Episode 12: Cochlear Implants: The Beck Family’s Experience

In this episode of 'Hear Me Out,' the official podcast of the Masonic Children's Clinic for Communication Disorders, hosts Niki Lampi and Tamara Pogin explore various aspects of communication disorders. They speak with John and Katie, parents of Lily, who share their journey of discovering and handling Lily's profound hearing loss. The family discusses the initial screenings, unsuccessful attempts with hearing aids, and the eventual decision to opt for cochlear implants. The conversation touches on Lily’s surgery and activation process, and the supportive role of various therapy programs and community initiatives. The episode also features Lily and her sister Stella, who share their experiences and how they've adapted to the use of sign language and cochlear implants. Insights into the importance of early intervention, regular audiological check-ups, and the impact of community support highlight the comprehensive approach required in managing hearing loss.

Transcript

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Hello and welcome to Hear Me Out, the official podcast of the Masonic Children's Clinic for Communication Disorders. This is the place where we dive into all things related to communication disorders and how we can best support the kids and families affected by them. We will be talking with speech language pathologists, clinic staff, families and donors to share stories, insights, and the impact of providing free speech, language and hearing services to children across our community. I'm Niki Lampi speech language pathologist and director of the clinic, And I'm Tamara Pogin, also a speech language pathologist with a focus on working with autistic children and their families. And we are your hosts. We're so glad you're here. Welcome. Today on the podcast we have John and Katie who have a child of former clients at the clinic. Their daughter, Lily is here today as well as Stella, and so they are going to share their story about cochlear implants. So they attended the PAC program, which is parents and children communicating in therapy, a way to get into therapy and have parents learned certain strategies, and we are also excited to have them here and share their story. Thank you guys for coming in. Welcome. Thanks for having us. Thanks for having us. And now I remember when you were here for the PAC program and the girls were little, little like I almost didn't recognize 'em today 'cause they're so tall. But I think Lily was two. I wanna say almost, almost two. Almost two. Yeah. We started in 2021. That would be four. Yeah. That would've been four and Stella would be four. Mm-hmm. And my favorite memory of you girls is if Stella would go too far away from when Lily was playing, Lily would just go the top of her voice. Stella. Stella, and and call for her sister. So that, and then you'd just come running like, what's up? So yeah, it was very cute. Do you remember that? No, probably not. You were pretty little. Um, so tell us a little bit about your story. Like how did it start? When did you first know that Lily had, hearing loss? So Lily failed her newborn screening for hearing, the day after she was born. Whenever they did that and. Initially the hospital said, well, there's probably nothing to worry about. She'll come back and get screened again. So we came back a month later and again, she failed and they said, well, still let's not jump to any conclusions. We'll check again at the three month. So then at the three month checkup, she failed the hearing screening again, and they said, yes, she's. Has hearing loss and we kind of started down that journey and started with hearing aids and had not a whole lot of success. So how old was she when you first started hearing aids? Three, uh, three months, probably. Like one, no, three and a half months. About three and a half months. Yeah. So they fitted her? Yeah, they fitted her. The diagnosis came on Halloween that year. Okay. So I just remember it, it just being on, October 31st. Sure. and then they fitted her the middle of November that year. So now were they able to tell early on how great of hearing loss it was? I think it was like profound, yeah. Profound loss. Mm-hmm. So she really wasn't hearing much of anything? No. Okay. So she was fitted for hearing aids at three and a half months. Did she tolerate them being in, I think she did really well. Keeping them in. Mm-hmm. Good. It's just they grow out of them so fast. Right. So you were. By the time the molds came back, you would have to go back in and get them, Refit. Yeah. Uhuh, well, not now, but back then. Mm-hmm. You were growing a lot. Yeah. Mm-hmm. So, and you said you didn't see much of a change with those? No, no. Not at all. And then, March of 20. 