I don't mind at all -- I asked a million questions when we started the process. And still do
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She hated her HAs too after the first few increases in volume -- they had them screamingly loud, as they kept trying to reach her with some sound. But the louder they set them, the more she wanted them off, I guess the vibrations were painful.
My daughter's first CI was activated shortly before she turned 2, and her second, just before she turned 3. Your child + surgery is horrible, there's no getting around that and no sugar coating it. It's long, and it's usually an overnight in the hospital for most little ones, and then a couple of days of healing at home without opportunities to bounce around into other kids. There's an ugly incision that heals into a long scar, and I was so afraid of something going wrong during the healing process.
But we'd do it all over again with only one difference: we'd have pushed to do it sooner if we had the chance. She insists on wearing her CIs all the time -- we're very glad they are now water resistant and she can swim in them, bc she got to the point where she hated taking them off in the water and while kayaking. When she had just one, though, she would get tired toward the end of the day, around 4-5pm, and she'd remove it. Maybe the single sided input was tiring to reconcile, but we noticed that this is not an issue when she wears both. We have to insist on them coming off at night.
Bi-Bi is "bilingual-bicultural" and refers to a Deaf academic environment that's usually based on ASL instruction with classes in English as a second language, and a focus on written English in all classes. This is quite different from a TC (total communication) environment in which the means of instruction might be some ASL, some SEE, some spoken language, some Cued Speech, etc. -- in theory whatever works best for each child. In a bi-bi school, most students are completely immersed in ASL from the start, and it's usually a voices-off environment. Some schools have an auditory access program for kids with CIs, CODAs, for HOH kids with excellent access to sound via HAs (not often the case), or those with hearing but unable to speak. At my daughter's school, their educational programming starts at birth -- with classes for parents to learn ASL, parent-infant groups, early intervention programming. 50% of the academic staff is deaf. It's very hard to get and maintain placement at such schools, you have to prove that your child's primary language is ASL. My daughter has been welcomed with open arms by our local Deaf community -- very little of the anti-CI sentiment you see online exists here. I can't imagine some of her friends ever reacting negatively to her CIs -- some of them wear HAs, and there's not a bias against technology. Increasingly, Deaf families we encounter include children and adults with CIs -- and they all sign, so we don't see the same bizarre assumption that CI and ASL are somehow mutually exclusive in the real world.
Your surgeon may get chatty with you, but shouldn't express a professional opinion about your child's language -- that's not likely his or her field of expertise. I'd disregard my dentist if she started spouting off about what language my child should use, same with an ENT -- they may have seen some examples of what has worked in the past with their patients, but my feeling is that's not their profession, take their input as you would any Tom, Dick,or Harry on the street. You know first hand the benefits of two languages and more importantly, you know what's best for your child.
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