Patrick
Hi, let me introduce myself. My name is Kelly and
my husband is
Jonathan. We live in Pasadena, MD. We are owner operators of our
own
business. My husband drives and cooks on our mobile catering
truck while I
stay home, take care of the house, the kids and some prep work
for the lunch
wagon. We live on the water off of Rock Creek and love all kinds
of water
sports.
We have two terrific children, Kailyn who just turned 9 and
Patrick who is
almost 4 years old. I would like to tell you our on going story
of Patrick
and his hearing impairment.
Our wonderful son Patrick was born two weeks early on September
29th,
1996 at The Rebecca Clatonofff Pavilion in Annapolis. My labor
was induced
due to concerns of Toxemia (my blood pressure had become elevated
and I had
some swelling in my legs and feet). Patrick weighed in at 6lbs 1
oz and was
a precious new addition to our family. His then five year old
sister was
thrilled with "her" new baby.
Patrick was an easy baby, sleeping for five hour stints almost
immediately. During the first several weeks I would wake him to
feed him
because I was concerned about his weight. After his first few
pediatric
visits his Doctor assured me he was maintaining his 10th
percentile weight
curve so I let up and fed him more on demand. By 3 months he was
sleeping
through the night. What a nice difference from my first baby!
Somewhere between 12 and 15 months I started to become concerned
that
Patrick might have some hearing problems. He wasn't saying any
words and
oftentimes seemed unresponsive. My pediatrician again calmed my
fears by
assuring me that I was just comparing Patrick to my daughter
Kailyn, who had
always been very advanced. By 18 months, his Doctor finally
agreed that it
might be time to have him see an audiologist. We went to Greg
Wilson at
Audiology Associates. It was at this first appointment that we
found out
that Patrick had a hearing loss as well as clear fluid (uninfected)
behind
both his eardrums. We decided to have tubes put in as soon as
possible.
Also it was at this time we contacted AA County's Infants and
Toddlers
program to begin having Patrick evaluated to receive special
services.
By early June, Patrick had returned to Audiology Associates at
least
three times for more testing and this time with PE tubes in (no
conductive
hearing loss). After performing an Auditory Brainstem Evoked
Response
assessment it was suggested that he had a moderate to severe
hearing loss in
the right ear with a possible mild loss in the left. Hearing aids
were not
recommended because it was only a unilateral loss (one ear). They
recommended
testing Patrick again in 6 months.
After his developmental pediatric evaluation with Dr. Badawi,
through
Infants and Toddlers I was given a list of specialists that she
felt I should
take Patrick to, as to rule out rare medical conditions for his
delays. It
was a very stressful and scary time, not knowing what we might
find out.
What was wrong with our boy? Many of the specialists took months
to get
appointments with. Some that we took Patrick to included a
pediatric
neurologist at Johns Hopkins, an ophthalmologist, Speech
pathologist, and a
physical therapist. While we were going through this process of
testing,
Patrick was receiving twice weekly home visits from a special
teacher through
the Infants and Toddlers program. He was picking up a few words
and also some
simple signs to communicate with us. We were experimenting with
using
pictures for communication purposes too (ex. we took a picture of
juice, milk
and his cup and another of some favorite food and laminated them
and used
Velcro to put them on the refrigerator so Patrick could show us
what he
wanted).
Again, during this time period of about eight months my husband
kept
saying that he felt Patrick should get a hearing aid. I was
hesitant because
of the cost (about $1500) and also because the audiologist had
said he didn't
feel it was necessary with a loss only in one ear. I did agree to
ask the
audiologist about ordering one at his next visit. I also had
decided to take
Patrick to the health department for his next hearing test
because they work
so closely with the Infants and Toddlers program and it was free
of charge.
Anyhow, the health department was understaffed and I couldn't get
an
appointment till Feb. 1999. When I brought Patrick in I couldn't
believe the
results of the test were that Patrick had a bilateral (two ears)
moderate to
severe hearing loss. Both ears! No wonder he was still having a
problem
learning to talk. He couldn't hear us clearly enough to repeat
what we were
saying. I didn't want to drag my feet anymore or wait for anymore
appointments so I immediately made an appointment with Audiology
and
Associates again. They tested Patrick and had the same results as
the health
department. So, either the ABR was wrong or Patrick's better ear
had a loss
where it was now also at a moderate/severely impaired level.
Anyhow, We
ordered two digital BTE hearing aids right away. When they
arrived two weeks
later I was so nervous. How would Patrick react? Would he be
uncomfortable
in them, would he hate them, would it be a struggle to make him
wear them? I
heard lots of stories about kids who either liked or hated their
aids. I
prayed Patrick would be among the former. I wasn't disappointed.
Right from
the first time Greg Wilson, put the hearing aids on Patrick his
eyes got wide
and you could tell he was really interested in what he was
hearing. He has
never given me a problem about putting them on and now even asks
for them
when he wakes up (especially if he gets to the TV before I get
them on).
He'll say, "Mommy, ears on now...please." It's so cute!
Patrick has advanced by leaps and bounds since receiving his
hearing
aids. He attended preschool for Hearing Impaired kids at Shipley's
Choice
Elementary school this past year where he was completely oral and
went from
speaking primarily one word at a time with a vocabulary of close
to 100 words
to speaking in phrases with many complete sentences and an ever
expanding
vocabulary of many hundreds of words. He was also exposed to
Signed English
at Shipley's as two of his classmates are profoundly deaf and
sign to
communicate. I love that he is having the opportunity to at least
be exposed
(if not actually learning) this second language. It has not
deterred from
his ability to learn to use oral communication at all, but it may,
someday,
give him the ability to communicate with the deaf community.
If you are going through this roller coaster of emotions that
goes
along with finding out that your perfect child has a disability.
Let me
assure you, things do get better and there are people out here
just like you
who have been through many of the same things you are going
through. If you
have questions, need help, or just want to share your story or
frustrations.
Please feel free to e-mail me, or anyone in this support group
whose
biography interests you. Or if you're local, come check out a
meeting! We'd
love to meet you!
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