What to do next.



That was the first thing I thought of when my husband and I were told our son was deaf. They told us he was severely deaf in his right ear and profoundly deaf in the left. Up to this point I thought you were either hard of hearing or completely deaf. I had no idea that there were different degrees of "deaf". Neither my husband nor I have any family members that are deaf, or at least not anyone under the age of 90. And unless we want to have genetic testing done, there isn't really a way to know if it is inherited. At this point in our lives we are fine with having only one child so I don't feel any need to have the testing done. This could be from the head trauma he suffered when he was around four months old. But really there is no way to know for sure. His head trauma did cause him to suffer from BPPV -Benign Proximal Positional Vertigo. Any time he has hit his head from that point his eyes dart from left to right rapidly and he begins to vomit. This lasts up to 24 hours. Luckily it has been over a year since he has had an episode. I pray everyday that he is over his BPPV. I seem to be rambling.

So now what to do. How would you like for your son to communicate? This was the question we were sent home from the hospital with. How to handle the means of communication my husband and I feel will be the best for our son. It is amazing that only the day before we went to Children's Hospital for testing I was stuck in a dilemma of what type of Halloween cupcakes I was going to bake for his school party, and the next day I am to decide which means of communication he is going to use to communicate with the world for the rest of his life. So off I went, I did my research online as well as read up on material the hospital gave me. And based on the lifestyle we live and that our son was hearing at one point, we have chosen to continue him as oral. Now our next hurdle.....hearing aids or implants?