Yesterday was the International Cochlear Implant day.
At first it seems silly to have a cochlear implant day.
But a cochlear implant is not just that. It's much MORE than that.
To Afif, his cochlear implant is his ear.
Though his hearing aid helps, the quality and quantity of words that he speaks increased dramatically since the switching on of his implant.
Did I tell you that he speaks to himself now with words that I actually understand? I walked in on him talking to himself "Ane Daddy? Daddy cejeee.." (Mana Daddy? Daddy kerja..). Before this it was always mishmash of jargons and some weird German-Swedish language.
He discovers more sound that as much as I hate to admit it, we take for granted.
There was this one afternoon, we were outside. Tetiba berkumandang lah azan Asar. It was faint but loud enough. Upon hearing that, Afif's face lit up and said "Ha!" and pointed to his ear. "Allahuakbar!" he said excitedly and ran inside to watch the tv for azan (he loves watching and listening to Azan on TV) only to find that the tv is actually turned off. He looked puzzled. So I explained to him that azan is actually coming from outside, from the surau nearby. I don't think he understand. He probably thinks that Azan mysteriously comes from the sky or something.
Mental note: MUST bring him to surau/masjid to show him where Azan comes from and the best place to pray.
He can even hear while showering now. His hearing aid is not waterproof so we didn't let him take showers in it. Which is a waste because Afif loves water and there's so many opportunity to teach him through water play. Now with cochlear implant, we're more confident to let him shower and splash around. He wears it during shower, washing car with daddy, and even swimming.. But there was this 2 times his implant didn't work after berendam lama sangat so we were advised not to wear it without the Aqua cover kalau nak berendam.
We owe it to the people who invented cochlear implant.
So today (and everyday) I would like to wish Happy International Cochlear Implant Day!
May the implant continues to let him hear better, speak better and live better!
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