20. That's when our, we had, like the big decision, we went down to Mayo in Feb, I think it was February, we went down to Mayo to have overall testing, to see if she was a candidate for cochlear implants. And then we actually. Had a meeting with, university of Minnesota as well. Children's Hospital. Mm-hmm. Just for a second opinion. There's a guy at the U of M Children's. It's a CMV expert, which, we found out because of our. ENT at Essentia, suggested, Hey, we should test Lily for CMV. That might be what caused her hearing loss. So, and CMV is cytomegalovirus. Am I saying that right? Yes, yes. Correct. And it was just we wouldn't have even known about it except for RENT here at Essentia. She had some cases wherever she did her undergrad and said, Hey, it just goes off the blood off. The foot perk when they were born. They tested it and it came back positive. And so we had an answer and to why she was deaf and what our journey would be because with that the hearing could be up and. Up and down and Oh, like a fluctuating, yeah, fluctuating and Okay. You know, like what the study showed they would it would, you would lose all the hearing. Okay. So, so Lily had CMV when she was born? Mm-hmm. Okay. Correct. Yep and, nothing that, you know, I had an older child that was in daycare, so just like different things that they say like, oh, maybe not washing your hands properly. It's a virus that you get when you're pregnant and. Nothing that I did wrong, it was just so something you had during pregnancy that got passed along, but no real, you don't really know. I don't remember. Yeah. I mean, yeah. You had no symptoms. No, I had no symptoms. And that's what's so interesting about it, is that yeah, for an adult it may be a cold, maybe nothing. Mm-hmm. And that's what's so interesting about it, is that it's kind silent. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And now they actually they passed a if you fail. Your newborn screening test in Minnesota, you are automatically tested for CMV. So. Oh, that's, so they're checking for that. Yeah, they're checking for that. And they passed that, I dunno, a couple years ago, I feel like. Yeah. There was a woman down in the cities that really lobbied for that to happen and really That's great. Jumped all over it and was on it and, yeah. Because once you knew that helped make the path more clear for Lily's treatment. Oh, definitely. Yes. And like just for other moms that were pregnant or, didn't know about it. It's just something that I've never, I didn't even hear about it with my first pregnancy. That was, four years prior. So to be aware of it, so I. So at this point you had hearing aids, you figured out it was from CMV. Did she have any other problems from that virus or is it the hearing loss and then Yeah, just the hearing loss. We had some ankle low mobility but it figured itself out, and as she got older. And so yeah, the February of March right before COVID of 2020, we had or consults down at Mayo, down at University of Minnesota Children's, and we ultimately decided to go with the Children's for surgery. And that was scheduled April of 2020. Oh, no. And we all know what happened. So stressful. Yeah. Of April, 2020. And so we weren't able to get our surgery and. Had to reschedule. Yeah, we had reschedule and they, it wasn't any rescheduling going on. It was like, you're canceled and you don't know when you'll be on the books again. Oh. That must have been really frustrating. Yeah, that was really frustrating. And a lot of, and she was two by that time, right? No, she wasn't even one. Oh, she wasn't even one yet. So she would've been implanted very early on. I mean, she was. Implanted early on already. She got implanted when she was 10 months old.. June of 2020 and then she was turned on activated July of 2020. So thankfully it wasn't too much of a delay. No, it was just a lot of extras while you were in the hospital. Exactly, yeah. And just like extra things that we had to do as a family and making sure that we were healthy. We had both John and I both had to get a COVID test. We had a fight for. Both of us being at the hospital at the same time. At that time there was only one parent that could go in and Right. You know, that was really hard. You weren't able to go to the hospital. I bet you were with grandma and grandpa or something like that. With grandma. Okay. You were grandma, so you couldn't be there. Okay. So you were, you were safe with grandma. Yeah. That was a hard time. I remember that. Yeah. And as parents, I can't imagine how hard that would be to, I mean, I'm sure both of you need to be there. Mm-hmm. Yeah, so we fought for that, and she got turned on and. Typically before COVID, the whole family would go for activation. So you had, grandparents or aunts and uncles or siblings, going through that process with you as well. Just because there they