Booth Testing

Logan sees his Audiologist to MAP (program them to to fit his needs) his equipment every couple months to make sure he is getting the maximum benefit from his equipment. We also see her to go into the sound booth and test the MAPs to make sure he is still responding appropriately with his new programs.

I've been wanting to post some videos of Logan's Sound Booth testing for a very long time, but I always seem to forget about actually recording a session until it is almost over.  Luckily, last week our wonderful Parent Infant Advisor recorded it for us and gave us the video! And of course, he wasn't as cooperative as he usually is this time.  He must have known I wanted to share this with you.

This video is the part of the testing where he was actually cooperating some.  We have taught him to hold up a toy (in this case, a puzzle piece) to his ear and listen for a sound. When he hears the sound, he puts the puzzle piece in the puzzle, or for other toys, he may be instructed to drop it in a bucket, etc. 

He kept trying to distract us from what we were doing, and at one time, he kept pointing to where Marci, his Audiologist sits just outside the booth, and saying that she was hiding.

But the thing that really had him distracted was a cupcake puzzle that he absolutely loves.  Every time we are at our appointments at Sunshine Cottage he looks for this toy and does not want to let it go. Every time he was asked to put the cupcake down when he heard the sound, he would not. And at one point, he was even holding 4 cupcakes up to his ear!

 I will try to capture some more video of him when he actually participates more.

Catching Up

It's been a couple of months since I've updated this blog and I am sorry for that!  I hadn't realized it had been so long until I was chatting with a mom I recently met who has a 6 week old son who will be getting his first set of hearing aids soon and she brought up how she had been reading my blog....whoops!

It has been a bit of a whirlwind lately with Logan's speech development.  It's only been four months since he had really started trying to say words and imitating us.  In this short time, he has already gone from single words to two and three word phrases.  Last week, his speech therapist had asked about the three word phrases, since this development is so new, and I couldn't think of any examples so I decided to keep track of them over the last week. Here are some examples:

Help mama puff puff (aka cocoa puffs)
All done get down
No milk Jaz (when he didn't want his sister to have any milk)
More light on (He is a big fan of turning EVERY light on in the house. Me, not so much)
All done pancake
It's daddy's truck
Sorry. Gentle mama (He is also a fan of hitting and saying gentle after he gets in trouble.)
Help mama washer (At least he is a good little helper!)
No more water
All done eat. All done pizza (yes, this was all at one time!)
More pizza, yes please
Gentle pet Blackjack (He was hitting the dog and I was telling him to be gentle.)

There are more, but I thought this would give a good example of his progress.

Logan has also started going to a Mother's Day Out program once a week. His sister goes three times a week so we thought it would be good for him to get some exposure to kids his own age, learn to socialize, and get him used to the structure of a classroom setting. We thought it would be best to do this because next fall he will be attending the Sunshine Cottage Pre-K3 class five days a week.  Since it is an oral school for deaf children, they start them out early to give them a head start on catching up with their hearing peers.  The school also takes typical hearing children if they can be a language model in the classroom. Because of this, we will also be sending our daughter Jasmine to the 4 year old class next year. She is definitely a language role model and will talk anyone's ear off who will let her!

I also wanted to share a video of Logan talking at dinnertime:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8JmpTENl8w

Moog Summer Workshop

During the last day of my Cochlear training in Denver last month, I was talking with one of the parents in attendance and he was telling me about a workshop at the Moog Center, one of the best oral deaf schools in the country, in St. Louis that his family attended a few years ago when his son was around Logan's age.  The workshop taught them so much and did so much for his son that his family decided to move there!  I had heard many good things about this school before so I made a mental note to check when the workshop would be taking place this summer.

I got home in the evening and after I spent some time with the kids and got them into bed, I got out my laptop to look into the workshop.  This was a Sunday evening and it turned out that the workshop was starting on that Tuesday.  I went ahead and emailed the director to find out if there was another summer session (which there wasn't) and she emailed me back right away and said I could call her to talk more since she was in the office (at 11 pm). Of course, I immediately called her and, from what she described, the program sounded like it would be great information for us and good practice for Logan.

After talking with Andrew at length we decided to pack up the kids and make the drive.  We are fortunate that he works from home so his office is his backpack. He would be able to work while I did the driving.  We left the house on Monday afternoon to make the 14 hour drive to St. Louis, stayed in Oklahoma City and made it there at 6 pm on Tuesday, just in time for the welcome dinner.

