Up until about a month ago (April 2011) Ciaran's story was very different. He was the first born of the triplets. He was Baby A and because his water broke I delivered the babies at 31 weeks and 5 days. He was 3 lbs and 13 oz and had a big head of black hair when he arrived. He came home at 28 days old with Colin. He had pretty smooth sailing since until April 2011. He had a routine hearing screening at school and he was referred for further testing. I didn't think too much of it but was very shocked to hear this news. I immediatly brought him for further testing and it turns out he has late onset hearing loss in mid frquencies.
It's all new to us at this point (june 2011). We are getting him hearing aids in the next week or so. He has been tested for Connexin 26 like Cormac but is only a carrier so it is not causing his hearing loss. We are awaiting further testing results. We might never know the cause. We are lucky he already has language and didn't miss out on hearing during the critical years of speech development. That said, he will need to wear an FM system at school like Cormac. We will continue to get his hearing tested every three months to make sure nothing changes. We will pray it stays the same.
His official diagnosis is "Bilateral sensioneural moderate mid frequency hearing loss". We finally got him his hearing aids July 1, 2011. He is wearing Phonak Nios. They were the best fit for his A-typical hearing loss. His audiologist was pleased with the programming. He is a trooper and is loving them so far. I was scared about him having to wear an ear mold but he doesn't mind it at all. He has the decorated with green stickers already.
Ciaran is by far the buster of the family. He is very funny and loves to play jokes. He will also be the first one to figure out what buttons to push to drive you crazy :) He is very smart. He loves books. He loves dinosaurs. He is a natural athlete. He can hit a ball like you have never seen. He is also lefty. He plans to be a palentologist while pitching lefty on the New York Yankees.....