give you so much, at, for first, they, we had, we went home with bags and bags of stuff. So can you explain? The process of the surgery and then the process of when it gets activated and not in depth, but just just for people who have no idea what we're talking about. No idea what and how it's different from a hearing aid and things like that. Sure. Yeah. So a cochlear implant is implanted inside of your head, so she has essentially two computer chips inside her head. And it's kind of a light version of brain surgery. The surgeons that do it are incredible. Lily's surgeon was Dr. Roby, who is at Children's in St. Paul right now, I believe, but she was amazing. Unfortunately, she had the opportunity to get a second operation with her, which we can talk about later. Okay. But I mean, as far as the parents, you go into the hospital, you do all the check-in, and essentially hand lily off and they put her under, and they drill a hole through her skull and run wires down into her cochlea, which is the hearing organ, hearing cabins. So basically the reason she's deaf is because all the little hairs in her cochlea essentially are dead. So they put electrodes in there that. Stimulate those hairs and electrically simulate her being able to hear. Mm-hmm. so that's the first surgery when she gets that part done. And then, she gets a giant bandaid around her head. And as that all heals. Once that's all healed, we went back in for what they call the activation, which is when she gets her processors, which is the external device with the microphones on, and that's a little piece that you see on her head. Yep. Yep. And she has little magnets that stick onto the side of her head with a wire that go onto something that kind of looks a little like a hearing aid. but instead of the sound going through the ear, it just goes through wires into your inner ear. Just amazing technology. Mm-hmm. That they can do that. And they turn it on and you see all kinds of videos of kids like, wow. And they hear everything and she just kinda sat there. Yeah. We didn't have that big aha. No we didn't. When she got turned on, she just sat there eating her cracker, and for a mother, I've watched so many videos. I was a part of all the Facebook groups you could, you could possibly be a part of during this journey. And I was like, oh, well that's disappointing. Yeah. 'cause I didn't know what, if she wasn't hearing anything, if she. Just wasn't familiar with that. One of our big moments was on her, actually on her first birthday. She had her processors on, and when we were singing to her and, saying Lily, she, turned her head. And that was probably the, one of the, moments that I had as a mom that I'm, okay, this is working, this is, this is gonna be okay. And, Yeah. Well, and it, it just shows you that path of learning language and, she wouldn't respond to her name right away because she's never heard it. Mm-hmm. But then after she, you have those few weeks or months for her to learn, oh wait, they call me Lily. That's my name. Then, you know, then, you know, to, to respond to it and what it means. Mm-hmm. Stella, do you remember much of that part or were you still too little? Mm, not really. Not really? Mm-hmm. You just see it in videos or pictures and then Yes. Yeah. Kind of those memory pictures. And so then after she was activated and then you came home, what kinds of therapy or language stimulation were you engaging in? We went down to the children's hospital in Minneapolis. I feel like probably for the first six months. Every other week, and luckily John's mom lives there, so we were pretty close to the children's hospital. They, we'd go in for our 45 minute appointment, they'd do some adjustments on the, our processors, and then we would go and have our speech therapy. Yeah, speech therapy with her. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And then pretty much from. Was it birth or when she was Three months when we got tied in with her educational audiologist and DHH teacher. Oh, sure. Oh, that, yeah. Help me grow, helping grow as soon as they're identified. Grow. Yeah. So I think that was at three months after she was diagnosed. So we had that team that had been coming into our home and helping her through the hearing aid process and continues to help her. She still has, an educational audiologist. The audiologist here at Masonic was her audiologist until she retired a couple years ago and decided to come here. Lucky her. Yeah, we were, we welcomed any help since the beginning. We, I mean, like I said, I, I was busy on Facebook being part of all the different groups of DHS or DHH and, support groups cochlear implants, hearing aids, we were part of learning sign language with the Deaf Mentor Program. Yeah. Deaf Mentor program. Mentor program. Yeah. So we had two different deaf mentors that helped us try to learn sign language as best we could. Mm-hmm. And were. Okay. So were you using sign language quite a bit with her even though she had the cochlear implant at such a young age? when she was first born? You know, the, the typical more or all done bath time, the baby signs, baby signs. we still use it today, not as much throughout the journey. More go to bed and. Or time for bed or, yeah, during bath time, bedtime. You know, when she doesn't have her processors on, she can't hear. Oh, sure. Mm-hmm. So we're not so still rely on that communication fluent, but we can sign enough to communicate with her and where she understands. Mm-hmm. 