The next morning, we dropped the kids off in their classrooms and went to our session.  They started off with a really interesting and eye opening language simulation with the goal of having the parents experience what it is like to be expected to understand a language they do not know.  The instructor came in and told each of us our name in this new language and we had to repeat it. Then, she would name things around the room (light, floor, book, etc) and have us repeat it over and over. A couple of times, she even acted upset if we couldn't name something correctly or didn't remember it.  It really illustrated how hard it is for a child learning a language.  And especially for a child with hearing loss who has a much more difficult time understanding and acquiring language.

Everyday while we were in our session, Logan had an hour of one on one time with a speech therapist who evaluated how he is doing.  She spent time going through their list of 100 first words to see if he could identify the object she named or say it. Not surprisingly, he was able to identify most of them but would not say them.  He is very stubborn and we have had many problems getting him to repeat words, which is one of the reasons I was so interested in attending this workshop.  I wanted to get another perspective on how we should approach Logan's language acquisition.

We had two opportunities during the workshop to be observed by a teacher at the Moog and to be given pointers on how to implement their "modeling and imitation" strategy.  During these exercises, we had Logan in a booster chair and gave him a couple of choices, such as a choice between two snacks. When he pointed to what he wanted, we would model the word and expect him to repeat or, at the very least, approximate the word.  We would not give him what he wanted until he complied.  I know this sounds so simple as I write it out, but we had tried this before with little success. I think what we learned was that we can push him to that limit and he will eventually understand that he will not just get his way. Believe me, we had many conversations with his teachers over the last few months on what was the appropriate approach for him.  Also, the idea with the Moog technique is that you continually set the bar higher. For example, when he is saying one word utterances with ease, we need to expect him to say two word utterances (from "cookie" to "more cookie").  I think this has been another problem area for us. We just get so excited that he is saying something that we forget to push him to say more!

While we were there, we had the opportunity to meet up with the family that I met in Denver during the Cochlear Ambassador training.  It was so amazing to see how well their four year old son is doing with his speech and just to talk to them about their journey in the cochlear implant world with him. Also, Jasmine adored playing with him, so that was a plus.

It has been a month since we made that trip to St. Louis and I am happy to say that in that month Logan has progressed quite well.  He now understands that he is expected to vocalize and does so regularly.  So much so that his teachers have commented on how he is saying a lot more now.  He is now attempting to repeat so many more words just by us asking him to. But what I am really happy about is that he is even trying to say phrases.  Just the other day he pointed to his sister's cup and said "that's Jasmine's cup."

I am so thankful that we were told about the workshop and that we were able to attend on such short notice. Although we are not planning to move to St. Louis to attend the Moog Center since we have great services here as well, I am happy we got to see another perspective on teaching Logan speech that has been so effective so far.

Cochlear Americas Ambassador Training

So this post is not so much about Logan's progress as it is about what I have been trying to do for him and other children like him.  As you know, I started this blog to document Logan's progress once we knew he'd be receiving cochlear implants and to help spread general awareness about the technology.  I've also started a meetup group for children with hearing loss that was initially for children ages birth to three, but has since been expanded to ten years of age.  In addition, I've done some volunteer work for Cochlear and raised money for Logan's school, Sunshine Cottage.

Last year, our Family participated in the Houston Walk for Hearing 5k event where I met the  Cochlear Awareness Manager for our area named Paula. We exchanged contact information and she put me in contact with some great people locally.  Eventually, I wound up doing some volunteer work for Cochlear, which I really enjoyed.  Then, last month Paula contacted me to ask if I was interested in doing some training on Cochlear Awareness in Denver.  I was thrilled! What better way to help my son and other children with hearing loss than to take the time to absorb as much as I can to help spread awareness?  After talking with Andrew about it, we decided that I should do it.

Houston Walk for Hearing 2012

Within a few weeks, I arrived in Denver and met some really great people who were so inspiring and strong.  Some were Cochlear recipients, and others, like me, were the parents of a cochlear recipient (or two).  We learned so much together and we got to hear each others' stories.  A few of them even had the room in tears. 

It was so exciting to see the Cochlear American offices and I loved how the walls were covered in  pictures and quotes from recipients.  There was even a recipient wall that had thousands of dots representing the number of Cochlear recipients (over 250,000 worldwide).

I wish I had a better picture of this!

The front of the Cochlear office

We spent a lot of time discussing the products, the upcoming products and ways to spread awareness about cochlear implants and hearing loss. I've already had the opportunity to use my increased knowledge to help people with questions!  One thing that was really interesting was a video that they played that demonstrated the lack of knowledge / awareness about what a cochlear implants is. And really, before Logan was born and diagnosed with profound hearing loss, I was one of those people who had never heard of them. This video is only three years old, so I really think if someone went around with the same question today, the results would be similar.

