Progress?

A few weeks ago I mentioned that we took Sora to an ENT and he gave us an appointment with an audiologist. Boy, I feel like this is a fun little scavenger hunt.

The audiologist was nice. She said she'd order us a hearing aid (from Bangkok). But (a big BUT) she said they have no way to do a hearing test with Sora wearing it, it costs 25,000Baht, there is no trial period (for us to be able to test it out), we can exchange it, and she doesn't really know what the brand is. So, we were happy to find someone who would work with us but since we didn't know anything about it and we couldn't test it we decided it wasn't a good option.

I had seen on a list of medical options in CM that there is a Hearing Center that deals specifically with Hearing Aids. It's not doctors, but technicians who work with patients and give Hearing Aids. I figured this might be a good place to take Sora. First of all, when I called to make an appointment it was AWESOME. They are used to working with people who are hard of hearing, so they spoke so slow and simply and enunciated so much. I've never had such an easy time speaking Thai on the phone. Man, if everyone here spoke like that I'd be in foreign language heaven! I REALLY liked the place. The technician was so nice and wanted to be helpful. Unfortunately, they can't provide Aids to kids younger than six. :-( I guess they can't get any that small. Too bad. BUT, she gave us a name of another audiologist. It was another hospital that I had never been to. Since I really liked her and she said she would call and set up the appointment I figured we'd try it.

So we go out to this hospital that is a little bit out of the city. Luckily my Thai tutor knew where it was and gave directions. Even just a little ways out of the city makes a huge difference. Not just in the hospital, but also in how many westerners are there. Micaiah, Sora, and I were definitely the show of the afternoon. I've gotten used to stares, but this was intense. We had an appointment with an audiologist there. We actually stood in a line to see her. I don't think I've ever done that to see a Doctor before. She was really nice and was also willing to order a Hearing Aid. She told us the brand and even said we could get it and test it in the hearing booth (they actually have one!) and return it if we didn't think it was helpful. It was the same price as the one at the other hospital so I bet it was the same one...probably the only Bone Conduction Hearing Aid you can get in Thailand. So we figured we'd look up the brand and get back to her.

Unfortunately it looks like it's a pretty old model and we couldn't even find it on the company's website. We also don't think it's the best kind for the hearing problem she has. It's complicated and it would be nice if I had someone who was an expert in Sora's condition.

So, I think that's it. I don't think there are any more options here. We're still hoping to get started with speech therapy soon and maybe we'll revisit the Hearing Aid issue when we go back to the US next year. In a way it's progress. I feel like we've completely exhausted all options here. Although it's not necessarily the result we wanted, it's good to know we tried everything.