hours that evening, she just refused to have them on the next day.So we are now waiting for an appointment to see if the zooms can be switched off, made some more adjustments or maybe use Naida S UP III which has fewer channels giving more sharpness where she is able to differentiate the sounds better.  Sometimes you feel so helpless when you are ready to give the best technology to your child , but it does not work for them.

Latest on Phonak update

  We have been to the audiologist this Thursday and we had the appointment with the technician from Phonak to help us the issues of Naida III and Naida IX.He explained that IX has many advanced functions which are not usable by child .All the features they interfere with each other which are too advanced and she will not be able to train to its uses but the issue of low amplification still remains with IX.And he felt III should be better for her too.But then he came up with another input.Naida .It has come with Naida S III.It processes more data.And has many more features and benefits over Naida III.Since we are still in the trial period of 3 months,the technician has suggested we try the Naida S III and V to see if it helps Prisha more.We are so excited of having hear much better with the the latest from Naida S III.The indent would soon be done and request to deliver is also to be sent.We would soon hear from them.I hope we are able to pin point the trouble we still face with her hearing.Though she is hearing better but we do face problems of immense background sounds despite the sound suppression being on.We do face it many times.We were away on a holiday to Switzerland and to tulip gardens in Amsterdam and Prisha could hardly hear anything in the car while we drove and also in open places where there was excessive background sounds.We are keeping our fingers crossed for early possessing of paper work and a call soon by Mrs.Wiesle.We really appreciate all that she is doing for us to make sure our little girl hears better.

http://www.phonak.com/de/b2c/de/products/hearing_instruments/naida-s/overview.html

http://www.phonak.com/content/dam/phonak/b2b/C_M_tools/Hearing_Instruments/Naida_S/Documents/02-gb/Flyer_BtC_Naida_S_III_GB_V1.00.pdf

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!!!

Prisha has new hearing aids

At the portfolio day in school

Good work done Prisha,we are proud of you

   I needed to do this post long back.But was waiting do just see the outcome and not feel too pleased at the beginning.The audiologist at Geers had told us she would try new hearing aids Naida III from Phonak in the left ear to help her hear better. Mrs Zellhorst had already increased her hearing capacity to maximum with the Siemens Artis but she needed to change and do better with her hearing.But when we reached there she said (I too was of the same opinion) she would like to change for both ears as the same group hearing aids make for better hearing.So we had Naida III for both years, which are capable of compressing high frequency sounds into low frequency range.So they do not miss out anything and are great for the hearing loss.
   So 15th of October it was , and what a day!! Prisha was given new hearing aids, molds and tubes and they were already tuned to the required levels.The moment we switched them on, prisha just opened her eyes wide.She looked a bit shocked if I could say so.We asked her how they were, she said good. Then we started her puretone test.She started to respond so well slowly that Mrs.Z too looked amazed.She signalled my husband to show no response on his face as that can affect the way the kids respond too.I could see with the corner of my eye, how happy and emotional they looked.I could see their eyes slowly turning misty.After the test, she looked so happy and proud and I loved the fact that Mrs.Z was so involved that she seemed a part of our happiness.We love you Mrs.Z!! She tuned it so well that her aided audiogram was at 20db!!!!Prisha was actually hearing such a vast spectrum and that too without our being loud! It was 1st time in her entire hearing age! We all had tears which we tried to hide.Prisha too smiled shyly and said she was hearing very well with the new aids.On the way home she was so tired and wanted to sleep in the car.She started to complain to us that she couldn't sleep as the sound of rain was disturbing her! We were so happy at this complain and just enjoyed that moment.Next few days we started to observe her and we need actually not strain our voices. Which was such a relief for us.I then realized that just because I was loud and so focused on her speech and language , she was able to pick it up inspite of the low amplification.I will follow up on it and will not rest till I question my audiologist back in India.Was it done on purpose, so that out of frustration I would consider CI , which has been a case in India with many?I would take this up seriously.
   We have had to many changes since then, the mold was giving trouble and we went to correct it and small changes with the gains.And then we had a set back, Mrs.Z fell sick and has to go through a surgery and may not able to come to work this year. We have been praying for her health.She is such a lovely person and kids love her and so do we!
   Prisha has been hearing pretty well in class.The teacher at school are happy and say she is very attentive.We too worked hard at home to put what she had lost in so many years.She had issues in school as he wasn't hearing enough and plus concepts being new, accent to deal with and to top it our laid back attitude for 4 months in our transition here, took a toll on her language.We have been working on her slowly and steadily last 6-8 weeks and are seeing results.She is reading, writing and using new vocabulary.I had kind words pouring in from the German teacher,Art teacher,Drama teacher, where they told me she was very focused, attentive, good eye contact, good concentration and they had no issues with her.Which was great for us.We also had her class portfolio last week and we saw her work.Her maths was new to us and so we could not do any support from home, but in her unit of inquiry, we saw a huge change.Her weekend news was good to see as we revised that from home.There was a page in the beginning, where she could not say a word and the teacher just about could not make her a thing, to her relating and teacher writing out and she copying, to her copying from the board to now she writing the whole week end news by herself! To add to it , her drama teacher came in to us and gave such a positive feedback.She said prisha is a beautiful child and she gives undivided attention,quick response to actions and vocals.She was skeptical about her response initially when she knew about her impairment.But she is thrilled at the way prisha follows all instructions spot on and is very expressive with herself and she told us we must continue what we are doing with her.That was great news after the very very depressing news from school 6-8 weeks ago.From rock bottom, we had climbed up.
   Yesterday was her parent teacher conference.We were going with not too much great feedback from the school.We were surprised, as the teacher gave a great feedback. She said, prisha was very attentive, caring,happy child who loves coming to school ,extremely hard working (who would know it better than us) ,followed all instructions and had made a huge leap in her understanding and comprehension and literacy skills.She said we needed to now just fill the gaps here and there and work on her being able to work on her being able to express herself in her own words and longer sentences.She needed to able to summarize the stories in her own words and sequences.She gave us tips on that and she also agreed to meet me every 2 weeks to give me a feedback and things to work on her which was fantastic.She also said she was willing to give Prisha the required push too and help us reach our goal, which is total integration by next June.She also told us that, a speech therapist comes to class everyday for 15 mins to help Prisha understand where required and if she felt she needed more focused work,Mrs.K took her separately in another class alone.We have now all agreed to work in better co-ordination with each other. I am very pleased with my meeting yesterday and hope to keep climbing up from the rock bottom that we had hit 6-8 weeks ago.So, we "Keep Walking".