The forgotten birthday

It's been three years since activation day. We had our ups and downs in this hearing journey. But it's been very interesting. Rhianna never fails to amaze me with her verbal abilities and her never ending chatter.Her listening skills are pretty awesome too.

We actually forgot her hearing birthday until the day arrived. Luckily, we had planned to take her to watch the Hi5 show the next day.Yes, the Hi5 people were here for three days live show. Rhianna saw the advertisements and went crazy.She loooves Hi5 and she'd spend hours watching their dvd if I'd let her. So we thought why not...let's get those tickets and dance with Hi5.

So she was on her best behaviour the whole week,doing her homework , reading her books and ticking off the calender in anticipation of the big day. It was very funny.

The show was fun and interactive and the children loved it. Rhianna enjoyed the dance and the songs immensely and didn't have any problem with the sound system whatsoever which amazed me. I guess in the end, watching the show was a pretty good way of celebrating her hearing birthday.
The avid fan got to watch her favourite group performing on stage. Mom and dad got to giggle at the amazed look on her face and got to marvel over and over again at the life changing technology called cochlear implant.

Five in the air..let's do it together 

Before the show 

She loves the shirt 

A chance to help others

I always say that my daughter was sent to me for a purpose.I've learned a lot of life's lessons just by raising her.Her deafness is what makes her special.

We are so fortunate to be able to have her bilaterally implanted and to have her progress at such amazing speed.There are many others who are not so fortunate in Malaysia.We don't have insurance coverage for CI operations  here. Some children will get fundings  from the ministry of health and some from sick children's fund but it is very limited.

Recently I was approached by the group of doctors who are responsible for bringing CI technology to Malaysia.They are a group of passionate doctors and wonderful people who have been helping deaf children in Malaysia hear for over ten years.They are currently trying to propose to the government to provide more funding for CI operations so that more children will receive the benefit.

So we put together a video that chronicles Rhianna's hearing journey from the time that she was signing until the time that she is stringing many words to form complex sentences.It was amazing to see how far she has come and how hard she works to achieve all this.We hope to show people the endless possibilities for these children when they have this miraculous technology.So we are hoping to get free CIs for many more children in this country.

Now, maybe I understand God's plans better.

We finally did it!

Well,we finally did it! We read stories,watched youtube about others who have done it but we never tried it.Now we finally did it! Well,Rhianna did it.She swam with her CI on...what a glorious day!

I've read about people who let their children bathe or swim or play with the sprinklers with the N5.We have seen people waterproofed their CIs in various method.Aloksak bag,food saver metbod,balloon method but we were too scared to try.We don't have back up processors here.We don't even have insurance for these equipments.We have to pay everything out of our own pocket,.. imagine the fear.

But I'm determined not to let these equipments restrict or compromise my child's lifestyle.I want her to be able to do what other children can do including hearing while swimming.So after some research and thinking,we decided to try the aloksak bag.We found the only supplier in Malaysia and they are in our neighbourhood!

After some trials and errors and lots of complaints from miss R (the headband is too tight,the bag is poking her neck,the magnet won't stick etc) we finally managed it.And she loves it!

We just use one processor for swimming purposes which is the N5.
It is just too hard to get both sides on and the old side is nucleus freedom which is not as waterproof as the N5.So we figure that we'll just use the N5 which is her new side. That way,she could also have more practice listening with just the new side.Smart eh?

So here you go..

With best friend Mr Turtle

The smile is precious..the ability to hear is priceless

Fun girl down

So,my fun girl was down from one illness to another.Last couple of weeks she contracted a viral fever complete with coughing and vomiting.Not very pretty,yes.She recovered in a few days but was cranky for a while.