We also had the opportunity to talk and make connections with each other. Cochlear took great care of us and most of our connecting was over some delicious food!  They also planned a really fun evening on Saturday. We painted Red Rocks and sipped wine and had a total blast doing it!

I was sad to have the training end because the people there were awesome, but I am glad to say that I have made some good friends from it and am completely energized to spread more awareness about this wonderful technology.  I've even had the opportunity to visit one of these fabulous people at their home already (more on that soon)!

Disney World Vacation

Things have been so busy for me that I am finally trying to catch up on this blog.  Last month, my mom, my sister's family and my family took a trip to Disney World.  The kids and their cousins had a blast together and we are looking forward to going again with them in a year or two.

We all flew out on the same airplane.  Logan and Jasmine were excited to watch the airplanes while we waited for ours. Logan kept pointing out the window, saying "airplane!" with a big smile on his face.  As for the plane ride, thank goodness for iPads and tablets, because both Logan and Jasmine got to watch movies on the plane and they did great.  We even got to test out Logan's special earphones that plug directly into his sound processors.

We arrived at the Resort late, so it was off to bed for an early start in the morning.  It was Star Wars weekend so we headed to the Hollywood Studios to check it out.  The kids got to see some Storm Troopers and Darth Vader walking around. Although my kids are too young to know who they are, they still thought they were really cool! And their older cousins loved them!  We headed to Magic Kingdom after this and our first ride was the carousel.  Jasmine had to have a purple horse, so we found one and Logan rode next to her.  He had a blast on it and cried when we took him off.  This became a pattern after all the rides. I guess we really do have a daredevil on our hands!

The next day we went off to Animal Kingdom by ourselves. We got a bit of a late start so we missed some of the animals during their morning feedings. We were bummed about that, but we did go on a really cool safari where we got to see elephants, giraffes, warthogs, hippos and other animals.  The kids had  a great time doing that.  While we took a break there, Logan started pointing and yelling "bird, bird, bird," which was cool because he had never said the word before or even pointed at one when asked before.

The day before we left, Andrew and Logan had a father / son morning at Magic Kingdom, while my mom, my sister, Jasmine and I headed to Downtown Disney for a princess makeover.  She was very apprehensive to sit down and let them do her hair and makeup, which really isn't all that surprising since she is pretty shy around new situations.  I actually had to bribe her to get her to do it.  See, she LOVES stuffed animals so I told her we would go buy her one after we finished the makeover.  She immediately decided to do it and had so much fun once they started it.  We met up with Andrew and Logan at Magic Kingdom in the afternoon and got on as many rides as we could, since it was our last day there.  We had planned to leave when the parade started since we had seen it a couple of nights before. However, I decided that I wanted to look in one last store on Main Street, Andrew and I got separated and couldn't get a cell signal, so I went out to wait for him where my sister and her family were going to watch the parade. Well, to complicate things further, my mom, who was going to leave with us, decided to go see if she could find us in the store.  We must have all crossed paths because Andrew and I wound up watching the parade with my sister and my mom watched it from the other side!  I'm glad this happened because we had a much better view and the kids REALLY liked the parade.

The next morning, we  were up by 4:30 a.m. to catch a shuttle to the airport.  And as if we didn't have enough excitement during our trip there, Jasmine starts getting sick on the shuttle and got sick a few times during our flight. I'm so glad we had a direct flight.  But to put the exclamation on our trip, my dad was supposed to pick us up from the airport in my SUV and he finally got in touch with us when we were at the baggage claim.  My SUV had a flat when he went to get it so we had to take a 30 minute taxi ride home!

Regardless of all that drama, we had a fabulous time at Disney World and Logan had some great listening and language opportunities there.  While we were there, Logan said bird, bus, fish, horse and a few others that are escaping me for the first time. 

Audio Update

Today Logan was scheduled to do sound booth testing at Sunshine Cottage.  During these sessions, Logan, his advisor Lindsay, and I sit in a sound proof booth while Marci, his audiologist, will play tones at different decibels and frequencies to measure what he can and cannot hear.  We usually do this every 3 months or so but it had been a while since Logan managed to get sick every time we were on the schedule.

