both of our boys have the exact same type of hearing loss. and the crazy thing is the team at our children's hospital has never seen auditory neuropathy in twins before. so they've kind of become a cute little science experiment. there are a lot of unknowns with AN because every case is different. no black and white answers like with other types of hearing loss. something happens in the auditory nerve that makes what you hear (if you CAN hear anything) sound distorted. so for those of us with normal hearing- when a car drives by and honks that sound enters our ear and our auditory nerve sends a signal to our brain saying "that was a car honking its' horn". but for people with AN, that signal doesn't get sent. and if it does it's most likely a wonky version of the actual sound so you don't really know what you're hearing.
both oliver and judah can hear low pitch sounds that are VERY loud. like, we have to wear sound proof headphones when we go in the booth with them. and they don't even flinch. other than that they can't hear. with their hearing aids their hearing is ever so slightly improved, but not enough that that would be the solution. so we are hopeful cochlear implants will be the answer. there isn't a 100% guarantee, but the team we are working with feels very confident this route will be extremely effective. some days i think how the boys can't hear the trash truck beeping, the birds outside, their sister bossing them around, me saying i love you. and it makes me so emotional. you don't think about these sorts of things until it effects you and your every day life. i catch myself every single day making noise at the boys to get their attention and then stopping myself because hello, that's not gonna work! but we are working through it, and we know that one day soon these two cuties will hear us.