'cause obviously she's not fluent in signing at this point, but she is picking it up more and more, which is cool. She knows. I'm getting lots of sign language. You're learning lots of it. So, Lily, can I ask you a question? And I have a question for you too in a second, Stella. So Lily, when you don't have your processors on, what is that like for you? I can't hear. Mm-hmm. Can't hear. And uh, do you get frustrated or is it just like me or do you like it? I kinda like it because I don't really, at nighttime, I can't really sleep with my processors on. Oh, you don't like it? Or you would You like to? No, I don't like to. You like the quiet, are they uncomfortable to have on when you're sleeping? No. No. Just don't like to have, it's probably just nice and quiet then. Huh? Because when we were talking about, oh, there's, and I don't have to hear thunder, hear thunder. I don't have to hear thunder. Mm mm-hmm. When Lily doesn't wanna listen, she says she takes out her eyes. I can hear you. I can hear you. Oh, you just have such a mischievous look on your face. Oh, that's funny. So Stella, what, how do you feel when she doesn't have her processors on? Well, she's still pretty loud, but I don't know. I don't remember. Well, at nighttime I'm pretty quiet. Kind of because you're sleeping sometimes. So Stella, do you use any sign language with your sister? Sometimes. Like when I wanna get on my room when I'm trying to sleep. Oh. So you know, some, some powerful words. That's neat. And Lily, you said you're learning more signs. What kind of signs are you learning now? Or what are some of your favorite signs? Like you've used a lot. Hard to think of them on the spot, huh? Probably like yes or no. Yes or no? Yes and no is powerful. I love you. I love you. That's a good one. I know I can do this or, oh yeah, the hand sign or the three symbols. Love you. I love you. How do friends at school react to her cochlear implants? When, tell 'em about the book you made, or the, remember you would do a speech in your kindergarten class. Who, who helped you with that? Miss Boston. Yep. And Miss Melissa, Melissa helped you make a book and like a, we make a book every year. Mm-hmm. For your classmates? On the tv? On the tv. On the tv. Oh. Like her, her, um, like her computer. And then last year we had a picture of, we had like a picture thing, a picture book. Yeah, like on our screen of Miss Olson's. Remember that? Yeah. Like a PowerPoint. I was pretty, I was wearing a pretty dress and we put Lucy and DJ on the screen and we put Minnie and Emma. Are those some of your friends? No dogs. Those are your dogs. Dogs and cats. And we put. Anything else, like pictures of you and Oh, our family and, oh. Your processors. I process those like on both sides, what they have. Hmm. And you were telling them about how they work? Yeah. Very cool. And we have this little microphone, not the micro, that Ms. Olson wears that gray one. Yeah. That you pass around to all your Yeah, that's what you, we usually use for, so I can hear a little more. Oh, nice. So Ms. Olson is your teacher and she wears a microphone. So it goes directly into your, the mic, into your processors, but then you have one that the your classmates can share to so that you hear that better when they're trying to talk to. That's really cool. So more technology, right. Yeah. So they get to use some technology too because of you. Yeah, I bet they like that. So when you, what do you do when someone comes at the playground and says, what's that? And they point to your head or your ears right here? I would just say the Coate implants. Yep. And that's how you here? Mm-hmm. Very cool. Nice. That's really cool that you get to teach your whole class about 'em. You get to be the teacher. Mm-hmm. What do you think Della? Well, my friend, uh, she really likes sign language and she really wants to learn more sign language. And the first, when I met her, she was like, what's that? Uh, pointing at my assistant. Oh, pointing at Lily's hearing aid and things. Mm-hmm. And, and. So did you get to teach her? Yeah, I got to teach her a little sign language and she really wants a sign language book for a birthday. Very