Last Saturday she contracted  stomach flu, a severe one too and it nearly got her admitted to a hospital.Luckily she didn't refuse fluid so we were able to keep her at home. I had to give her 75 ml of ORS fluid every hour.If there was any vomiting or diarrhoea, I was to add another 90-120ml.Believe me,that was A LOT of water and I had to give it in sips not gulps to avoid more vomiting.So we were stuck in bed taking sips of water for at least 8 hours while watching Strawberry Shortcake DVD over and over again.It gave us plenty of cuddle time which was nice.The not so nice part was when she refused her CIs (which is understandable considering how sick she was feeling).

However,her not hearing left me feeling so inadequate.She talks like she normally does when she has no CIs on and she read lips quite well but only within context.If you try to explain something new,it would be terribly hard and she would start to guess a lot and we both would end up frustrated.Then,I would start feeling sad,upset and nervous over how much language opportunity that would be lost during these silent hours.

Ok,I know I should take it easy but it takes a lot of struggle on my part to relax when I have all these mixed up feelings.It doesn't help that Miss R refuses her CIs every time she is sick.How do I explain to her that the injection will only sting a bit and it will help stop the vomiting or she has to sip the water and not gulp no matter how thirsty she feels to avoid vomiting or the sips of water will prevent her body from getting dehydrated and many other things like that if she can't hear me?
Maybe we should start our sign language course soon.

Anyway,the good news is she's almost back to her own happy self.

Miss R and her army of dolls

Two years of hearing (and nonstop talking )

So, Miss R celebrated her 2nd hearing birthday on September 15th.She was switched on at 2 years 4 month of age and has moved at lightning speed since.She learned to detect,discriminate,identify and imitate all Lings 6 sounds within 2 weeks of switch on and produced her first words at 3 weeks post switched on.She started combining words about 2 months post switch on and she achieved all these milestones with us struggling to keep the CI on her.She hated her CI initially.I really didn't understand it since she was learning so much and enjoying the sounds that she could now hear.I guess she must have enjoyed giving us a hard time then.

Now she enjoys both of her CIs and is a true chatterbox who never stops talking.The only times that I could enjoy some peace and quiet is when she is asleep (late) and napping (rarely). We still haven't tested her recent language skill though we suspect that she is already on par with her peers.It's a tricky thing since we don't have any form of formal testing and no norm in Malaysia where most children are multilingual.Miss R is bilingual with Malay as her first language and English her second.She is learning some mandarin in preschool but we are opting for extra English class in replacement of Mandarin class for next year.We'll just keep her bilingual at the moment.

She enjoys listening to music (something that I couldn't imagine before) and going to participate in talent time contest in December organised by Opus academy of music.All the preparation is being done by the dedicated teachers so I can't write much about this.We'll start her on an instrument (most likely piano) next year when she is more ready.

So,now she looks like other kids and does things that other 4 year olds do except that she has extra gadgets on her ears.Maybe soon I will teach her how to explain her CI to other people.

Now,the only area that needs a bit more adjusting is her social skills.She's fine in preschool and daycare with familiar people but she tends to be very shy with strangers or new people.She will need at least 20 minutes of warm up time before she starts talking.
It's really ok, but it's not fun for me especially when I want to show off my talking child and the miracle of CI to some new people and my chatterbox child decided to keep quite and ignore the person who is talking to her.I have no idea what motivates her to do this, probably only the sheer happiness of exasperating her mother.God knows.

Before, I couldn't stop thinking about her deafness.Now,it has become a non issue.She could hear and talk like other children.Putting on the CIs has become second nature like putting on shoes or socks.Something that  I couldn't imagine possible but is IS possible with a little bit of work and perseverance.

Bilateral joy

I don't post here as much as I would like to.Mostly because I don't have much to report about the Girl's progress...or maybe there is too much to report that I don't know where to start.

I remember thinking before her second implant that it's gonna be hard to take care of two equipments,training the new ear and maybe dealing with her resistance towards the new implant.

It turned out,she loves her new implant and the new ear needs very little training and is now almost as good as the old one performance wise.Taking care of two equipments needs a bit adjusting but is nothing compared to the joy of having a bilateral child.
Every night when I take off her processors I have this sense of joy and contentment knowing that she has bilateral hearing.

