Jordan's Story

March 2013

The doctor examined three year old Jordan's ears and gave him a quick hearing test to see if there had been any changes with his hearing. He then scribbled some things on a chart and sat down across from Jimmy and Bam. Bam held Jack, who was half asleep, on his lap and Dusti sat on the floor next to him, quietly playing with some toys from the waiting room. Jordan sat on the examining table near Jimmy's chair and Jimmy held a hand on his leg.

This was just a routine doctor's visit to check Jordan's hearing. These visits had taken place since the twins had been about four months old when it was discovered that Jordan wasn't responding to sound like he should have been. It turned out that Jordan had a somewhat high percent amount of hearing loss in one ear and that the percentage could increase as he got older.

Bam and Jimmy had learned sign language and taught it to Dusti as well just so it would be easier for them to communicate with Jordan. When the twins were babies, they were both taught how to communicate through sign language and spoken language. They thought that at first Jordan would only be able to sign as a means of communication but he learned how to speak by paying attention to Jack's progress.

The doctor cleared his throat and looked at Bam and Jimmy.

" Jordan's hearing has worsened as expected, but not by that much. Only by about half a percent." Bam and Jimmy nodded Jimmy patted Jordan's leg. "I feel that Jordan has grown enough and his ears should be ready to withstand a small hearing aid."

Bam looked at Jordan and signed "What do you think, Jordan?"

"About what?" Jordan signed back

"The doctor thinks you're ready for a hearing aid." Jimmy answered

"What's that?" He asked out loud

"It's something that goes in your ear that will help you to hear better." Bam half signed

Jordan looked at the doctor partly stunned "You're going to put something into my ear?" He signed

"Don't worry Jordan. Lots of people wear hearing aids. Young people like you even. It doesn't hurt or anything. All that will happen is everything will become clearer and louder to you."

The doctor discussed the hearing aid with Jordan, Bam and Jimmy some more. Bam and Jimmy agreed that a hearing aid would help Jordan out a lot, and decided that it was the best thing for him.

A couple weeks later they were back in the doctor's office. The doctor talked to Jordan for a little bit before showing him the hearing aid. He explained it to Jordan and let him look at it for a minute. The doctor then stood on the side that Jordan's bad ear was and gently placed the aid into his ear. Right away Jordan's big hazel eyes widened as all the sound rushed to his ear with great intensity. He covered his ears with his small hands and shrieked.

"It's too loud!" He cried

Bam knelt down in front of Jordan and placed a hand on his shoulder "Jord, it's alright."

"Too loud!" Jordan cringed

Bam lowered his voice "I know it's probably shocking to you right now. But I promise you that you will get used to it and everything won't be so loud."

"You sure?"

"Positive. You'll just have to give it some time, ok?"

Jordan nodded his head and reached out for Bam. Bam picked him up as he stood. Bam and Jimmy thanked the doctor and then they left the office. The whole ride home Jordan fidgeted and covered and uncovered his ears, unable to stand the volume of everything around him. It was the first time he could truly hear everything the way he was meant to, but to him everything was deafening and almost painful to listen to. His small ears were sensitive to all the new sounds he was hearing for the first time and he didn't like it.

When they got home, Jordan couldn't stand it any longer and let loose the tears he had been harboring the whole ride home. As he cried he had to cover his ears to block out the volume of his own voice. Bam and Jimmy both tried to comfort him but all Jordan kept saying to them about everything was;

"It's too loud!"

All they could do was to hold him and wipe his tears away.

For the next couple days they had to change a few things to accommodate Jordan's sensitive ears. They could speak barely above a whisper, and the television and any music devise had to be turned down low. They even tried not to use noisy appliances, but certain times Jordan still complained about the noise.

One morning during breakfast Bam and Jimmy took notice to Jordan's absence. Jimmy went upstairs to the boys' room where he found Jordan still in bed, crying. Jimmy bent down in front of the bed and placed a hand on Jordan's side.

"What's the matter, Jord?" He asked softly. Jordan continued to cry and looked at him. Jimmy decided to sign his question to him instead.

"I don't want to wear it, Daddy." He signed back

Jimmy sighed and wiped away Jordan's tears "Why not?"

"Everything gets too loud. And my ears hurt. And sometimes my head hurts."

"We told you that you will get used to it. If you keep wearing it, pretty soon you won't notice it."

"You say that every day and it hasn't gotten better yet."

"I'm sorry Jordan. I don't know what to tell you. I wish I could make things better for you."

"Please don't make me wear it any more, Daddy."

Jimmy sighed "Couldn't you try it a little longer?"

"I don't want to!" He began to cry some more

Jordan buried his head under the pillow.

" Jordan," Jimmy spoke " Jordan please give it another try. I promise you it won't always be like this."

"No!" Jordan signed

Jimmy sighed and let Jordan cry some more. He placed a hand on his back and rubbed it a little as Jordan cried. After a couple minutes Jordan sat up and wiped his tears away before looking at Jimmy.

"Are you going to make me wear it?" He signed

Jimmy looked at him for a moment as he tried to come up with a suitable answer for his son.

"Is it really that painful for you to wear it?" Jordan nodded "Well… I guess we won't make you wear it. It really was more of an experiment any way."

Jordan sniffed "Thank you, Daddy."

Jimmy wrapped his arms around him, bringing him into a hug.

"Everything's going to be alright, Jordan." He patted his back as Jordan held onto him

Bam came into the room and placed a hand on Jimmy's back. Jimmy looked up at Bam with a slight frown.

"Everything alright in here?" Bam asked

Jimmy let out a small sigh "He doesn't want to wear the hearing aid. He says it hurts him too much. I don't think we should make him wear it."

Bam looked at Jordan, who was still in Jimmy's arms, and frowned a little. He bent down next to Jimmy and rubbed Jordan's back.

"Hey Jord." Jordan looked at him "I'm sorry that you haven't had the best experience with your hearing aid, buddy."

"You promised me it would get better!"

Bam sighed "Yes I know we promised you it would. That's because we thought that if you only gave it a chance and wore it long enough you'd just get used to it. We really didn't know how it was going to be for you, but now we do." He hugged Jordan "We're real sorry that you had to be in such pain because of it. We would like to make up for it."

"How?"

"Well I don't know. But we'll come up with something. Right Jimmy?"

Jimmy nodded "Right. When we got you to try this aid out we only wanted what we thought was best for you."

"You didn't say that it was going to hurt!" Jordan whimpered

"Well that's because we didn't know how it was going to affect you." Jimmy said "We know that now and we're real sorry. We promise you that we won't make you wear the aid ever again."

"Thank you daddy." Jordan hugged both Bam and Jimmy

"You're welcome, buddy." Said Bam

Jimmy patted Jordan's back "Now let's go get you some breakfast, ok?"

"Ok."

Jimmy picked Jordan up and placed him on top of his shoulders. Jordan giggled as he was carried downstairs into the kitchen. Bam and Jimmy sat at the table with their kids and watched them as they ate. They looked over at Jordan and saw that he seemed much happier in the short time that they brought him down to the kitchen from his bedroom. Later that day the two of them talked and agreed that there was no reason that they would have to change anything with Jordan. Jordan was perfectly happy and fine growing up the way that he was, and Bam and Jimmy knew that he was dealing with his handicap better than they had ever imagined he would. Jordan didn't need any hearing aids or any other kind of thing to help him through life. He was going to be fine just the way he was and Bam and Jimmy weren't going to try to change any of that.