6 minute read
Family Voices Quite a Journey. Sahar Reiazi
Above: Sahar Reiazi’s children (from left) are Ghazal and twins Sina and Saghar. Sina’s profound bilateral hearing loss was confirmed when he was 1 month old.
Opposite page: Sina’s surgeon in Sydney, Dr. Catherine Birman, stands with the painting of the ocean that Sahar painted for her in gratitude (far right). Sahar also painted the delphiniums, a favorite flower of the teacher who worked with Sina after he received cochlear implants (near right).
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Quite a Journey
Cochlear implants, and the kindness of hearing healthcare professionals, help a young boy and his family succeed.
By Sahar Reiazi
I’m a mother of three wonderful children: Ghazal, age 6, and twins, Sina and Saghar, age 4. We’ve had quite a journey with hearing loss. It all began when our twins were born in 2016. We already had a daughter, then we were blessed with boy-girl twins! Life was hectic. I got all the help I could from a daytime nanny. My mother, sister, and husband Keyvan were also extremely supportive. In the hospital our daughter, Saghar, passed the otoacoustic emissions (OAE) test that checks newborn hearing, while our son, Sina, needed a follow up after failing his. The doctors indicated there might have been amniotic fluid left behind in his eardrums. Always an optimist, I didn’t give Sina’s test results a second thought. However, Keyvan has always been a realist. He was worried. He was right to be. As directed, we returned to the hospital with Sina when he was 1 month old. He failed the OAE test a second time. The staff scheduled him for an auditory brainstem response test (ABR) test. I was somewhat worried at this stage, but I just wanted to get the test finished with so the family would be at ease, feeling it was all a mistake and that Sina could hear.
The day of the ABR test was one of the most defining moments for me in the process. The audiologist placed electrodes (sensor stickers) on Sina’s head as he was sleeping in his striped yellow and white onesie. I sat beside him.
The audiologist shook her head. “Profound hearing loss in the left ear,” she announced. Then it hit me! I started crying silent tears. But I stayed hopeful, telling myself he definitely had typical hearing in his right ear. I knew he did, I thought, because he reacts when we make sounds. He reacts!
The audiologist shook her head a second time and said, “Profound hearing loss in the right ear.” I was shattered. My face was wet from all the tears, the uncontrollable tears. The audiologist gave me a box of tissues. I picked Sina up as he was still asleep and couldn’t believe that I was so disconnected from him. I couldn’t believe he couldn’t hear my voice. In retrospect I realized he did have visual cues to react to sound. I had been feeling excessively hopeful in order to deny the truth.
At age 6 months, Sina was fitted for hearing aids. I gained hope again, as I usually do. I identified an auditory-verbal therapist who was willing to come to our home and train us and Sina. We practiced and practiced.
But Sina’s hearing declined. My husband, still the realist, said it was time to pursue what we had already been contemplating: “Sina needs cochlear implants.” And so we began to move forward with cochlear implants (CIs).
I was raised in Sydney and am an Australian citizen, and I married my
husband in Iran. Our children were all born in Iran and were granted Australian citizenship because of my citizenship. After Sina was diagnosed as a candidate for CIs, my husband and I decided to move to Australia to give Sina the best care. After a year we moved back to Tehran for our families and my husband’s job.
The night before we met Dr. Catherine Birman, Sina’s surgeon in Sydney, I read that she had received the New South Wales Woman of the Year Award for her work in CIs in 2017. I was impressed but intimidated. We were sitting in her reception area when she walked by. She is a very tall, blonde woman with a serious face and professional attire. I was even more intimidated. The receptionist then called us and we walked into Dr. Birman’s office. This would become another defining moment for me.
Immediately Dr. Birman smiled at us and thoroughly explained what was going to happen. She was so nice, which was not at all what I had anticipated. She asked me a question—I can’t remember what it was—and I broke down crying. She got up from behind her desk, made her way to where I was sitting, knelt beside me, and hugged me tightly.
She looked into my eyes, with her own also filling with tears, and told me, “I know it is the hardest thing in the world to hand your son to me for surgery, but I promise, I will return him back to you safe and sound.” I felt a big weight lift off my shoulders.
At age 22 months, Sina was implanted with his first implant, and received his second six months later. At the early intervention center in Sydney, we worked with Maree Rennie, a certified teacher of the deaf at the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children. She is also an extraordinary woman, very patient and kind.
When Dr. Birman walked out of surgery, I asked her what her favorite scenery was, and she replied, “The ocean.”
I said, “You used the art in your hands for my son, and I will use the art in my hands to paint the ocean for you.” And I did. It is now hanging in her office.
I also asked Maree what her favorite flowers were, and she said delphiniums. So I painted her a vase full of delphiniums.
Sina is doing great. He is still receiving weekly speech therapy sessions, which we do online now because of the pandemic. I work with him every day, and we all read books together. My husband uses every opportunity to talk to him and explain things to him, and Sina has the funniest conversations with his sisters.
Sina is speaking English quite well and—to my surprise and joy—using phrases like “don’t interrupt me.” He is even starting to learn a second language, Farsi. It is a happy ending.
Sahar Reiazi is the author and illustrator of the children’s book “My Cochlear Implants,” which she has dedicated to “all the little ones with hearing loss.” To download the book, see srdawn.wixsite.com/ mycochlearimplants.
Share your story: Tell us your hearing loss journey at editor@hhf.org.