I know she loves her two 'ears'.If you tell her that she can only wear one processor,she'll tell you that she wants BOTH of them!
Believe me, I tried. Last month at the beach I thought that it would be too troublesome/risky to let her wear two processors to the beach,take them off to swim and put them back again to play in the sand.So I told her we'd only take one and she grumbled the whole time there.

She now speaks with better articulation.She still occasionally struggles with some difficult sounds but she is mostly age appropriate articulation wise.She's learning to localise sound and her incidental language learning is phenomenal.
She sings all the time.It still takes her some time to learn a song but I like the the fact that she now asks me to explain every new song or rhyme phrase by phrase.It is now not enough for her to just memorise a song,she wants to understand it.

She's doing wonderfully at preschool.She counts to one hundred and she can write them too.She reads simple words,writes her own name and knows all the phonic sounds.She's learning to add and substract.She has many friends and she loves being there.

It never fail to amaze me that she's doing all this wonderful things at just under 2 years of being implanted and I thank god every night for his wonderful gift - this beautiful child of mine.

Glamour girl

Ever since she received the tutu skirt as a belated birthday gift,she has been prancing around in it begging to go to a ballet  class.Then,she begs to shop for new blouses with glitters to wear with the skirt (check out the pic).She's also begging for another tutu skirt (purple,this time).If I knew that this tutu skirt was going to cause me so much problem,I would have stopped my friend from buying this for her.

In another development,the new ear's progress is fast and steady.Her understanding with the new ear alone is almost similar to the old one,only that she might need some repetition at times.So I guess it is still pretty effortful to hear with that ear alone.

She's doing very well in pre school too.She counts and writes up to 30,understands quantity concept (they're starting addition soon),writes her own name independantly,recognises both upper and lower case alphabets.She reads familiar words quite well and was 'outstanding' in spelling activities according to her teacher...well,as outstanding as a 4 year old could be, I guess.

I'm glad that she's picking up a lot in school.She has many friends and gaining more language skills.She continues to amaze us everyday with different vocabulary and different pragmatic use of language.

We have reached a point where people who don't know her do not even realise that she is deaf...until they see the processors, if they could see it since the processors are pretty hidden now that she has short hair.

We still have many things to teach and show her though.Not just how to listen and speak,but how to grow into a strong individual.How to advocate for herself and have a positivite attitude.How to care for other people and give back to the community.How to live well and be happy with your life...for in the end this is what matters most.

New ear update

It has been one month since activation and I'm so glad to report that Rhianna loves her new ear! She wears it all the time and even asks for it in the morning.She said that she likes the old one better but she likes the new one too.I guess she could feel the difference between hearing unilaterally and bilaterally.

The new ear is also catching up very fast.Much faster than I anticipated.She could already understand 2-3 steps command wearing that side alone.She could do Lings 6 sounds at more than 2 meters distance.When tested,the aided threshold for the new CI is between 35 to 40 dB.Not bad considering that the ear has been hearing for only a month and was unaided before.So maybe it's time to start working on the new side more.

So if asked if it was worth putting her through surgery again (not to mention the money!), I'd say yes! She loves it,we love it and it works beautifully.

We did it!

We finally did it! Rhianna's second implant was switched on ,on May19th.I was anticipating chaos and hardship but it didn't happen.Boy,was I glad.

She participated well during the map but was a bit upset after the switch on saying that the new ear is noisy.I guess that's how it is if your ear has not been hearing for the past four years.Anyway,the new ear is turned on very low BUT she was able to detect and identify all Lings sounds by day 3.Yes,we started therapy at home from day 1.Not that we're so ambitious,we were just trying to get her to understand that the new ear will need training too.At first she was quite amused working with the new ear,then she got a bit bored.So we mostly work for about 15-20 minutes each night on sound detection, Lings and some early sounds.
So far this new ear is working way faster than we could ever imagine (talk about cross over effect!).

