Summer has been great so far! Miss Kat and I have been having some great mom and daughter time. The weather has been amazing! So yesterday we packed up the whole family and headed to the waterpark!
Miss Kat does not yet have the Neptune. Insurance says they will cover it when her Harmony is 5 years old. That means we have about 18 months. (Big BUT though...her primary right side processor is dead. It is also no longer under warranty. Insurance is going to have to replace it. They can choose to buy another Harmony, which would only have a 6 month warranty, OR do the Neptune, which would be covered for 3 years. We are trying to convince them that the Neptune is the right choice!) But, lately, Miss Kat has not been wanting to play in the water without her devices. A year ago, she just whipped them off and headed for the water. Now she asks if she can leave them on for sprinklers and light water play. We tell her that is fine. But the waterpark is different. She will be in moving water, swimming, submerging herself...the Harmony just can't handle that! So, what do we do??
Enter youtube! As most parents of CI users know, there is a way to "waterproof" a typical BTE processor. It involves a baggie and a swimcap. We had mentioned it to Miss Kat the last couple of summers, but she wasn't interested. This year though, she said she wanted to be able to hear at the waterpark. So...we dove in!
It worked great! She was able to understand the lifeguards and the instructions on the slides. She could hear the warning whistles and announcements. Plus, she looked super cute with her zebra stripped swimcap on! (Plus, we could find her in the crowd easily!)
4 comments:
I love those tutorials! We can't use them with hearing aids, but it is great that there is a way to temporarily "waterproof" a CI! Siemens came out with a waterproof hearing aid, but it is only for mild/mod losses so won't suit Nolan. Rats! Why can't someone make a more powerful waterproof aid? He's technically hard of hearing, but is mod-severe (across the board) so below the speech banana and can't hear us unaided if we're more than a foot away.
Goodness. Is it that necessary? I grew up swimming in Southern CA and I was thrilled not to need my hearing aid - freedom! Peace and quiet! Besides when you're in the water, there is nothing to hear - so why go through the trouble??
While I can hear some without my hearing aids, I always wish I could hear the same as if I wore my hearing aids when I'm swimming. I think it's cool that you could find a way to have your daughter wear her processors at the Waterpark. Especially when you're going from ride to ride and usually I leave my hearing aids in a locker which sucks.
There's a lot to hear underwater, Anonymous.
Can hear sounds underwater? Sure can!
There is actually a lot of stuff to hear! She heard the lifeguards giving her instructions, she heard the whistles blow, she heard the announcements telling her to get out of the pool for break time. Plus, she was able to converse with us and tell us which slide she wanted to do next.
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