Magical Moments

I have two sons, Kane and Kash, and I live near Golden with my husband Jace. Both pregnancies were normal, and I delivered full term. Kane passed his newborn tests quickly, but Kash gave us few surprises before we left the hospital.

 

Newborn Hearing Screening
I remember Kash's first newborn hearing test clearly. In the late afternoon, we were eager to get home to big brother and start our life as a family of four. Kash slept peacefully as the technician set up the test, but soon he woke up screaming. The technician,  surprised, apologized and said it was unusual. After calming him down, she returned a few hours later and completed the test, but unfortunately, Kash did not pass. Confused, we were reassured by the nurse that it might be fluid in his ears from delivery, especially since we had no family history of hearing loss and a healthy older son. We had to stay another day for a retest. Despite hoping for better news, a new technician also found a failure 24 hours later. Tired and still puzzled, we were told again it could be fluid and could clear up in a week. The nurse scheduled a follow-up with a specialist, and finally, we went home.

The next week we traveled to Denver and began the long dreaded ABR test. We spent a total of 16 hours over 5 days getting Kash his ABR test completed. At the end of our appointment on day 5 the audiologist handed us a pamphlet and said our son has mild to moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. My husband and I were shocked! What do you mean he has hearing loss? How did this happen? What is going on? We thought it was fluid buildup from delivery. All the questions flooded over us. We didn’t understand. All that the audiologist had said to us was we needed to see a pediatric audiologist to get him fitted for hearing aids and they would reach out to get that scheduled. The tears began to flow. We had so many unanswered questions in that moment.

At 2.5 months, Kash received his hearing aids. His smile upon hearing my voice for the first time erased all our doubts. Jace and I were determined to ensure that his hearing loss wouldn't limit his potential. We vowed to support him in achieving anything he desired. When Kash was 8 months old we decided to proceed with genetic testing. Jace and I felt like we still had an unanswered question of where this hearing loss had come from. Turns out, my husband and I are exact matches for a gene mutation. Kash
has GJB2 or more commonly known as Connexin 26 gene mutation resulting in his bilateral hearing loss. At 8 months Kash was thriving and on track for all the baby milestones.

 

Looking back at when we got those test results, I thought something magical was going to happen. But in all honesty, we had already been given our magical moment of having Kash born into our lives.

 

Kash was enrolled in Early Intervention services early on and received great support. I truly believe Kash has succeeded so much because we had help along the way. I am forever grateful for the network and support. Kash is now 3 years old and spunkier than ever! He is starting preschool and excelling at every task. We are so proud to be his parents and can’t wait to see him continue to grow!