revealing

So Abby has had an ear infection in her HA ear for four days now and she has not worn her hearing aid since the start of the infection. I guess I never really noticed how much better she hears when she has both her hearing aid and her CI in, because she wears them both religiously and we haven't worked her CI independently in a really long time. But now it is painfully obvious, and its a little discouraging. I have to repeat things two or three times for her to understand me, she almost always wants to look at me when I talk so she can read my lips (which I don't want her to become dependent on) and in loud situations where she normally copes really well, she can't even make out me yelling at her.

We celebrate her one year CI hearing birthday later this month, and I can't believe how quickly it has passed, and how extremely well she has done with her implant. But the past few days has really made me realize that we're not out of the woods yet. She has so much more to learn, and there will come a day when she will lose the hearing completely in her right ear and she will no longer have that hearing to rely on. All of that makes me sad and I don't want to think about it. But with this new revelation, I am determined to help her feel confident when hearing in any and every situation. With her hearing aid or not, with one good ear or two, we will help her to be as happy and successful as possible.

But I really can't wait till that ear infection goes away!