I am so proud of how well he did today.  Not only did he cooperate long enough for Marci to get all the information she needed, but he is doing phenomenally well with his implants and learning to listen.  We were able to keep him entertained long enough to listen and respond to those boring tones for about half an hour.  Anyone with experience with a 21 month old toddler knows that this is no small feat!  We actually thought we lost his attention about 10 minutes in but were able to get him back into it.

The last time we did a booth session, he was responding behaviorally between 20 and 25 decibels (around the sound of a whisper).  This time, he responded between 10 and 20 decibels, with 10 being the sound of breathing. The great thing about these results is that his hearing is measured by his behavioral responses so it is not necessarily his threshold for hearing.  But what is even more amazing and what had me totally floored is that Marci actually got a response twice (once at the beginning and once at the end of the session) at 0 db, which is almost complete silence. Lindsay and I didn't even hear that one!

Below is his latest audiogram, which is simply a graph that shows a person's hearing thresholds for various frequencies.  When Logan had his hearing aids, his thresholds were always inside or below the greyed out area, meaning he did not have access to a lot of the sounds in the English language. But now, as you can see, he has access to most / all the sounds in the English language and basically has better than "normal hearing."

Our Little Bookworm

We have a very consistent routine for the kids before bedtime (and naptime).  After the kids get their teeth brushed, they get their bedtime stories.  Logan gets three books and Jasmine gets two (since hers are so much longer). 

For a while I've had some trouble with getting Logan to sit down and listen to his stories.  I would end up following him around with the book in hand while reading it to him so that I knew he could hear it well enough.  Those of you that know Logan, know that he is on the go every waking hour so I'm sure you can picture me chasing him with a book in hand!   He has always been better about sitting for his daddy to read him books, but his daddy claims it's because he is boring and makes him tired, haha!

Over the last month or so, I have been working on getting him to sit in my lap to pay more attention to the books and vocalize more. It has really started to pay off too!  It started with him sitting for one book and gradually we got to the point where he would sit for all three. 

The really cool thing that has been happening for the last couple days is that when I am done with book three, he will get up to go get another book, give it to me, and sit back down on my lap.  Today, each time he brought me a book I asked him if he wanted me to read it, he would shout "YES!" and then sit down in my lap.  And I say each time, it's because I wound up reading him six books for bedtime this evening.  But really, how could you say no to such a cute face!!!

And the Words Are Coming

It is easy to get impatient waiting for Logan to start saying more words since he is already 19 months old and we spend so much of our day just talking and talking to him.  He has had his implants turned on for 6 months now and, so far, has said a handful of words over the last couple of months.  Jasmine was an early talker so we always try to be careful not to compare him to her, especially because, at nearly 3 years old, she can really talk your head off!

Cochlear implants actually don't restore a person's natural hearing.  Instead, they provide a different way for the brain to access sound. Electrical signals are transmitted into the internal device which stimulates the auditory nerve and sends those signals to the brain for interpretation.  My point in describing this is to explain that the cochlear implants provide a completely different way to access sound, and because of this, when they are first turned on after surgery the recipient's hearing age is 0, like a newborn.  And since Logan's hearing age is 6 months now, we can expect him to make babbling sounds like a 6 month old would (this is the average for children implanted at 1 year), which he does.   

Our goal is for him to 15-20 words by the time he is 2 and to catch up to his hearing peers by the time he is 3.  Based on his progress so far, I think this is a very realistic goal.  Just today he said 3 new words!!!!  He said "flush" (or "ush"), he said "trash" (or "ash") and "yuck" (or "uck").  Andrew said he thinks he also heard him say "sit" to Blackjack.  This coupled with him saying "Jasmine" (or "jah ihn") earlier this week, we are well on our way.  He has already managed to say at least 10 words these last 6 months!  I am just so proud of my little man!

Half a Year of Hearing

I can't believe it's already been 6 months since Logan's ears have been turned on!  He is such a different boy today than he was before he had his implants.  He has always been a happy boy, but he has really seemed to blossom over the last several months. He is such an explorer, always trying to take things apart and put them together again (like his daddy).  He is so independent and likes to feed himself.  He has gotten quite good using his fork and spoon.

Logan is on the go all day long. He is walking very well now, has gotten pretty good outside on uneven terrain and is trying to jump now.  Because he is doing so well, we were able to decrease his physical therapy services down to twice a month.  At this point, it is just practice for him, but his physical therapist will keep him on her service until he can jump, climb stairs, kick a ball and a few other gross motor skills.

