Chapter 6 #2
‘And miss the pay-off? That moment when my patient hears something for the first time is the best part of my job. It’s what makes it all worthwhile. You’re not going to take that from me, are you?’
Peyton was humbled by his response and felt petty for equivocating. But she wondered just how many of Harry’s patients he’d taken such a personal interest in.
And therein lay the problem.
Still, after everything he’d done for her, could she really deny him the rewards?
McKenzie, spying the low kiddy table strewn with puzzles, tugged on Peyton’s hand and dragged her into the office and that was that. She let an eager McKenzie go and shut the door to give them all some privacy.
‘Why don’t you sit down with McKenzie while I get set up?’
Peyton nodded and walked on wobbly legs to the table, sitting on the child-size chair beside her daughter.
‘Has she had any repetition of those earlier dizzy episodes?’ Valentino asked as he tapped away at his computer.
‘No.’ The first few days post-op Peyton had noticed McKenzie would stagger a little on standing. She hadn’t been concerned, knowing it was directly attributable to the disruption of the inner ear, and they’d settled quickly.
Valentino pressed one last key on the laptop and glanced at Peyton. ‘Okay. Ready. Let me check how the wound’s doing first.’
He got up from his desk and took the seat on the other side of McKenzie. He tapped her hand and when she turned to him, he signed and said, ‘Can I have a look at your ear, please?’
McKenzie nodded her agreement and cocked her head to allow him access.
He lifted the angelic curls that covered her right ear out of the way to expose the small shaved area where he’d operated.
Two weeks ago there’d been some slight swelling over the bony area behind her ear but now it looked normal.
‘It’s healed beautifully,’ he murmured, letting her hair flop back over the site.
‘Okay, then,’ he said to Peyton, but signed for McKenzie’s benefit. ‘Let’s fit the external component.’
Peyton nodded, apprehension swirling in her gut. ‘Dr Valentino is going to fit your new hearing aid,’ Peyton signed.
Not that it was the type of hearing aid that McKenzie was used to but having worn them most of her life it was the simplest way to explain it to a three-year-old.
McKenzie kept playing as Valentino fiddled with the external component, fixing it directly over the area where he’d implanted the internal part.
It was a small circular unit that consisted of a microphone, a speech processor and a transmitter.
It linked magnetically to the internal mechanism, which consisted of a receiver and a stimulator.
He then retrieved his laptop from his desk and set it up at a smaller desk directly behind where McKenzie was sitting. Tension built in the muscles of Peyton’s abdomen as he methodically fiddled, plugging the external component into the laptop via a long cord.
‘Okay, you know the drill now,’ Valentino said. ‘I’m going to run the neural response telemetry first. It should take about ten minutes. She won’t be able to hear this.’
Peyton nodded. She knew that Valentino would pick a few of the electrodes now implanted into McKenzie’s cochlear to stimulate via the computer.
He would get a reading back which told him that the auditory nerves had responded.
Unlike hearing aids that magnified sound, the cochlear implant directly stimulated the auditory nerves inside the inner ear.
The minutes seemed like hours as the silence built. The urge to drum her fingers on the table was as hard to ignore as an itch and Peyton deliberately tucked her hands in her lap.
‘Buon,’ he murmured after a while. ‘Good. The nerve is responding perfectly so we know the implant’s working.’
A rush of adrenaline kicked in at Valentino’s confirmation and Peyton gripped the table as she gave him a tight smile. She’d been having nightmares that they’d get to this point only to find the implant was a dud.
The first hurdle had been passed!
To her surprise, he reached out and gave her shoulder a quick squeeze before returning his hand to the keyboard. ‘Okay, I’ll switch it on now. Yes?’
Peyton nodded, her stomach bottoming out. This was it. This was the moment. One or two clicks of the mouse and her daughter should be able to hear sound.
‘It’s important not to expect miracles,’ he said gently. ‘A lot of kids don’t react—’
‘I know,’ Peyton interrupted, her nerves at screaming point. ‘Just do it!’
