This article was written for the WRA Summer 2008 newsletter.
How complementary therapies restored my daughter’s hearing
By Georgie Coote, June 2008
Two years ago, my eldest daughter, now 8, was diagnosed with a moderate to severe hearing loss in her left ear. Her doctor believes she was born with it and up until kindergarten, had been compensating amazingly well. While she was late to talk, she luckily had none of the social or learning difficulties normally associated with unilateral hearing loss.
We were surprised when a CT scan confirmed that despite having all the “tiny” inner ear bones necessary for hearing, they were inexplicably not moving correctly. We were told her future held a hearing aid and an investigative operation in her teenage years, should she choose to have it.
Not long after these results, I began my reflexology training at SRMC. I immediately put what I learned to good use on my family, although I wouldn’t know until later the scope of the impact it would have. Around the same time, I received my Level I Reiki attunement and threw that into my toolbox. I began using both skills working on my daughter specifically with her ear in mind.
My daughter complained of the Reiki being too hot on her ear -- almost burning -- so I started to sneak it on her when she was sleeping, doing a few minutes each night when I went in to kiss her goodnight. If everything was there that she needed to hear, maybe something was just a little tight? Was something just pulling those tiny bones out of line? I visualized everything working as it should every time I worked on her.
Coincidentally, Lisa Hensell at SRMC mentioned during a class I was attending that some chiropractors can adjust inner ear bones. Of course, my own ears perked up. Lisa referred me to Dr Holly Hochstadt of Inner Brilliance Chiropractic, located in the same building as SRMC (http://drholly.blogspot.com/). Dr Holly had never worked specifically on a hearing loss case but was excited to work with us to see if she could help my daughter with her gentle, intuitive care. We visited Dr Holly once a week for eight weeks at the beginning of this year.
Finally, it was time to see if our efforts made a difference. My daughter had not mentioned any change in her hearing, but I was still optimistic of a slight improvement. We made an appointment back at the Children’s Hospital Audiology clinic in Bellevue and explained what we had been trying. The audiologist started her tests. She tested and tested, checked and rechecked her data. Then she commented that if what she was seeing was true, she had never seen anything like it before!
I sat with excitement bubbling up inside me. Could my daughter's body have been nudged in the right direction to have made a slight improvement to her hearing? No, she didn’t make a slight improvement --her left ear was testing normal!
My daughter, of course, is taking it all in stride. She’ll never know the impact her disability would have had throughout her life. As her mom, a reflexologist and a strong believer in alternative medicine, however, I see it differently. Is her case a testament to the power of intention, visualization, clearing blocked energies and the body’s amazing capacity to intuitively self heal? Absolutely!