Meet Ava Pearson

Our daughter Ava received her implant in January 2008, at the age of nine months.  She has been switched on for a little over a month.

Currently Ava doesn’t use anything in the other ear, although at some point over the next year we will pursue another implant. Ava was diagnosed with profound sensorineural hearing loss at three days old.  After we discovered her hearing loss was genetic and that hearing aids provided no benefit, we quickly pursued an implant.

We chose the Nucleus for Ava because of the exciting developments the company told us they were working on, and because the processor fit her ear so well.  She wears the mini-BTE on a headband, because her ears are so small!  It doesn’t bother her at all and she wears it all the time she is awake.

We found the implantation process to be very straightforward.  The surgery, while frightening for us, didn’t seem to bother Ava all that much.   She cried for about 20 minutes when she woke up from the anaesthetic and that was it.  She slept through the night in the hospital, and the next morning was in the playroom there rolling around on the floor. She now has a small scar behind her ear, but it’s fading.  She never seemed to be in any pain, although I gave her paracetamol for a week just to be safe.  She was switched on two weeks later, and perhaps because of her young age her reaction was just curiosity.  So many things are new to a 10-month-old that one more doesn’t seem like a big deal!

Ava has changed so much since she was switched on, and it’s only been a month.  Her progress has been astounding-she sounds like a completely different baby that she did before.  She babbles and imitates phrases and animal sounds, and just today said Yum as she pretended to feed her mum the remnants of her breakfast.  She also just started saying Mama, which is astounding when you consider she isn’t 11 months old yet and has only been hearing for a month!!!!

Ava received no benefit at all from hearing aids. Avis not quite to the cell phone stage, but a recent hearing test showed she hears down to 20 decibels.  She also has learned to dance when music is played, and smiles when her stuffed panda plays a song.  Two weeks ago she made the connection between music and a cd player.  She looked at the CD player and started to dance, then looked at me.  She had to do it about three times before I realized she was asking for music, and then she cried when I wouldn’t turn it on.  (It was 7Am and other members of the household were asleep!)

It’s a bit early to tell, although she seems to love her baby music class, despite the fact that is incredibly noisy. We love the fact that the implant allows Ava to have the same opportunities and freedoms as anyone else.  I love that it allows her to be whoever she wants to be.  The implant keeps Ava from having to rearrange her life to accommodate those faulty little hair cells in her ears, and for that I will be eternally grateful.  I think Ava will be too. This has been an incredible journey, truly a miracle that gets more amazing everyday.  But right now, the experience that is freshest in my mind is that today Ava patted my arm and said Mama. Ten months ago I worried I might never have that experience, and I’m still astonished that it could have happened so soon!!!!!!!