Kylie the koala is Rhianna's new best friend.She enjoys reading the book on how Kylie got her CI



The new bilateral bionic girl in her pink tutu skirt

 So far,our second hearing journey has been much easier than the first from surgery to switch on to getting her to wear the device.She's been wearing the new ear as much hours as the old one if not more and WITHOUT complaining.Hopefully,this will last forever and ever.
So keep us in your thoughts and prayers people.

Home sweet home!

We are home ! Rhianna's recovery is going pretty smoothly despite the lack of mastoid dressing.Apparently good enough for the surgeon to let us go home.We are still on the lookout for any swelling or hematoma but hopefully none will show up.Right now,there's only minimal swelling and the ear is sticking out a bit.It looks kinda funny but normal for any CI surgery.

This time around,her recovery is faster and easier.She didn't vomit at all after surgery.Her appetite was back almost immediately and no nose bleed like before.She is now back to her normal happy self and needs constant reminder not to run or jump too much.(I really don't want to go back to the hospital! )

This is about 5 hours after surgery.She was already playing and watching DVD.She was still wearing her OT gown.No dizziness or balance problem noted.

24 hours after surgery,she's already playing with a new friend.The other girl is waiting to do a spinal tumour removal surgery (my heart goes out to her and her family).Amazingly,both girls will turn four on the same day, May 13th! How cool is that?

At home after finishing a whole ice cream cone.She's pretty pampered at the moment but I dont' think it will last that long.She'll be back on regular diet very soon,trust me.And she's keeping the hospital tag on her wrist because it is PINK.

And again,keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Surgery in 8 1/2 hours!

So,looks like we are going to make it to the surgery table (thank god!).It is now 12.30 am and the surgery is scheduled at 9 am.

Rhianna is fast asleep on the hospital bed and I'm feeling so nervous about the surgery.She was admitted this morning and they ran full blood test and multiple check ups to make sure that she's fit to go in tomorrow.So we will probably be here for a couple of days (standard procedure here) for observation after the surgery.

It's not easy taking care of an active child who is not sick yet stuck in a hospital.Luckily they have a big play room with many toys so she's not that bored.Unfortunately the room is closed at 5pm so mom had to take over and entertain her from there on.Fortunately,mom is smart enough to bring a couple of new toys and dvds (thanks Barney!).

Anyway,Rhianna's beloved Mama Gee will scrub in and observe the surgery tomorrow.I opted not to.I'm not squeamish with blood or anything,but seeing someone drills into my daughter's skull is a different story altogether.

Soon Rhianna will be bilateral and another hearing journey will begin. Keep us in your thoughts and prayers!

p/s: will update with photos tomorrow.What else can one do when stuck in a hospital but blog?

Twisted sense of humor

We finally received a surgery date for her second implant - April 28th !


Let's not discuss about how will she bond or learn to listen again with this new device.The thought of another switch on and multiple map sessions (as exciting as they are ) will make me hyperventilate.
Let's not even talk about the surgery process.I might need a tranquiliser to calm my nerves.

Today we'll talk about sense of humour.

I am a speech therapist who has not much experience working with hearing impaired children.Aside from my student and training years,I don't really take HI cases.It's not really my cup of tea.I'm more into autism and PDD and things like that.So what did God do? He blessed me with a deaf child.Now, I really had no choice but learn all the techniques needed to teach my child.

Getting the first CI was a bit too easy for us.The government funded the whole thing and we got it fast.We also got our favourite surgeon and audiologist even though they were very busy and very much sought after.So,where's the humour in that?

It took 3 adults to hold her down and stick that damned thing to the her head while she screamed bloody murder..and that thing tend to fall off every 5 minutes or so and the whole process would start all over again.It took her quite some time (like one whole month of screaming her throat sore) to bond with her first ear and now they are inseparable.


About a month ago in preparation of this pending surgery,I upped her prebiotics,give her daily doses of multivitamins,fish oil and extra vitamin C to build better immune system and possibly avoid cough and cold episodes.
Then,God decided to be funny again and sent us some virus just when I was about to pull her out from school and keep her at home.
So now she's sniffling and coughing and on various medication trying to meet the surgery date (we'll update you whether we make or not).