If you recall, we also see a teacher from our school district, our advisor from Sunshine Cottage, and a deaf educator and speech therapist from Easter Seals on a weekly basis.  We added the speech therapy a few months ago to help Logan along a little more. We started with a different therapist than we have now but Logan really did not connect with her and most of his session consisted of him crying. So I asked for a different speech therapist about a month ago, but the week we were supposed to have our first session was the week that the flu struck our house.  We finally met her last week and we absolutely loved her.  She is on a whole other level than our first speech therapist and is perfect for Logan's team of teachers.  She came for her second session with Logan today and he immediately smiled and walked over to greet her!  That made me so happy because you can tell when he really connects with his teachers. He always gives hugs out to them and sometimes doesn't even want to come back to me!

As far as Logan's language progression, he is getting more and more words receptively every day!  Today Andrew said "Logan, hug mama" and he immediately looked toward me and came and hugged my leg.  Also, when I tell him "let's go upstairs" he will stop what he is doing and walk to the gate at the bottom of the stairs and wait for me there. He even goes to the door sometimes when I say "it's time to go!" 

Logan has also been babbling and imitating sounds more and more.  His latest attempts to say words have been "bath," "up," "uh-huh" and "on."  And much to Andrew's delight, he has finally mastered "dada!"

It's been a lot of hard work these past six months, and more of it is coming, but I can't wait to hear the payoff when he finally starts talking.

Walk for Hearing 2012

This weekend we drove out to Houston to participate in the Walk for Hearing 5k.  I wanted to get some shirts made for us but I procrastinated and ended up just making simple signs for our wagon.  I wound up being quite happy about this because we were the only team that had signs and there were many with shirts! We even had someone ask to take a picture of the kids in the wagon because she thought it was so cute.

We had a great time during the walk, got to see many other kids and adults with implants, met a very nice woman who is a Cochlear Americas representative, and even took pictures with Kaci the Koala.

After the walk, we headed down to the beach in Galveston to feed the Seagulls some bread.  Jasmine had a blast throwing bread to them, although she kept throwing whole pieces to them.  Logan, on the other hand, was only interested in eating the bread, once the excitement and giggles wore off.

After the beach, we headed to the Houston Aquarium and had a fun time. Logan really enjoyed watching and laughing at the big fish there. It was a long, tiring weekend but it was well worth the trip.
 

Cochlear Implant Love!!!

I literally have happy tears today!  This morning Logan and I went to Sunshine Cottage for testing.  It was the first time "in the booth" with his cochlear implants and I was anxious to get an idea of what he is hearing with his new ears.

His last hearing test results was with hearing aids and it showed that he responded to sounds in the 50 - 85 decibel range, depending on the frequency. You can compare 50 db to a nearby conversation, although many of the consonants in the English language fall in the 40db range.  And 85 db could be compared to a loud piano or a loud phone ringing. 

Well, during today's testing, Logan was responding at around 20-25 db!  That means he now has great access to language and is now falling in the mild hearing loss range for children.  Not only that, his testing today was based on behavioral responses from Logan and was not a test of his threshold for hearing, or the minimum level that he can hear a specific frequency.   What really has me ecstatic about this is that he may possibly be able to hear a whisper now, which is around 15 db!

I am looking forward to having more testing done in the coming months and to continue getting his cochlear programs mapped and tweeked so that he can get the most out of his devices.  

Finally, in other news, Logan has officially taken his first steps!

Four Weeks Post Activation

It has been almost a whole month since Logan's CIs were turned on.  My how time flies! We have certainly been busy with all the extra therapy sessions that have been added in the past month.  We have teachers from both Easter Seals and our school district that we now see once a week each (previously twice a month), our advisor from Sunshine Cottage whom we also see weekly and Logan's physical therapist, which has been bumped to a weekly occurrence as well.  In the next month or so, we'll also be adding Speech Therapy to the mix!

I am very happy to say that I am pleased with the progress he has made in the last month.  As you may or may not know, cochlear implants provide a whole new way of hearing so the recipient must learn how to interpret the information from the digital signal his brain is receiving from them.  Because of this, we were told to consider his hearing like he is a newborn and to expect his vocalizing and speech to roughly follow the timeline of a child in his first year of life.  Of course, this is only a generalization and some children progress much faster than this and other progress slower.

Well, during the first couple of weeks with his new ears Logan was pretty quiet, as expected, since he was learning to listen with his new ears.  But over the last week he has started babbling again! I am thrilled because this started before his ears were even a month old.  He is saying ma-ma-ma-ma and ah ah ah ah.  When I first told one of his teachers she was very excited because she said it usually takes a lot longer for CI kids to start babbling again.

