"I want to hear everybody again."

"I want to hear everybody again."

Rowan has had increasing anxiety about his hearing loss.  About a month ago he lost all of his hearing for nearly a week.  Slowly, he started to regain some of it in his right ear, and we have been able to at least communicate with him that way.  However, if a doctor or nurse comes in to talk to me, and it is on the left side of Rowan's bed, he immediately starts to cry and yell, "what? what is he saying?"  He also used to love to sleep with his eye masks on while here in the hospital.  It allowed him to tune out all the lights of the equipment in his room, and the nurses coming in and out at all hours of the night.  Since he lost part of his hearing though, he freaks out if you try to give him one of his masks.  He screams, "No! Then I can't see OR hear.  I have no senses!"  Part of this is of course delirium or agitation from being hospitalized for so long (4 months), confined to a bed for so long (6+ weeks), in ICU for so long (38 days).  But as you can imagine, if you were Rowan and you had not only always had your hearing, but also always been highly interested and involved in your medical care, this would really be a major deficit.  He feels scared and alone at times, unable to hear or communicate or know what is going on.  For this to have happened so suddenly, and in such a scary setting, you can certainly understand Rowan's reaction.

The audiologists did several types of hearing tests back then and let us know that the left ear had significant loss that was not expected to return.  Today, they came and did repeat testing, and it confirmed those results.  His right ear is impaired at the highest and lowest frequencies, but okay in between.  The left is still quite significantly impaired, at all levels.  Due to Rowan's level of anxiety, and the amount of time that he is likely to have to remain here in ICU and in the hospital altogether, they decided to mold him immediately for a hearing aid.  Thankfully the otolaryngologist and the audiologist felt the seriousness of his specific situation and both pushed to have this process expedited.  He was molded for the aid immediately after the testing today, and it should arrive sometime next week.  Rowan cried happy tears when he heard this.  He said, "I just feel so thankful.  I want to hear everybody again.  I want to sleep at night. I've been so scared."

Here are some pictures from the process as it transpired today.  The audiologist was amazing, and showed Rowan and I every single step. Very cool! 

The testing...

The molding...

And a little fun.

She asked Rowan and the physical therapist (who happened to be there at the tail end of the appointment, working out Rowan's extremities), "What emoji should we make with the left over putty?"  They both agreed...

And she obliged...

You will hear again Rowan.  No need to fear.  No need to feel alone.  God is healing you, and there are many people helping him facilitate that.  Thank you for giving them the heart, the motivation, and the means to do so.