If you think you can, you definitely will!

Pari Vallal was born on 05 Sep 2001, at 9.30 p.m. Like all other parents, we too were very happy to have our baby. All went well after Pari was born. I resumed work when he was 4 months old. He liked to see new faces and had a beautiful smile on his face always. We enjoyed being with the child. The growth of the child was very normal till about 1 year. This was when we started getting a feeling that he was not hearing some sounds. Pari would turn to the TV just after it was switched on. When he was 1 yr 4 months, we decided to take him to a doctor. We wanted to make sure that there was no problem. But a shock was waiting for us, when the audiologist said that Pari was affected with Profound hearing loss.

Life had been going very smoothly for me, and God had bestowed me with all the best things in life, but now this was a real blow to me. At first we refused to believe the results of the test. We went for the test in 3 other hospitals, to come to terms with reality.

Now that we were put face-to-face with a problem, we decided to go ahead and take the best possible steps to make him lead a happy life. Pari was fitted with hearing aids and joined Bala Vidyalaya, School for Hearing Impaired within a week of confirming the hearing loss. Since it required the full-time effort of the mother to bring up a child like this, I gave up my job immediately. The School was very good in bringing discipline to the child and an action plan for bringing out speech and language. Hearing Impaired children need to be taught in one language only. We chose English, since we thought it would be useful in his education. We spent lots of time trying to make him understand just a few words.

After all efforts, we found very slow progress. We went for a comparison of an Aided and Un-aided audiogram. We came to realize that Pari was not benefiting much from Hearing aids. In December 2003, we decided to do a Cochlear Implant surgery and fixed the surgery date to Jan 26, 2004. On Feb 20 2004, Pari’s implant was switched-on and we were able to see him responding to sounds, for the first time.

After tuning his processor (its called mapping) to suit his needs and continuous therapy, Pari was saying a few words by June 2004. By August 2004, he was able to respond to more and more sounds. In September 2004, when Pari completed 3 years, he joined Kidi’s Kingdom, a Play School in Anna Nagar. Pari was saying more words and started communicating his needs, after joining play school. He liked to interact with all the children there.

The next challenge was waiting for us, i.e., the task of getting admissions to LKG in a “good” school. We applied for a few schools. We wanted admission for Pari in Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidyashram, Kilpauk. When Pari went for the interview, we had to explain to the interviewers that his hearing was near normal. After much discussion, they decided to give us some more time. If we showed progress within that period, we would get admission. After 2 more rounds of interviews, Pari finally got admission to this school. Since then, the teachers have been doing a great job for Pari. He seems to be doing quite well, at par with other normal children. I’ve been going back to work since October 2005, after 1.5 years of rehabilitation post cochlear implant.

Even though God had given us difficulties, He has given us an intelligent child, good family to support us, understanding teachers / therapists for Pari. However tough the situation might be we need to take the next step forward, rather than crying over spilt milk. Where there is a Will, There is a Way.
I would like to extend my gratitude to the following important people in my life:
Dr.Mohan Kameswaran, MERF, who operated on Pari
Mr. Ranjith and Mr.Prashanth, Audiologists who helped in tests and mapping of the processor.
Ms.Kamala, Therapist who helped in bringing out the best in Pari, with much care.
Mr. Karthik and Mr. Saji of Pika Medical, who have continued to support us in using the Nucleus Cochlear Implant
Ms. Lakshmi, Kidi’s Kingdom for the peek preview of school life that Pari was introduced into
Mr. Ajeeth Prasath Jain, Principal, Bhavan’s Rajaji Vidyashram for giving us an opportunity to join in his school
Ms. Ambika, who is Pari’s first class teacher, for reassuring us that Pari is doing fine