I've learned a lot of lessons on this journey with my daughter.I've learned a lesson in humility.We can always make plans but God will make the final call.I've learned to take things easy,enjoy the moment and worry less.I now understand that everything happens for a purpose..even the most impossible and difficult things.We just have to find the purpose God intended and fullfill it.

And I've also learned that He has such twisted sense of humour.

The MAP story

Rhianna hates MAP sessions.All of them.Period.If she ever cooperated in any of them,it was because she wanted to (not because you told her to) but she still hated them.If she ever dropped anything in the bucket when she heard a beep,she did it pouting.

I remember when she was just activated and we had to MAP her every other week - pure hell!
No amount of bribery (or threat) would make her cooperate.Luckily our audi Dr C is very patient and is very good at reading a child's body language in response to sound.Even luckier Rhianna's body language was not hard at all to read.She would play nicely with a toy and when she heard a beep, she turned and glared menacingly at the audi.I was quite sure that she growled and gnashed her teeth too but maybe that was just my imagination.

Anyway,last couple of weeks we had one MAP session (after 6 months of no MAPPING bliss).
On the way there,she told me she didn't want to listen to the beep beep sound.I told her she'd get ice cream,sweets and toys if she cooperated (bribery) but she just pouted.

Once there,she entered a mute zone and refused to talk to anybody.She answered questions by nodding or shaking her head and glaring at anybody who dared smile at her (charming!)
Inside, she cooperated fairly and when it was all over she was back to her old chirpy self much to the amusement of Dr C.

Now 2 weeks after, she is still adjusting to the new programs.I think this is the reason why she doesn't like new maps.All this readjusting to sounds is a bit tiring for her and it's making her cranky and a bit sensitive too.Trust me,a stubborn,sensitive and cranky child drains your energy very fast.

God have mercy on us.

The new boy in class

Rhianna's CI often attracts many attention.It's not uncommon for us to be stopped on the street by curious people asking about the device (type 1).I like this type of curious people as it gives us an opportunity to spread some awareness about the CI.What I don't like is the staring, gawking and whispering kind of people (type 2).We have encountered many of this kind too.

When Rhianna attended the school holiday program I was quite worried of how the children would respond to her blinking ear.It turned out that the 3-4 year olds are quite oblivious to it.They just play with each other and pay no attention to her ear... until the new boy came.

He joined the program a week late and he's a year older than the rest of the group.He has to join the younger group as he speaks English as the second language.Being a 5 year old boy,he is VERY curious about Rhianna's ear.He likes her a lot and I often find them playing together.

One day when I was picking my daughter up,he cornered me and started asking question about the CI..so I thought, aah..he's type 1.

Boy: What is that? (pointing to Rhianna's ear)
Me : That's her CI.It helps her to hear.It's like her ear.
Boy: It has red light.
Me: Yes it does.

When I tried to explain further he interrupted.

Boy: What's the circle on her head?
Me: That's the headpiece.It's part of the CI
Boy: Can a boy wear it too?Does it come in different colours?
        Maybe my mom will get me one?
        Maybe I can get a white colour one?

At this point I was already laughing.Maybe he belongs in a different category altogether.
type 3 - thinks CI is cool and want one for themselves.

A punch in the gut!

We don't have many options here in term of education for deaf children.The deaf schools will mainly use signs (they aim for total communication but most children will just sign ),there are some schools which use cued speech to help the children learn speech and that is pretty much it.

Since we have chosen CI and AV for Rhianna,we have been sending her to classes (music and reading) with normal hearing peers with no adaptation being done to support her hearing needs.But since we have carefully selected classes with small number of children (in reading class she only has one classmate and they team up very well to terrorize the teacher ;) )she has shown tremendous improvement with these classes.

