04/14/2026
If you take anything away from my page, please let it be this:
Never and I mean NEVER stop advocating for your children.
Today we got news that deep down I think I’ve known for a long time… but no matter how much you know in your gut, nothing truly prepares you to hear it out loud.
An audiologist looked at me with tears in her eyes and said,
“Thank you for advocating for him the way you have. You were right.”
And I don’t even know how to explain what that felt like.
Because as a mom, there is something so heartbreaking about knowing you were right… when being right means your child has been struggling more than anyone realized.
If you have followed our journey, then you know Kaysen has had ear problems for so long. Failed hearing tests as a baby. Passed one later. And once autism got added to his chart, it felt like that became the answer for everything.
Speech issues?
Autism.
Not responding?
Autism.
Not talking clearly?
Autism.
Concern after concern after concern…
and somehow it always came back to that.
I cannot even tell you how many times I heard, in one way or another, that his speech problems were because he was autistic and not because of his hearing.
Meanwhile, my baby had around 5 sets of tubes that never truly fixed anything.
His ears drained constantly.
He sounded like he was talking underwater.
It felt like he read our lips more than he actually heard us.
And every single time, my gut screamed at me that something was wrong.
But no one wanted to listen.
I got to the point where I honestly stopped telling certain doctors he had autism because I was terrified the minute they heard that word, they would stop digging and just blame everything on that.
Then we found out he was missing more than half of his eardrum in each ear.
More than half.
Something that had been missed.
We finally got to a specialist in New Orleans who could do the grafts, and I was so thankful. I truly thought maybe this was it. Maybe now everything would finally get better. Maybe now we were finally at the end of this.
But even then, I still knew in my heart we were not getting the full picture.
They did the booth hearing tests, and I said over and over that I did not feel like they were accurate. Kaysen made it into a game. I knew that test was not telling us what we needed to know.
I asked for more.
I pushed for more.
I begged for more.
At one point they did another hearing test that came back inconclusive, and I was basically told that it didn’t really mean much.
That he was fine.
That it was pointless.
That there was no reason to do a sedated hearing test.
But I kept asking.
Over and over and over again.
Countless times on different times on different occasions, I asked for that sedated hearing test.
I fought for it when I was exhausted.
I fought for it when I was doubting myself.
I fought for it when I was made to feel dramatic.
I fought for it when people acted like I just needed to accept the answers I was given.
And today…
after all the fighting,
after all the tears,
after all the appointments,
after all the times I left feeling unheard,
after all the times my concerns were brushed aside because my son had an autism diagnosis…
Kaysen finally got the sedated hearing test.
And the results were worse than I ever wanted to hear.
Kaysen has severe to profound hearing loss in BOTH ears and will need hearing aids for the rest of his life.
I am shattered.
I am relieved.
I am angry.
I am grateful.
I am all of it at once.
I am angry because my baby missed out on so much.
I am angry because help could have come sooner.
I am angry because there were so many signs.
I am angry because parents are too often made to feel crazy for noticing what no one else sees.
I am angry because once a child is labeled as “autistic,” too many people stop looking any deeper.
And I am heartbroken thinking about all the times he was trying his best in a world that must have sounded so muffled, so far away, so unclear.
All the times we thought he heard us but maybe he only caught pieces.
All the times he was doing the best he could with what he had.
All the time that can never be given back.
But I am also thankful.
Thankful that God gave me the kind of love that will not let me stop fighting for my children.
Thankful that I did not ignore that voice in my gut.
Thankful that even when nobody listened, I kept going.
But when it comes to my children, I will go through absolute hell and back if that is what it takes.
So please hear me when I say this:
Listen to your gut.
Push for the test.
Ask again.
Get the second opinion.
Then get the third.
Do not let anybody make you feel dramatic for loving your child enough to keep searching for answers.
Because sometimes a mother knows.
Sometimes she knows long before the test.
Long before the doctor.
Long before anyone is ready to admit it.
And today, after fighting for so long, I finally heard the words no mother ever wants to hear and yet desperately needed someone to say:
You were right.
Never stop advocating for your babies.
Never.