cool. It's, I could probably make a one, 'cause I like a wall of sign language. Do you have a wall of sign language signs? I have like a wall of sign language. Very cool. so it's like, it's like yes, no, and dog and cat. Like a c It has a C on it, like the literacy? Mm-hmm. No. You know that picture that when you walk by, when you walk by my bed, it's by my bed hanging up. Oh yeah, it says love. Oh, it says love. Oh yeah, love. LOVE. Oh my goodness. You're smart. You're a good speller. That's really cool. So, you definitely had the, the A team coming in and you had the children's team that was supporting you. And then when did the clinic come into the support for your journey? I think the first, um, part was getting involved was the PAC program. I think we did that before Lily. I think she had her evaluation and then we were part of the PAC program. Um, and then she was able to come in, I think fall of 21? Might have been. Yeah, because we did the PAC in the spring of 21. I remember that being a really positive experience for us, and Lily had been on the wait list to get in at that point. So the PAC program is there for. families who are on the waiting list so that they can learn techniques, for helping their children learn language and communicate while they're on the waiting list. and it's a five week program. You guys came in and I'm glad that was helpful for you. Mm-hmm. We really enjoyed it. just because we could come here as a whole family. I mean, this. You know, when you're here at the clinic, it, it's a whole family approach and we really value that just because then, and then taking things home and using it at our house and, I guess that's one of our ha aha things, you know, here at the clinic that we really valued. Mm-hmm. Great. And then what was the therapy like when you got started into therapy? You did more of that than did? Yeah, I did, I guess, I suppose. Um, and I just, I really loved our pathologist. We had Jillian so we really loved, and then Stella got to come, she did the childcare and then Lily, came with me and I was in the room with her. And, yeah, I just, like I said, it's, it was a lot of fun. It was, and when you're going through this journey, it might not be easier, but the people that you meet and with the, how having a lot of people help that's, it makes it easier. Lily, do you remember any of the games or any of the things that you got to do with Jillian when you were here? no, no, that's okay. Gi, gi, Ms. Gillian was your therapist, So she helped you say words and sentences. I, I won sentences at Miss Olson's class. You did? Yes. To how to write them and things like that. Yeah. You learned from all these different people. And I put them in my sun book. So first we do one sun book and then we do another. Interesting. I think that's, that is okay that you don't remember as much because that is our clinic's approach is to have it be like any other play session. So when Lily, when you came, you just got to play, and then Mom and Jillian were really using some ideas and techniques that really helped you learn without you having to feel like you were learning. You're just playing. Right. Maybe Katie, do you remember some of the things that you guys worked on? Yeah, it's, I feel like it's been so long. Lily's almost six. Yeah. And if not, that's okay. No, and we are here. We actually we are only did an a year here because this place was so successful with Lily's journey that. We get kicked out, you could say or something. You graduated. Yeah. To graduate. Graduate, yeah. Graduate early. Meet her goal. We love that. We love that, but hate it 'cause Yeah. I have to say goodbye. But just really owning in on the play based. We had a, I remember having so many different themes, this weekly or monthly themes that they would come up with. One thing I remember. Like building a cloud with shaving cream and then, squirting the different colors, and so we did that a lot. Stella did that for a couple weeks after that. So just taking Oh, fun, just taking things home and really just keeping, doing the same thing, but it's just fun. Mm-hmm. So, going back to when did we do that, when you were really little? How old? Probably two. I would be five. And you would be five? Yeah. What were some of the know, you said you reached out to a lot of different different Facebook groups and, you've had a lot of people on your team throughout this. Was there anything in particular that was really helpful that you would suggest other people look out for? Um, we actually, John and I had, made a deaf and hard hearing. Family group, we ran for about a year and a half. And we met probably 10 or 12 different families through that. We got busy and we just couldn't keep up with it. But that was really helpful, just meeting families in person mm-hmm. And really connecting with