Moderate Hearing Loss

That's what the doctor advised after Emma's hearing test today. She hasn't been talking or even making more than the most rudimentary of sounds and she's well past the age where she should be. So her pediatrician advised us to have her hearing testing (again. This makes her third). The diagnosis is that she has moderate hearing loss but the doctor wants to run a more comprehensive test to more accurately determine the level of her hearing. However, this was not the most depressing news (at least for me). That would be when I heard that Emma will probably need to wear hearing aids. Now, before I get besieged with angry posts from people with hearing aids, a little back story:

I am completely deaf in my right ear. Most people who know me don't even know that or realize it. They just assume that I'm lost in my own thoughts when they speak to me and I don't respond (well, sometimes that IS true). I was involved in a car accident when I was 18 that split my head open and completely destroyed my middle ear (among other things aural). I was given the option of getting hearing aids but I chose to decline them. Why? Regardless of what you may say, I am aware of the social stigma, however muted (no pun intended), of people with hearing aids. And now my daughter might have to wear hearing aids for the rest of her life. Growing up as a child is hard enough in today's society, especially with bullying adversely affecting children today seemingly more so than ever. Knowing that my daughter will have a handicap that will make her a target for scorn amongst her peers in the years to come (not to mention being able to overcome said disability herself) really...I don't know, depresses me? Perhaps that's not the right expression but it definitely has me in a funk. However, since I've had some time to think about the idea, I've given a great deal of consideration to getting hearing aids myself. Perhaps this will help my daughter acclimate to having them herself if she sees that Daddy has them too.

You always assume that your children will grow up healthy. When it hits home that they will have a disability that they will have to live with for the rest of their life, it really changes some things for you (at least it does for me). However, I am determined to make sure that this disability will have as little an impact on Emma's quality of life as possible.