I am starting a blog to keep our friends and family up dated on Cooper. I'll start from the beginning of our story. Cooper was born December 17th 2009, he was a chunky 8lb 4oz baby boy. They did his routine hearing screen three times before we went home, he failed but we weren't concerned it's very common for newborns to fail we just needed to re-test when he was a month old. At a month old we took him to the health department and he passed just fine. We were still concerned because it seemed he wouldn't startle to loud noises. He would startle sometimes to sound so we'd think everything was fine, he was very stubborn or just tuned us out. Developmentally he did everything on track he said momma at about 10 months, walked at 10 months did everything great, would scream a lot but still didn't babble much or try to form words. He has always seemed as though sometimes he could hear us and sometimes he couldn't. At 15 months we went to the Creek county health department and had a speech evaluation done They said he was delayed in his speech but he did communicate with pointing and grunting so he didn't qualify for speech therapy. They said to wait till he's 2 years old if he didn't have 15 to 20 words to wait and come back and they would re-evaluate at that time. They didn't think he had anything wrong with his hearing because he would follow directions (directions with hand gestures). We still scheduled an appointment with a hearing clinic in Stillwater. We went to that appointment to find out that they shouldn't have scheduled us in the first place because that audiologist doesn't see children. She gave us the name of Hearts for Hearing in Oklahoma City and told us to schedule an appointment there. By this point we we're exhausted with the thought that something could be wrong with our child, we we're tired of appointments when everyone said he was just fine, we thought he was fine and all the stress was over nothing. Everyone told us he "didn't want to talk" when he was ready he would talk we should just give him time. This wasn't good enough for me, we scheduled the appointment with Hearts for Hearing they had a cancellation for the next week. My husband had a test he couldn't miss so my mom went with Cooper and I. I honestly expected to hear everything was fine but unfortunately that wasn't the case.
April 1st 2011 The audiologist did a test at first to make sure the air would push back when it was put into the ear to make sure the ear worked fine. It didn't, she said she felt there was something wrong with his hearing we wouldn't know for sure how bad it was till we tested his hearing in the sound booth.After testing his hearing in the booth she told us he had profound hearing loss in the both ears. He can hear somethings but it has to be really loud. They fit him with hearing aids that day. The next few days were the hardest days I mourned his hearing. A person can't imagine the emotions you have unless you've been there. I cried, my husband googled , we would look up information on everything. Some information was great, some was not. We have know all along it will be fine. He's an amazing little boy and I know God chose to give us him for a reason. We started going weekly for speech therapy and he wears his hearing aids all day. He's done great wearing his hearing aids from the beginning. He had a Cat Scan done to make sure there wasn't any damage to the Cochlear or any of the bone structures in his ear, they also did a ABR while he was sedated. We found out that he has Auditory Neuropathy Sensory Disorder (ANSD). It is common for people with ANSD to not get help with hearing aids because their hearing comes and goes. That explains why when he was little it seemed as though sometimes he heard us fine and other times not. We didn't feel like the hearing aids helped much, they re-tested his hearing 2 weeks ago with the hearing aids. He can hear noises as loud as a baby crying or some dogs barking. His hearing with the aids still isn't enough for him to develop the ability to listen or speak. The only option for him is do the Cochlear Implants. We've read alot of information and seen first hand some very positive responses. We are excited at the thought of what he can accomplish. We have a lot of friends and family who are great prayer warriors and we know with the help of God anything and everything is possible.
We are waiting on an MRI to be scheduled that will be the last test to let us know for sure if he is a candidate for the Cochlear Implants, they have to make sure his Auditory nerve isn't damaged. We will continue to blog to make sure everyone stays updated. Thank you everyone for your prayers and taking the time to get to know our child. He is a blessing from God and we know with out a shadow of a doubt God has great plans for Cooper.