them. And especially right after COVID, I mean, that's what we, we really needed and. I know a lot of other families need it too. Um, but yeah, just connecting. That's, if it was a message, I, I had a family from Illinois that I connected with and they actually came up and visited, in the summer, probably two or three years ago. And, we still talk today. That's, so just finding those connections and telling your stories about to other parents and say it's. Everyone has a different journey, it's okay. It's okay. You'll, your girls are definitely very sweet. So do you have, do you have any advice for families that maybe they've went through what you did, where it was like a failed newborn screening, and then the one month and the three month, and then there's how they're feeling or where to go, or probably just when you're in it, you're in it. But kinda take it a day by day. I remember. I wasn't, I was thinking, oh my God, I don't know how, what it's gonna be like with our hearing. What if this, what if that? And I try not to do that, but I know it's easier said than done. But just know whatever you're gonna go through it's part of your journey and your journey only. And just finding those supports, if it's your family, your friends, or, like I said, different. There's so many different avenues just finding your support group. Yeah. To me, just embracing all the help and support that's out there. There's so much. If you, it can be overwhelming, but you know, like we said, Lily was with, to help me grow and got a deaf and hard of hearing teacher, an audiologist. Right away that came into the home and just that there's no shame in taking that help, it's it's made a world of difference, I think, for Lily and for us. Can you add something to it? Yeah. That's one of the biggest, I, parents get overloaded, but I found it quickly okay, maybe I had too much at one time, and then I'm like, okay. What can I, not shave off, but how do I balance this all, that one is hard. And so right now, where is she at with like speech, language and education? Is she is she age level for all of that? Yeah. Lily, what grade are you going into? First grade. What grade are you going to do first grade? And so she, she graduated kindergarten. Love it. So right now she works on a few different things through our, just our school audiologist. But she is probably right up, at the average level or above with certain things. And, we couldn't be more proud. We we are in a very small community. We live in Haw and her class size is it's split, but usually grades are about 25 to a grade. Okay. So these kiddos are going to be with her for the rest of her life. Same kiddos give and take, but we, that's what's unique about us too, is we got involved with our community right off the bat and, just the different things we do at our, in our community. Everyone knows Lily, and what am I, should I say I lost my train of thought. And like you're, yeah. It seems like you're well connected with your community and the kids, and I love that from early on. They know about her cochlear implants. Mm-hmm. And that they're there to help her here and that it's not a big deal, it's just that Yeah. It's just Lily, you know's her implant glasses. I think maybe where she was going is just having integrated and connected with the school. Mm-hmm. And become involved in. A lot of different levels is just another way to get that support and mm-hmm. Just be part of a community and that helps Lily, helps us, helps Stella. Mm-hmm. Um, really just helps the whole community. Yeah, I think that's a good point. It helps the whole community because, it might seem like. A hard thing to say we're the poster child for, but you know that, but that is, that might be what it starts out being, but then they get to know you and you just become a part of their community. Mm-hmm. Not the poster child for, cochlear implants and you support them and they support you and it's just a really nice we've just had a lot of different opportunities. On our journey too as well, we we spoke at the, Cloquet library right after COVID as well, just just different families, we were in the newspaper, and just. So we had a lot of avenues to tell our, or a lot of opportunity to tell our stories. You spoke at one of our dinners one year. Yes. Yeah. That was nice having you there, mm-hmm. So just a lot of different opportunities, to tell our story and to, let other families know that they're not alone. Mm-hmm. You know? That's beautiful. And then. Going back just a little bit to where you were saying that, Lily, you have, an audiologist at school and probably the deaf and hard of hearing teacher Lily? Are you learning at school like how to make sure that your cochlear implants are working or the, the, we call it maintenance to keep them safe. So what do you do at school? When you get in the classroom? What do you get to do? To make sure all the technology's working. What are you responsible for? Like with the hearing mics and my co implants, you have to make sure that they're working. Yeah. Yeah. Do you have special jobs to take care of them? I put them on the charger. You put 'em on the charger. Very important. Yep. And then somebody comes and, makes sure they're working. Mm-hmm. But you are responsible for putting them on and taking them off. Yeah. And then when you get Mrs. Olson's, mic and you put that on the charger. