Our first post-switch on appointments down at Van Asch went fantastically on Monday and Tuesday. Neil and Joanne were thrilled with how James is progressing. (As are we to be honest, but we are biased.) It seems at the moment like he is hearing more general sounds with his right ear, but is hearing the higher tones with his left ear, so between the two, is doing really well. This may be a development thing, or a direct result of the damage done to the cochlear - just got to wait and see.
This leads me on to a topic i have been thinking of a lot lately, thanks to some rather ignorant people who seem to enjoy spouting off their opinions on topics they have no understanding of. Firstly, not all deafness is the same. Deafness can be for many reasons - being born deaf, damage while in the womb, damage later in life, structural problems within the ear, viral problems... to name a few. It is not possible to put all kinds of deafness under the same umbrella, and treat them all the same. James' deafness is because of Pneumococcal Meningitis, and so could hear in the womb, and for the first few days of life. Unfortunately for meningitis victims, the damage done to the cochlear actually gets worse over time. Generally within the first year or so after the virus, the cochlear is completely turned to bone, and so is totally useless, and impossible to put an implant in.
Secondly, it is not greed on our behalf to be wanting two implants for James. The prognosis of a meningitis child with cochlear implants is not guaranteed, nor is it guaranteed that they will be able to get the implant in when they try due to the damage done. Therefore by restricting a meningitis victim to one implant, you are halving the chance of them hearing well. And due to the deterioration, we couldn't say in a year 'okay, this one didn't work, lets try the other'. By then it would be too late. James would be left totally deaf for life.
Thirdly, the rest of the world has already come to this conclusion. Melbourne, Sydney and Adelaide all fund bi-lateral (two) implants for meningitis people. They consider NZ to be a third world country when it comes to much in the way of health care, and in this case particularly. Our government is being partitioned by the Ear Nose and Throat Surgeons throughout the country for this to be reviewed. We are just too early.
Lastly, as a parent, would you not do the best possible for your child? Would you truly turn to your child and say 'well, the government obviously have a reason, so sorry son, we'll leave you to struggle all your life'. We all want the best life we can give our kids, and if we are able to fix something, why on earth wouldn't we. Please put yourself in ours, or perhaps even James' shoes before opening your mouths.
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Hi there I'm just interested to know where your at with your fundraising at the moment in earlier updates you said that you had reached the half way mark of $15,000 how far do u have to go until you've reached 30,000? Your little boy is so cute and such a happy little boy your doing an awesome job as a parents big luvz from the Patuwai Whanau...
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