In Which Connor Makes A Couple Impressions

Today Connor finally had his appointment with the audiologist to get a new earmold made for his left hearing aid.  He's been without hearing aids for over a month now, and this was the earliest that they could fit us in, which I thought was a little strange considering that normally they consider a kid not having access to sound to be somewhat of an emergency.  It turns out that the woman who booked it for some reason thought that Connor was just outgrowing his earmolds, which is not nearly as urgent a problem.  So the audiologist told me if he does it again to just ask for her directly so that we make sure he gets in quickly.  This is actually only the second time he's lost an earmold in the four years he's been wearing his hearing aids, so hopefully it won't come up any time soon!

As it turned out, Connor's one remaining earmold was getting a bit small anyway, so it was decided to just get him a new set entirely.  This involves making a mold of Connor's ear canal, which is not really his favorite thing in the world.  He's got a piece of bone in his right ear canal that's much closer to the surface than is typical, and so the pressure of the ear impression material used to be extremely painful for him.  Luckily as he's gotten older it no longer seems to bother him nearly as much; either he has a little more padding between the bone and the skin now or else the pressure of the earmold material isn't as bad since it has more space to expand in.  So while he still doesn't particularly enjoy it, at least I no longer feel like I'm torturing my kid by making him go through the experience.

While a lot of people tend to go with the clear or beige earmolds so they don't stand out as much, Connor doesn't really care if they stand out (and since his hearing aids are bright orange it would be kind of the equivalent of ordering a diet coke with a double cheeseburger).  There's a more practical reason for getting brightly colored earmolds in our house anyway; the cats have a bad habit of thinking Connor's hearing aids are great to play with if I make the mistake of taking them off him and leaving them somewhere they can get to, and so having something that is easy to spot on our laminate floors is a big plus.

Connor narrowed the wide selection of colors down to two choices and then refused to pick between them.  So I chose for him.  This time he's getting a color called "blue cat's eye," which basically looks like one of those neon blue swirly marbles.  It's pretty neat.

It will take another three weeks for his hearing aids to come in, but at least he'll have them before school starts up again.  After going two months without sound, it may take him a little while to get used to wearing them again; hopefully we won't have to resort to the Sad Hat.  It probably wouldn't fit him anymore anyway!

~Jess