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Like at the end of the day, I. Um, so I would, I would put them on the charger and then I would put some diff my batteries that I wear to school and the ones that I wear only at school at the end of the day, I put my ones on, I wear at my home. Oh, that's really nice to know that you can do that. That's. Really grown up. You're very responsible. Mm-hmm. You are. Can we talk a little bit about the importance of audiology and anything that you were surprised about audiology in hearing, especially early on when you were fighting out, that Lily had a hearing loss. Just, I guess find, like for the cochlear implant or for just the processors itself. I mean, just fine tuning them. I feel like every time we go into audiology, you know, we only go now every six months, but I feel like you could probably go every three months and find something to fine tune or different, you know, little adjustments. Yeah. There we go. Mm-hmm. Do you still go to the cities for an Audi L or do you Oh, we don't, we, we come, we do the Duluth Essentia. Okay. Audiology. Is it hard to get appointments? Oh, yes. And once you get, you know, canceled or re have, have forbid someone's sick. Yes. Oh, sure. Um, you're looking at another six to eight months. To get rescheduled, which is really hard when you have to get, you're supposed to do it on a schedule, getting the processors updated. Yep. But we've been blessed in making relationships. For example, our last appointment got canceled, unknown to us until we got there. Oh no. And we're able to reach out to our old audiologist Brent, who teaches at U of M now. Mm-hmm. UMD and UUMD. I'm sorry. It's part of U of M, right? It is. It is. And he also helps here now, too. Okay. Okay. So I think he's still part-time at Essentia. Mm-hmm. So when our appointment was canceled, he actually dropped everything. And drove to Essentia. We had to wait an extra 45 minutes and did Lily's audiology appointment for us so we didn't have to reschedule. So that's kind of Wow. The community we're in up here, you know, that is commitment. Yeah. And that's, a testament to building relationships with the people that help your kids. Mm-hmm. And shows how invested. People that are in the, these fields are mm-hmm. You know, we don't do this work for, it's not work. We, we do it because we have, you know, it's, it's our passion. Mm-hmm. It's what we mm-hmm. What we do. And so, yeah. So Nikki was just saying that, um, when we were found ourselves as the clinic in a position where we need an audiologist, we need more hours, we're behind on appointments, that Brent was one of the audiologists in the community that stepped forward and said, well, I can give what I can. And, um. And have some time, whatever. Even it's, it's not enough, but it's, it's an, but we know how important audiology is, especially for a child who has a documented hearing loss, but also for all these kids that we don't know if they have a hearing loss or not. So is our speech and language therapy going to be effective if we don't know what their. Hearing, abilities are so it's cool that you have that connection with Brent too. Yeah. What kind of has stood out to me with the audiology experiences, just the reach beyond just testing, Lily's hearing, and that we've had audiologists go in, check on her classrooms at school and make improvements to create better listening environments. That, as you said, doesn't only help Lily, it also helps all the other kids. Some might have a little bit of hearing loss or trouble hearing or, it's just loud in there and it helps or echoey or, yeah. Mm-hmm. But you don't really think that, hey, audiology goes beyond just sitting in a booth and listening to words and seeing if you can hear 'em or not. Right. There's so much more involved. Well, just like, like what Jen was saying about other kids, in our classroom, you know, we asked the tennis balls to be in all chairs, you know, a lot of soft pillows or bean bags in the classroom and, you know, we don't know, but maybe that's helped a lot of the Echo E to for the other kids, you know? Right. That maybe just have, you can't really, you know. Just can't hear certain things or, um, having trouble, you know? Right. Or even hypersensitivities to sounds. Mm-hmm. That would, I would think that'd be very helpful. Mm-hmm. Please. Mm-hmm. And Tamara, do you remember the statistics? It was for every child diagnosed with hearing loss at birth, another three will be diagnosed before preschool. Is that right? I was wondering if it was behind us or not. No. Okay. We have in our facility here, we have some speech and language hearing facts on our walls. And so, uh, we were checking for the actual one. I'm, I'm not sure I'll go back and check that. Yeah. But you could, you could put that in because it is, it is shocking actually. It's, I remember being very surprised by that. