Hearing

I think my recent post describing Kaitlyn's visit to the audiologist was confusing...I sort of made it sound like she regained some hearing. NOT what happened, that will never happen. She is just hearing well, hearing all the decibel levels, and doing it with mostly one ear. Some people with unilateral loss do just fine, others really struggle with it. Kaitlyn seems to be doing well. Her brain (we hear with our brain, not with our ears-the part of Kaitlyn's brain that does the hearing was damaged by CMV) seems to be compensating well for the loss.

I went to the eye doctor the other day and he told me that 80% of what I see is done with my right eye. My left eye is lazy (silly eye) and the right eye has to do most of the work. I don't notice this when I am using both eyes, but if I try to just use my left eye, I might as well be blind. It just doesn't work on its own.

Kaitlyn's hearing loss is similar. Obviously, if sound is coming mostly from her right side she wont hear it as well as if it were coming from her left, but all in all, when she has "surround sound," her brain hears it well and decodes it properly. If she were just to use her right ear, like if I was just to use my left eye, she would be lost. But add in her left ear, her "super ear," and she does great. It's not quite like eyes, but similar. When one of our senses in damaged, the brain sends the extra neurons (that would have gone to that area) to other areas and the other areas become stronger, to make up for the "weak" area. This is why people who are blind often have supersonic hearing (or why people who are deaf can have amazing eye sight). Pretty good system.

The audiologist wanted to make sure that she is understanding sound, localizing, and still hearing well with her left ear. She passed the test for all three.

I'm not sure if this makes any sense...it gets very confusing because it is all wrapped up in the brain and the brain is still a HUGE mystery to me! Not as much as it was 10 months ago, but still very confusing.

In any case, she's a happy with thing :) Well, not today because she has another ear infection, but usually she is!