Our visit with Edward

We discovered Duckling had a hearing loss during her newborn screening at the hospital.

Finding out

Over the next few months she underwent multiple tests and her MRI showed unilateral LVAS and bilateral Mastoid Disease.  Basically, she had a moderate hearing loss and she would eventually lose her hearing in her right ear and the safety of her hearing in her left ear would be questionable.  At 5 months old she received her first hearing aid. 

5 months old, just after getting first hearing aid.  Yes, the date on this photo is wrong!

She wore this until she was 3 years old, at which time it was confirmed that her moderate hearing loss in her right ear had progressed to a profound loss (as we had suspected a year prior).  In September 2011, she was fitted with a Ponto, a bone conduction hearing aid.  Her Ponto has made a world of difference for her. 

At 4 years old she has come such a long way in her speech and language development though she does have concernable delays in her receptive language she is advanced in her expressive  language!  She is undergoing a second evaluation to see if she has an Auditory Processing Disorder as well.  She is otherwise a normal active 4 year old!

We were so blessed to have the opportunity to have "Edward" come and visit Duckling.  Edward is a Traveling Awareness Bear and he helps spread awareness for Duckling's disorder LVAS/EVAS! 

Edward arrived on June 4, 2012.  When he arrived he was greeted with the biggest hug one could give a teddy bear!  Duckling was so excited. 

We spent the first day getting to know Edward and reading about his journey so far.  He has already met some amazing families! 

On June 6, Duckling and Emu went to the hospital for follow up speech evaluations.  Edward was a big help!  Since we drive so far to get to the hospital, we spent the rest of the day at the Children's Museum.  Edward had a lot of fun!

The rest of the we didn't do anything spectacular, but Edward went wherever Duckling went.  Unfortunately, we didn't take our camera because we were just running errands and such.  We did make Edward a hearing aid clip to ensure that he will not lose his hearing aids while he is on his journey.  Duckling had so much fun picking out something she thought Edward would like.

Edward's visit was a bit longer than planned, as luck would have it, I became very sick.  What started out as a sore throat landed me in the ER a few days later with Bronchitis and an Asthma attack.  Still, more than a week later, I am STILL sick...but at least able to do a few things...like send Edward to the next patiently awaiting family! Edward was so nice to fix me some Chicken Noodle Soup and help Duckling take care of me and I'm thankful that Duckling and Edward became such good playmates!

I hope Edward enjoyed his visit as much as we enjoyed having him.  If you know a child who suffers from any disease or disorder, there may be a Traveling Awareness Bear for them to host as well!  Be sure to check out the WEBSITE!