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Something that, that Amy Packer told us. And also. Uh, another thing that I learned from our audiologists and just from working in the field is that even a mild loss, even though it's mild. Doesn't mean it's not significant. So even if it's, you're still hearing, you know, the, the louder sounds missing out on those quieter sounds. You know, the S ash, Ash, ash, S-S-S-S-H-F, those quiet sounds, I mean that missing those really impacts how you're learning language, how you're learning to read how you are. Your energy. Your energy, because you have to work so much harder to figure everything out. Mm-hmm. Yes. And I thought of it when I was talking to a friend one day over the phone, and you know when the, the connection isn't good and the, and you're missing things that they say and how frustrating it is when you're trying to figure out their message and pieces just keep falling away. It makes me think of like, gosh, imagine if that was every conversation you had. Mm-hmm. It's very, very impactful. Yeah. I see the computer and when you mention, you know, the statistic, whatever it was, but for every kid that's diagnosed at birth, there's three that are diagnosed before preschool. It just kind of highlights the importance of early intervention because does Lily would not be where she is right now if she wouldn't have gotten access to sound when she was 11 months old. Right. Like if she would've waited till two. That's too long. She'd probably be a lot different. So every month really makes a big difference. And I'm not sure how young they're implanting kids now, but it keeps, seems to keep getting younger and younger. You know, she was 10 months, which is quite young. I think they're going down to like six or seven months now. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Early intervention sooner. You can find out, early identification, early intervention. Get access to sound the better chances you have with language. what's something that you guys are looking forward to with Lily and Stella and Lily? What are you looking forward to? Camping. Again. Camping. Oh, Stella said camping again. Camping. Where did we just come back from? Oh, we came back from. The cities. we went to a campground. It's called? No, it's called Bunker Beach. Bunker Beach Hills. And there's a water park that's called Bunker Beach. And there's a wave pool. Yeah, there's a wave Pool. Wow. Pool. And we could On the campground. Yeah, the campground. And then like we could, from our campground, we could walk to the water park. Water park, or we could just walk to. We usually, we walked over to, um, our friend's camper. Yeah. Because we camper and then we went together to the water park. Yeah. Mm-hmm. That's fun to camp with friends. Yeah. I've never done that. And then, then our next camping trip is in. Um, two weeks. Two weeks. Two weeks. And we're going to KA away. We've been, I think it's our sixth year. Yeah. No, fifth. Fifth, yeah. Fifth year. No. Um, sixth, fifth. Fourth. I mean third with cousins. All fun. So you're gonna go with your cousins this time too? Yeah. Okay. To stay in the camper. We have a tiny camper and we get to borrow our. Uh, auntie and uncle's camper. Nice. So a little more space. Yeah, Yeah. Stella, will you, um, finish this out by saying bye and thank you. Bye. Thank you. Bye guys. Thanks so much. Bye. Thank you. Lily, do you wanna say goodbye too? Wanna say goodbye? Bye bye. Thanks so much for coming in, you guys. I always love checking in with you and hearing how things are doing. Thanks for having us. Things are going. Yeah. Thanks guys. That wraps up this episode of Hear Me Out. Thanks so much for listening. Be sure to subscribe, share the podcast with others, and join us next time as we continue learning from the professionals, parents and donors who make this work possible and celebrate the amazing kids we serve. To learn more about the Masonic Children's Clinic or to support our mission of providing free speech, language and hearing services, visit our website and consider making a donation. Every gift helps us give children the voice they deserve. Visit us at masonic children's clinic.org.