Last Wednesday, his implants were remapped because his swelling has gone down a lot over the last month and they were able to make them louder for him.  Since then, I've also noticed that he is starting to turn more and more toward sounds.  I've even caught him dancing to music, something he had never done before.  We can't wait to see what the next month will bring!

Two Weeks Post Activation

It has already been two weeks since Logan's initial stimulation and we are thrilled with what we are seeing so far. It is by no means a night and day difference from the hearing aids he wore previously.  He is still getting used to his new ears and starting to figure out how to listen with them, but when he responds (or appears to respond) to things we had not previously seen, it brings so much joy to my heart.

For those of you who are not familiar with the Ling 6 sounds, these are familiar sounds that broadly represent the speech spectrum and include low, medium and high frequency sounds (ah / ee / oo /mm / sss / sh) and can be used to test whether a child has access to the full spectrum of speech sounds in a very low tech way.  With hearing aids, Logan had very limited access to these sounds. We are still unsure of what he has access to with his implants, since we will still be fine tuning his programs and we have not had a hearing test with them yet.  However, I was thrilled when Logan responded to the "sh" sound when I was working with him the other day.  He has never been able to do that, as far as I can remember.

The other thing that we have been so excited about over the last few days is that he is starting to respond to music!  We love listening to music and we are so happy that hopefully our son is now able to hear some of it.

Jasmine was watching Madagascar yesterday and the part with the Bee Gee's song came on. Logan was not looking at the TV at the time, but he started bobbing up and down as he was cruising the sofa. He had no visual cues that would tell him to start dancing so I know he heard the music!  We are so excited to see what other great things he will be doing in the near future.

                                          Logan Dancing

Activation Day!!!!

The day we've been waiting for has finally arrived! It's one week after surgery and today Logan's ears were turned on! It is the first day of his new hearing journey, and one that we are thrilled to be undertaking with him.  We were very anxious to see what his response would be when they turned the first one on and were well aware that some kids have no reaction, some smile or get excited and some cry because it is so new to them.  Of course, every parent who goes through this hopes for the big, excited response, but that is the exception rather than the rule when kids are activated.

The moment finally arrived once Marci, his wonderful audiologist, did her thing to get the first side ready to be turned on. When she turned on the first side poor little Logan was scared and cried.  As she went through the mapping of this first side, he got used to the sounds and started to respond much better. 

                                          Logan's First Response

                                          Logan gets accustomed to the sounds

It was a really long morning for Logan. He started acting really tired and getting fussy when we were still working on the first side. We even contemplated activating only one today and resuming tomorrow. But Andrew and I really wanted to get it all done, so we resorted to all the snacks and goodies I packed for him. Thank goodness for Veggie sticks, Mum-mums and puffs! 

By the time we got to doing the second side, he was already a pro at it!  He didn't cry this time. He would just look up at Marci, a veggie stick in hand, and would raise his eyebrows every time he heard something. For those of you that work with Logan regularly, you know this is his signature response! He had gotten his energy back up by the time the mapping was done.  By this time, he was back to flirting with his wonderful teacher Lindsey! 

                                          Logan's eyebrow raising
 

                                          Logan does the unexpected!

We were lucky enough to get to talk to an audiologist from Cochlear who happened to be on site at Sunshine Cottage today.  We were very interested to talk to her about how "waterproof" his new implants were.  She was very helpful and answered all of our questions.  She even encouraged us to experiment now while the devices are under warranty!

Once we left and picked Jasmine up from my mom, we went home for the kids' naps. Well Andrew and I realized how exhausting the morning had been and we napped also.  After our naps, we decided it was time to celebrate Logan's big day. And what better way to celebrate than to go out for some good ice cream! 

Having been through our first day with Logan's implants, I realize just how hard it is going to be just to keep them on his head.  The hearing aids were hard enough, and he certainly mastered the art of pulling them out of his ears. But since he is so small and the processors don't stay on his ears very well yet, the device is mostly just dangling from the magnet on his head with the wires so much easier for him to grab onto.  I'm sure we'll come up with a way to keep them on him, just like we did with the hearing aids. I'm not really anxious to have to put some type of headband on his head! Either way, I'm so excited to see what the future holds for him!