Though her language is still delayed,she has developed a love for reading.Oh,she can sight read too.I initially thought that she just memorizes the story based on the pictures (she's like an elephant-remembers everything!) but her teacher demonstrated otherwise.She CAN sight read with or without the pictures...woohoo! Of course it's limited to the books and words that she has practised in class.Anyway,it's a good start to what I hope her lifelong love for books.


Back to the education option  (or lack of options) story - We have started touring the private preschools in our areas.Our public schools currently do not offer any preschool services for children below 5 years old except for daycares.So, all of our children will attend private preschools and we have many many options with many many teaching methods...and the headache starts.

With her CI,listening challenges and language delay,we have many things to consider like the teacher to students ratio,the method used and the syllabus offered.

Most of these schools have between 16-24 students in a class.Rhianna could easily become invisible with 24 chattering 3 year olds and that would not help develop her self confidence and self esteem.


The method used and syllabus offered are pretty much the same with most schools but there is one particular school that caught our attention.


This school offers a classroom of only 8 students max with one teacher and two teachers for certain subjects like science and art where the children do a lot of hands on projects.Their syllabus is focused a lot on language and speaking skills and encouraging the children to explore the world around them to develop the love for learning.They use fastrack program from the US (of course!) and I'm totally in love with the smart board.It's like a HUGE iphone on the wall with many educational games!Rhianna still talks about the smart board and pretends to play it on our wall.


We love this school,Rhianna loves this school..problem solved, right? Wrong!
what about the fees?...it's almost 10K for the first year (uugh.. it was like a punch in the gut!).Well, it's not that bad, but she still has to attend her weekly therapies (all cost money),her reading and music classes and daycare (all cost money!)...I was actually planning to send her to dance class now that's not going to happen.


So Rhianna's team started discussing (and debating) and finally we reached a conclusion.
Since Rhianna is doing so well now,we have almost forgotten about her deafness and her daily struggles to listen.She actually NEEDs this school for its low student to teacher ratio to maximise her listening ability since no other adaptation is being made for her listening needs (no FM or sound field system).Hopefully they will help her build a good academic and social foundation for upcoming years.


So yes,we are taking the punch!She's all signed up for year 2011..


Kids Academy, here we come!!

http://www.kidsacademy.com.my




p/s : she has a trial class next week and a holiday camp there next month.She'll start full blast come January 2011

Is she deaf or not?

Inspired by other blogger moms,I recently prepared a handout for Rhianna's teachers explaining her CI and giving some tips on how to work with her.A few people read it before it got to the teachers and one person asked.."Why do you say that she's deaf?"

"Because she IS?", I answered.

"No she's not..she can hear now", stressed the person.

"Yeah,but not without the CI.She has no hearing whatsoever without it", I explained.

"But you can write here that she has hearing problem and not use the word deaf.It'll hurt her to hear that word when she's older",the person was so adamant that the deaf terminology is such a taboo and the word should not be said out loud.

"But she is deaf and she needs to know that and be proud of herself ", I answered.

"Hmm...I still don't think that you should say that word",concluded the person.

That conversation left me thinking..

I have a lot of feelings and experience a lot of emotions once I discovered that my child is deaf.Sadness,fear,guilt,determination,hope and many others that I can't name but shame is never one of them.
I have long decided that I would change all the negative emotions into positive ones.I would teach my child to be proud of her bionic ear and not hide the device away.Later she'll learn to advocate for herself and explain to others about her deafness and how she hears through the miracle of CI.

I think she's already on the right track as I watched her playing on the playground today.A 5 year old boy was attracted to the blinking light on her ear and came over to inspect.She didn't shy away,instead she patiently stood still and let the boy look but when the boy tried to touch her ear she pushed him away and said "no!"

I think she can fight her own battle now..then again she was always the feisty one.

I hope,she will learn that there's no shame in being deaf.There is actually a lot of pride in being a deaf individual who can hear and speak well considering how much effort it takes for her to learn to listen.

What do you think? Is 'deaf' not the correct word to use?

