Authenticate your children - ALL of them

"If parents are not able to accept the fact that their child is deaf and continue to deny the implications of the deafness, the resulting effects on the child are to encourage his own denial and lack of authenticity. Such a child is thus unable to accept himself and his capacity to emerge or become a unique person is blocked. He lives an existential lie and becomes unable to relate to himself and to other deaf individuals and to the world in a genuine manner."

the possibility of another hummingbird

So, R still hasn't been able to pass a hearing test because he has persistent fluid in both ears. He's 3 months old now, and considering our family's history of 2 deaf children, we need to get his hearing tested. We've waited and tried a round of antibiotics, with no success. The next step is a myringotomy and tube placement, and get his ABR done while he's already sedated.

It's been a hard decision to have tubes put in our child's ears. I've been generally and ignorantly opposed to tubes, and of course, am not thrilled about little R having to be heavily sedated for the procedure. However, I do know that persistent fluid creates a hearing loss whether he has sensorineural loss or not, and the fluid itself can even cause problems if it stays too long. Luckily, R hasn't had any infections that we know of, the fluid is just hanging out in his ears.

So, now that the date is set for his ABR, we face the information that will bring. I've sort of avoided the thought of him being deaf, too. Being hearing ourselves, we want him to hear, but having 2 deaf children already certainly softens the blow. Learning that J was deaf was the hardest by far. We got blasted into a while new world, culture, learning style/teaching techniques, language, etc. It was scary! L was easier, and now, I think R will be about the same if we find out he's deaf.

I guess we'll know by the end of this month!!