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2004-08-16 - 3:30 p.m.

In the beginning, he was a quiet baby and was perfectly content in the world around him and

he rarely woke up without being touched and slept soundly in his cradle. As the months

went by, we began to notice that he seemed to "tune us out" more and more and he had

become a very fussy baby as time went on. He also was NOT a happy camper if he had to

ride in a car seat. Every time I was not near him he would cry so much I would have to pick

him up and hold him. He was never comforted by musical toys or humming. As more months

passed, we continued to notice little things.He started to try babbling around 1 years old,

but didn't really respond when you babbled back. After just a few weeks of babbling the

babbling got less and he started making a high pitched squealing sound. My husband and I

thought he was ignoring us or he was hearing impaired. By the time he was 16 months old,

we felt sure that there was a hearing problem.I mentioned to the Pediatrician that I was

concerned that he didn't seem to be producing speech sounds very often and I worried that

he had some degree of hearing loss. I knew it could not be a profound loss because he did

respond at times. I was told that "Some kids develop language slower than others.You are

comparing Jaime to Aimee And Jr when they were that age." It was true, Jaime really never

had to try to ask for anything. He would point and Aimee would say "Jaime wants his bottle",

"Jaime wants that toy", so it made sense to me. Sounded good to me because I really didn't

want to hear that my baby was deaf.WAS I CRAZY? Why does he seem to hear sometimes and not

others? Surely there must be something wrong with his hearing, why else would he be seemingly

shutting me out?

So I made up my mind right then and there that there was something wrong with Jaime and

I was going to find someone to help me find out. I took jaime to a audiologist for a

hearing test.Even though I knew it already, hearing the words from a qualified professional

was quite a shock. I was devastated that all the singing, reading and talking that I had done

for 18 months had not been heard. I was in a state of shock wishing I could just wake up

from the nightmare I was trapped in. Matt was trying to hold it all together and be strong for

us, but it was obvious he was hurting too. As we left the office that day I was holding my Jaime

so tightly I'm sure he could hardly breathe and I was crying like a lost child and could

barely speak.

Over the next 3 years we Jaime was hearing impaired. He went to school with other children

who were hearing impaired and deaf. Jaime was happy and could communicate his wants and needs

Till January of 2004. His last hearing test. They told me he could hear. NO NO NO

3 other tests can not be wrong, And Jaime Still can not talk very well and he still can not hear me or others at times. My family who see

Jaime all the time still can not understand him. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE !!

I called Jaimes's Old teachers, And I thank god for them, they all love Jaime and are there

to help us any way that tey can. They brought up that maybe Jaime Has A.N

Whats A.N ??

Auditory neuropathy is a term presently used to describe a condition, found in some patients ranging in age from infants to adults, in which the patient displays auditory characteristics consistent with normal outer hair cell function and abnormal neural function at the level of the VIIIth (vestibulo-cochlear) nerve. These characteristics are observed on clinical audiologic tests as normal otoacoustic emissions (OAEs) in the presence of an absent or severely abnormal auditory brainstem response (ABR).

These patients are distinguished from patients with space-occupying lesions, such as VIIIth nerve tumors, or multiple sclerosis, in that radiological evaluation yields normal results and even the most peripheral responses from the VIIIth nerve are absent. Patients with auditory neuropathy require a different management approach to their auditory and communication problems from approaches used with patients with usual peripheral hearing losses.

A Simple Explanation of Auditory Neuropathy...

Think about driving your car with the radio on, but you have a frayed wire somewhere between the radio and the speaker system. The sound is entering the perfectly operational radio but is not able to get through the wire and into the speaker in the correct way. Now replace the words radio, wire, and speaker in that sentence with the words cochlea, nerve and brain.

The sound is entering the perfectly operational cochlea but is not able to get through the nerve and into the brain in the correct way. With the bad connection you get sound fading in and out and it sounds out of sync. You can turn the volume control knob up to try and correct this but the static sound just gets louder and louder and you still can't understand most of the words because volume doesn't correct the bad connection. This is why hearing aids rarely help the auditory neuropathy child.

So now we must find out if he has this...Sep.1 he will have the test done, and we will find out what is exactly wrong with Jaime. His future counts on it.

The goddess looks out for Fools and Children...May she now look out for my Jaime...he needs all the help that little boy can get.

Merry meet and Merry part.

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