Logan's Big Day Today

The day we have been waiting on for months has finally arrived.  Yesterday, I got a call from the pre-op nurse asking a million questions about Logan's medical history.  This is when it really sank in that his surgery was actually happening. Originally, we were told that we should arrive at 6 a.m. for an 8 a.m. surgery, but Dr. Perry's office called at 4:55 in the afternoon to tell me that we needed to be there at 5:30 for a 7:30 a.m. surgery.  I know it is only a half our difference, but man do you feel it when you get up in the morning.

We were up at 4:15 a.m. and left the house at 5:10 a.m.  I got Logan up 10 minutes before we left hoping he would go back to sleep, but of course, he was wide awake. We got to the hospital right on time and waited for them to take us up to prep him for surgery.

We got upstairs and he was squirming and trying to get out of my arms. He wanted to go and explore so badly! We changed him into his hospital gown and waited to talk to his doctor and the anaesthesiologist.

When it was time for surgery, Andrew carried him to the doors of the operating room, where we gave him hugs and kisses and took out his hearing aids for the last time.  His Grandma and Aunt Jenny got to see him before he went in also.

We were asked to stay in the waiting room because they would call to give periodic updates.  The first call was at 8 a.m. to tell us that they were starting the first side. The nurse called again around 9:30 to let us know that they had successfully completed the first ear and were about to begin the second ear.  Around 11:30, we saw Dr. Perry come out of the operating room carrying all of Logan's equipment that we would be taking home.  I was so glad to see Dr. Perry and to know that everything went well.

They called Andrew and I back to the recovery room around noon. Poor Logan was just miserable. He was trying to cry but it seemed like he was just too tired and uncomfortable to make a big effort, so he mostly just whined.  He was also mad because they put restraints on his arms so he couldn't bend them and pull on his dressings. He has to keep the restraints on until tomorrow when the bandages come off.  Poor little guy!

They gave him some glucose water, which he finished very quickly. So they gave him a second serving. They also decided to give him some more pain medication, which I was very happy about.

We only had to stay for about an hour and a half after the surgery was completed.  We were all very happy to get him dressed so we could leave.

We have been home for about 4 hours now and Logan has been sleeping most of the day. He had another dose of pain medication and has started back on his milk.  So far, he hasn't been interested in any solids.  I can't wait until he is back to his normal, funny self.

Counting Down!

There are a number of reasons that I am counting down the five days until Logan's surgery.  I am anxious to get this procedure over with and stop worrying about it. And of course, I can't wait to start this new chapter in his life.

However, another unexpected reason I am counting down is that I just can't wait to be done with these hearing aids! Yes, I know the cochlear implants will be a whole new set of headaches, but I am so done losing pieces of these hearing aids.

I hosted an in house playdate for the toddler playgroup I am a member of this morning. We had 11 toddlers, 3 infants, and of course, their moms here this morning.  It was a blast as usual.  But once everyone was gone for about 20 minutes, I noticed that Logan's processor from his left hearing aid was missing. The earhook and earmold were still there, so the processor managed to get unscrewed from the rest of it. I had to tear up the playroom again looking for it, but came up empty. I checked downstairs, in his hamper, and upstairs again and couldn't find it.

During all this, I was battling with Jasmine to stay in her room and take her nap. When I finally got her to stay in her room, I went back downstairs and started crawling on the floor everywhere Logan had been.  Unbelievably, I found it in the middle of the living room floor.  I was so relieved! The whole time I was looking for it I kept thinking I can't believe we made it this far without having to pay the deductible for a lost hearing aid and here we are, less than a week before surgery, and we've finally lost one.

I am so glad I found it and I am so ready to turn them back in to Sunshine Cottage.

Logan is 1!

With the end of Logan's first birthday here, I have been thinking about this last year quite a bit. I remember the anticipation I felt as I waited out those last few weeks of pregnancy. I remember my contractions getting regular late in the evening and finally calling my mom to come stay with Jasmine. I remember the joy we felt when we first saw him and held him. I remember the worry we felt when he failed his newborn hearing screening.

Waiting those weeks for the next hearing test was torture. And when the audiologist confirmed that he had significant hearing loss, I remember my world crashing down. I wondered if I would ever hear him speak and what life would be like for him. I am so happy to say that today, as a one year old, he says mama, dada and hi consistently, and it is music to my ears!

I also remember the day when we went in to get his first set of hearing aids. I can still see the smile on his face when he actually heard us talk to him for the first time! And now that he has tried out the hearing aids, gotten more powerful hearing aids to try, and is scheduled to get his cochlear implants in less than a month, I am so excited to see his reaction when they get turned on.