‘I know you know,’ he said gently, obviously unperturbed by her abruptness. ‘But I’m going to go through it anyway. It’s different when it’s your own child.’
Peyton nodded even as she ground her teeth. She understood and appreciated – or would anyway – what he was doing. That he was taking the time to go through all the info, even if she did know it because in her current state of mind, she could pretty much recall nothing.
‘McKenzie may not do anything at all once it’s switched on. That’s common. It’s hard to know with little ones what they’re hearing, particularly if they’re pre-verbal or have been deaf all their lives like McKenzie. They don’t even know what sound is.’
He stopped and checked that Peyton was with him and she nodded so he’d just hurry up already. ‘I have it on very low so sudden noise doesn’t frighten her, but she could cry. That’s quite a common reaction.’
Peyton nodded again, pleased, actually, for that reminder. The fantasy in her head was very different. McKenzie smiled in the fantasy; she laughed. So it was good to be forewarned about the range of possible reactions. ‘Yep. Okay. Thank you.’
‘This is just the first step. It’s going to need several mapping sessions as well as intensive speech therapy to train McKenzie’s brain to recognise the sounds she’ll hear as speech and to learn to talk herself.’
‘Yes.’ Peyton was prepared for the long haul.
‘Why don’t you sit opposite her and then we’ll start.’
Peyton rose and moved to the other side of the table. McKenzie, engrossed in her puzzle, didn’t even notice. Valentino clicked the mouse a couple of times and murmured, ‘It’s on. Why don’t you try calling her?’
For a few seconds Peyton wasn’t capable of speech.
Of anything. She’d been looking forward to this moment for the last two years and now it was here she was totally overwhelmed.
A swell of emotion rose in her throat and stuck there, jagged as barbed wire.
Her heart beat like an epileptic metronome.
Her lungs couldn’t drag air in and out fast enough.
Just like that. One click and a whole new world for McKenzie. It seemed like such an anti-climax. Surely it should at least be heralded by trumpets.
Or angels?
‘It’s okay, Peyton. Take your time.’
Peyton glanced at him. He was smiling at her encouragingly and she swallowed hard at the empathy softening his eyes to dark velvet. He was obviously well used to the raw emotion of the moment. So was she but this time, it was her child.
‘M-McKenzie.’ Her voice shook and she cleared her throat. ‘McKenzie, darling, can you hear me?’
McKenzie played on, blissfully ignorant to sound or to Peyton’s turmoil. Stricken, the fantasy already crumbling, Peyton flicked her gaze to Valentino.
‘It’s okay,’ he whispered. ‘Keep going. I’m adjusting it louder as we go.’
A part of Peyton was desperate to gesture to McKenzie, gain her attention.
This was the biggest test of both of their lives and Peyton couldn’t believe how much she wanted her daughter to pass.
But pre-empting the process by letting McKenzie know she was speaking to her was pointless – they were after an uncoached reaction.
‘McKenzie? That puzzle you’re doing, it’s just like that one we have at home with the koalas, isn’t it?’
The silence in the room reached a screeching crescendo. Peyton raised her eyes to Valentino, her heart beating so loudly in the utter silence she thought it might explode out of her chest. ‘Nothing.’
Shooting her an encouraging smile, he said, ‘The telemetry is telling me her nerves are being stimulated. You know sometimes it can take a few weeks for kids to recognise any useful sound.’
Peyton nodded, her lips pressed together to stop the sob threatening to slide free. She did know. But still it was gutting.
‘How about I try clapping?’ he suggested.
‘Okay.’ Peyton tried to keep the dejection out of her voice and failed.
He gave three loud claps then and Peyton watched as her daughter startled and swiftly turned her head in the direction of the offending noise.
Everything stopped in that moment as a gasp tore from Peyton’s throat and hot tears welled in her eyes. She’d heard! McKenzie had really heard. After three years of living in a world where no noise existed, McKenzie could actually hear.