If you see her on the playground..stay away!She kicks a****

Striking while the iron's still hot

Rhianna's second surgery is yet to be scheduled.This July is an extremely busy month for me with Rhianna's multiple ear check up and therapy and also with the many changes in my career...(mum and dad still need to earn enough money for this little princess).

I have been asking around to see the importance of observing the optimal time for sequential surgery.The optimal time being 6-12 months between the two ears.If we are to follow that guideline,Rhianna needs to be implanted and switched on before September..that would mean..NOW! Like our ever helpful mentor Dr K said,we better strike while the iron's hot.

And then,there's the financial issue..this ear is going to cost us RM58K (which is a huge sum!).If we were to delay the surgery for a few months,we would have more time to raise the money needed.But if the few months delay is going to hinder Rhianna's progress..we would have to dig deeper into our pockets and empty more piggy banks and proceed with the surgery now.

I would really appreciate feedbacks from anybody with any experience at all.I need all the information before making any decision as I dont want it to come back and haunt us later..

9 months hearing and another ear coming her way

As the months passed by,I found myself more relaxed and more able to enjoy the time with my daughter.I'm no longer counting the hearing hours each day,or calling the nursery during my working hours to see whether my child is wearing her CI or not.
 Rhianna is hearing well with her CI and she knows it.Sure,from time to time she needs rest from the device but she likes it on most of the time.And her speech and language is blooming very well..she's consistently stringing words into phrases though some words are still approximation.

What amazes me most is how well she can listen in noise..just the other day she was standing about 2 meters behind me while I was doing dishes and she was able to answer my questions with all the kitchen noise.And best of all,she can now tell me when a sound is too loud for her.
Last couple of Sunday,we were at the Aquaria watching the fish feeding session and a man was talking on the mic.Rhianna came to me and said "tak nak (pointing to the CI),bising"..(dont want,noisy).So I switched it off for a while until the announcement was over...so no more struggle for both of us.

Though our principle is mainly AVT,we still teach her some signs and lip reading skill and she has gotten really good at these skills which she uses when not wearing her CI.One of my friend was very surprised to see her following instructions and answering questions via lip reading alone and suggested that we test her hearing again,in case she has regained her hearing somehow.How I wish that!..but nope.Last we checked,she's still not responding at any frequency even with her HA on..well she used to have 80dB for 250hz but even that is gone now.

So next week,we're going to empty our piggy bankS and make the RM 58K payment (yikes!) for her new ear and schedule the surgery.Hopefully,she'll get more benefit being a bilateral CI user..

Trip to the airport

We went to the airport today to meet my brother (whom we have not seen for many months).He was on his way back to Langkawi Island from his training work in Bali Island (imagine flying from one exotic island to another..how much luckier can he get?).Since he had 3 hours transit time to kill in the airport,we thought that it would be fun for Rhianna to see her Pak Ngah again.
She made some paper flowers in the afternoon and decided to bring one for her uncle.She was quite shy at first but they ended up buddies as always.She spent most of the hours bullying her uncle into drawing for her and making her some origamis.
The airport was very noisy (of course) so I switched her freedom into noise program.I didn't think that she would hear much of what we were saying but she seemed fine.She said "aeroplane go up,up,up"
when I took her to see some planes taking off.
She explored around and heard me when I called her from about 3-4 metres away with all the noise.So I guess she's getting better at listening in noise.
She ate chocolates and ice cream and spilled some on the floor (and on daddy!) then she kept telling me "ice cream tumpah" ( spilled).When the cleaner came to clean,she said "sorry" and "thank you".So I know that she knows some social pleasantries.
It was a lovely outing and the girl was dead tired and fell asleep in the car (much to mum's relief).

p/s: Pak Ngah if you're reading,hope to see you and your boys in mid June!

The star article

For friends who did'nt see article about Rhianna in the star newspaper a few months ago,here's the link.It shows the pictures of some of the professionals involved in her surgery and therapy.Their help and continuous hard work is forever appreciated.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/11/15/education/5074901&sec=education