I remember meeting his teachers (from Sunshine Cottage and the Early Intervention program) and his audiologist and feeling apprehensive and nervous about the process we were going to be going through. But now these women are like our extended family and we love them so much! I can't express how much they have helped, not only Logan, but me as well.

When I took him to his 6 month checkup, I shared my concern with his pediatrician about his upper body strength. He just seemed too wobbly for his age. She agreed and referred him for a physical therapy evaluation. It took a lot of work to get him to sit up unassisted and I don't think he actually did it consistently until he was 9 months old. But since he reached that milestone he has been progressing at warp speed! In these 3 months, he started rolling to get everywhere, started doing a commando crawl, transitioned to a traditional crawl and then a bear crawl, and has been pulling up and cruising on anything and everything he can get his hands on! He will be walking before we know it.

This next year is going to be great for him and our family!

Surgery is Scheduled!

Originally, we were going to do one implant when Logan turns 1 and the second implant about 6 months later. However, when we went to see his ENT recently, he said that Logan's hearing test results were so much on the fence that you could make an argument to do one at a time or to do them both together. We told him that our preference would be to do them both at once and only have to go through the surgery once. So he said he would talk to Logan's audiologist, and if she was on board, we would do them both when he turns 1.

Well, we heard from the doctor's office last week to schedule his surgery and they scheduled bilateral implants (both ears)! The downside is that since the surgery is twice as long we could not get it scheduled right after his birthday at the beginning of July like we had hoped. So now he is scheduled to go in for his implants on July 25^th. Here's hoping there is a cancellation so we can get in before then!

We are so excited to get his new “ears” and to begin his therapy for this. I know his wonderful teachers are excited to see how he does as well.

For those of you that don't know, this is what he will be wearing:

Sound Decision

We met with Logan's audiologist today to go over the pros and cons of the different implant brands. We had already ruled out one brand, so we had the Med-El and Cochlear Americas to look at. There is really so much to think about since this is something that will be inside his head and it's not like you can just switch it out on a whim.

Originally, we were pretty sure we were going with Med-El since Logan's ENT had suggested it because the internal device has the thinnest profile and the outer device is backwards compatible. We got to look at a sample device and it was very basic. It didn't really have much polish to it. Both brands come with a remote to control various options on the device but theirs was also quite basic and looked more difficult to use.

Once we reviewed the Cochlear Americas device we were sold! This device does everything the Med-El does but it seems like it does it better. Their devices are also backwards compatible, their remote has a screen and some great troubleshooting features, has a sleeker design and has splash protection. Our audiologist shared a story with us about the Cochlear Americas representative who visited the school and talked about how parents tend to be apprehensive about the splash protection, and understandably so! I mean these devices aren't cheap! So to demonstrate, she actually had the device submerged in a fishbowl full of water for over 3 hours and it still worked! This is a big deal to us because both our kids love the water and it is always a shame that we have to take his hearing aids off for him to be in water. The other thing we loved about Cochlear Americas is that they seem to have a lot of integrity as a company. Our audiologist told us that they voluntarily took their latest internal processor off the market and reverted back to their older processor because they saw a trend of processor failure after a few months of use. So instead of waiting for the FDA to force them to take it off the market, they took it off themselves. Advanced Bionics, a company we were not considering, actually has been forced to take their stuff off the market a few times.

We also got to talk to a child that had a Med-El implant and one that had Cochlear Americas. They both spoke very well and it was nice to see how much these implants can help these kids. I can't wait to see how it helps little Logan!

Cochlear Implants, Here We Come!

Today was finally the day to go see Logan's ENT to discuss the results of his MRI from a couple of weeks ago.  We were up bright and early this morning to get Jasmine to Grandma's house and make it to Logan's 8 am appointment.... Did I mention I could use some Starbucks right about now?!? 

Although there are other concerns with the MRI results, he is a candidate for cochlear implants, which he is eligible for once he is a year old.  Unless there is a dramatic change to his hearing, he will get one implant in 3 months and the second 6 months after that.  As it was explained to us, since he has some hearing now, it is best to do one at a time so that he can rely on his aided ear to hear while the cochlear implant gets activated and mapped correctly (which could take 3-6 months). This way, he doesn't lose any valuable listening time.

I don't like the idea of him having to go through surgery twice in the span of a year, but if it gives him the best chance to be able to listen and speak, then we will go through whatever we have to.  At least by the second time, we will know what to expect.

We go back in 6 weeks to start discussing dates for surgery. In the meantime, we will be going through cochlear implant options with our friends at Sunshine Cottage.  I'm glad to finally have some direction here.