THE SHADDOX BOYS

Jacob and Elijah Shaddox are brothers. Jacob is 21 years old and just moved into an apartment with his girlfriend. He graduated from a technical college with an Associate's degree in Computer Maintenance. He works for a school district as a computer technician. Elijah is almost 18 years old. He is hearing impaired, has Tourette Syndrome, OCD and ADHD. He is a junior in high school. Elijah lives with his mom Mary and her wife, his stepmom. Mary has a bachelor's in deaf education and a masters in special education, and is an educational diagnostician. Life is always changing and this blog has chronicled many of these changes and will continue to do so!






Saturday, December 24, 2011

Visit to the Audiologist last week!

So I took Elijah in to see his audiologist last week, because his right ear processor has been bugging him. I had called Cochlear and they suggested putting it through the dry and store and also changing the mic covers. Did both of those and then changed out his coil. It was still bugging him so Cochlear sent a new refurbished processor and I made an appointment with the audiologist. I also switched him to his back up Freedom processor, his other is a Freedom too, and this one bugged him.

Well, the new one arrived, but it took two days for me to get it from FedEx. Someone at the house has to sign for it, can't go to a neighbor, OR someone with the same last name can pick it up from the distribution center. Well, I asked them to hold it so I could pick it up the next day. I show up and it was on the truck still. UGH! So they called Cochlear and got permission for a family friend to pick it up the next day. We got it on the 16th and after just a day it was bugging him too. Now this is for his right ear which he totally prefers over his left ear. I mean he likes his left ear, but he lets it DANGLE, as I have blogged about before. Well, now it is his right ear dangling or bugging him.

We went to the audiologist on the 22nd and she listened to his right ear with the headphones. Well, it sounded awful she said so we switched to his backup, which I had remembered to bring too, and she said it sounded good. She checked things internally and said it looked like everything was working good. We also checked his left ear and did a hearing test. I have to say he was consistent at 10 dB on all frequencies and even heard at 0 dB for one frequency. It was one of his best hearing test and he really worked hard and paid attention.

I called Cochlear around 9:00 that morning and they said they would send us a new one, but it might be next week before we get it. Yesterday morning, the 23rd, he told me his back up was bugging him AGAIN! We then got his new refurbished processor in the mail and after putting the Skin Its on, I gave it to him. OH and I did listen to it before hand and it sounded good. After just a few hours he told me it was bugging him again! AGHHHHH! What is going on?

I emailed his audiologist last night and explained what has happened since we left. Then this morning I see his right ear blink with coil attached and blink just ONCE and then all was fine. When all this started I saw his original bugging him processor blink a few times and got him some batteries. Coil was on and so I figured it was batteries. I returned to find it not blinking and he said it was on, but bugging him. Hmmmmm! What does that mean? Could it be something intermittent and when we went in, all was fine and everything was working.

I asked his audiologist if someone from Cochlear could come in and test the internal part of his implant. I also emailed an audiologist I know from Cochlear to see what she thinks. She used to be Elijah's audiologist before she went to work at Cochlear and we have known her a long time. I know I won't hear anything until later next week, but I feel better just sending the email.

Have any of y'all heard of someone else having this issue? I'll keep you all posted and hope we can get to the bottom of this.

Merry Christmas!

1 comment:

  1. there's been a recall though even though I love to keep up with the techie stuff!

    Danielle is also having the same problem though
    check out her blog http://growinguphardofhearing.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete