There are many things that eight-year-old cochlear implant recipient, Sienna, and her mum Tristinn, love about NextSense.

But one of the best, is their ability to access cochlear implant mapping services in Orange, just a 50-minute drive from their Bathurst home on the NSW Central Tablelands.

“It's so much easier; it's a 50-minute drive in comparison with a two-and-a-half-hour drive to NextSense at Werrington, which we have done,” Tristinn explains.

“It makes the day half the length, rather than the whole day getting taken up having to go to Sydney.

“So, Sienna might still be able to go to school for the first few hours of that day and she's not missing out on as much school, and for me it’s not having to take as much time off work.”

It’s not just the shorter travel times the mother and daughter love about NextSense, which Tristinn says supports Sienna in “every way possible”.

Sienna has weekly online speech therapy sessions with her early intervention specialist, Alison, who is based at NextSense in Sydney’s Macquarie Park every Thursday.

Dr Joanna Walton, who is part of the NextSense network of surgeons, fitted Sienna’s cochlear implants at Westmead Children’s Hospital and provided all the necessary follow-up care, which Tristinn describes as “fantastic.”

NextSense has also helped Sienna access education support devices that she uses at her local primary school, where she excels at spelling and was recently elected to the school’s Student Representative Council. In the classroom, she uses an intelligent ‘roger’ microphone to help her hear her teacher.

Not long before falling pregnant with Sienna, Tristinn contracted cytomegalovirus (CMV), which reactivated during the pregnancy. This caused significant health issues for Sienna, which led to her hearing loss.

CMV is a common virus that many adults are infected with at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, Tristinn caught the virus when she was pregnant with Sienna.

Tristinn is keen for other mothers to be aware of the risks that CMV can pose during pregnancy.

Sienna was initially diagnosed with mild hearing loss and fitted with hearing aids at two-and-a-half months of age. Her hearing deteriorated over time. By age five, her right ear fell into the profound hearing loss category, and she was fitted with her first cochlear implant.

Last year she was fitted with a cochlear implant in her left ear.

Sienna attends mapping sessions in Orange, with her audiologist, Damaris, twice a year.

Mapping is an audiological appointment where a specialist uses computer software to program the external sound processor, calibrating electrical stimulation levels for each electrode to ensure comfortable and effective hearing.

Tristinn says parents with a newborn that has hearing loss may experience challenges initially, but she encourages them to “ride the wave” as there is “light at the end of the tunnel”..

Her advice to those parents is to take advantage of all early intervention support offered to them in the first few weeks after their child is born.

“It offers the best possible outcome for their Child,” Tristinn says.

“Without the extensive early intervention that Sienna received her speech and sound wouldn’t be as clear and amazing as it is.”