Stop this ride! I want to get off!

When will this end? Ben has an appointment with Hearing Australia on Thursday. 

Yesterday I was thinking this would be the one, the hearing test that he would actually pass. He had spent the last month on antibiotics, the ENT said the infection was cleared, the grommits were still working and he was cold free! For a winter month in Canberra that is awesome. He passed the first test. His right ear was working normally and healthy. The test showed the grommit was in his ear canal rather than the drum but that was fine because the drum was working. The left ear, which they usually cant get a reading on actually got a reading to say the grommit was still in and working. I was getting hopeful....

The actual hearing test showed otherwise. The audiometrist did a really thorough job testing, Ben really concentrated hard. She says we are lucky that he still enjoys the testing process as some kid tire of it and get bored easily and refuse to engage fully. But Ben still loves it, he probably makes more a game out of it than he should as he likes to colour coordinate the pegs into a pattern as he puts them in the board! But despite his best efforts he still has a hearing loss and at this stage it is looking like a permanent loss. Further testing on Thursday will help as well as assessing him for something called Central Auditory Processing Disorder. As the lady was explaining the disorder to me I was certain they were using Ben as the example! He struggles in noisy environments  gets easily frustrated and tires easily when he is trying to listen. I always thought he was willfully disobedient however it is looking like he might be better behaved than we thought just less able to follow instruction, interpret them and follow through!

My family and friends are always telling me hearing loss is never going to hold Ben back. And is isn't and it won't. It is just hard for me as a Mum to reconcile the fact that my baby isn't perfect! I am thankful that I have been tenacious and persistent in asking questions of behalf of my son because the biggest factor in helping to identify hearing issues is struggling with school work. Ben doesn't struggle and this hasn't affected his ability to learn to read (although it does affect his spelling ability but now they mark him on the work he heard rather than the word that was said, but that was another story!) or any other facet of his education other than his classroom behaviour  I am now just hoping we may have the answer to the questions I have been asking on this subject!