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11.05.2008

CT scan and surgery date!

Yesterday Alexander had a successful CT-Scan.
The most difficult part was not letting him eat or drink for 8 hours prior to the scan. Normally you are allowed to have clear liquids up until 2 hours before hand, but he did not want to be apart of that. He screamed his way through the entire experience. I am hoping that nightmares will not result from it. One more appointment crossed off the list!
(photos taken from my camera phone)

Good news!! Alexander has a surgery date for implants on both ears!!

Honestly we are still considering whether or not to have both ears done or if it is better to have a hearing aid and an implant. Any thoughts?

Tuesday, December 2nd at
7:00am is the big day.


We have 5 more appointments to check off the list before he can have the surgery:
  1. psych evaluation for both baby and parents (11/6/08)
  2. speech eval (11/10/08)
  3. auditory eval (11/25/08)
  4. sound booth test (11/25/08)
  5. baby physical (not scheduled yet)

Activation day (when they activate the implants) is within 4-6 weeks after the surgery. So he will be able to hear for his first birthday!!!

Alexander's Ear, Nose and Throat Dr. from Seattle Children's Hospital is in this short video clip describing implants and how they work.



Blogging friends, how do I use the hyperlink? I would rather have one work take you to the link rather than the whole http: line.
Here is the internal device that is drilled into the skull.


This is the outer device: the processor and microphone. He still has his hearing aids on so normally there is no ear mold, it just sits on his ear.

5 comments:

John Boy said...

Hey, he has his own blog! Yay! I am excited for his progress and still maintain that he is the cutest little boy I have ever seen.

Melinda said...

So cute he has his own blog!
What an adventure, I hope all goes well and he can here you sing 'Happy Birthday' to him.

Kindermusik with Celeste said...

Yeah for a surgery date! We are excited for you. I posted about Logan preparing for his surgery that you can check out if it'll help. It is the post dated Nov.7, 2007. You can also look at the list on the right (towards the bottom) and find all the posts about his surgery and the recovery).
About doing two ears at once, I've heard good and bad. I had a friend that was still nursing and found it hard to hold/cradle him and still avoid the incisions. With us, it was nice to have a "good" side for him to lay on that wasn't sore. But on the other hand, it would be nice to get the surgery over and done with it and not have to go through the whole process again. I am getting anxious about Logan's second surgery remembering how miserable he was those two days after the surgery. Will they be "turning them on" at the same time? If so, you may want to ask and do some research regarding that. To go from no sound to SO much sound is tough enough on a little one, but to have that sound going through both ears at the same time may be overwhelming...but I don't have any experience with that so you'll have to ask someone that does. I had a friend that had the surgery at the same time, but then waited 9 months between having the first one activated and the second one. Her audiologists recommended that because he was young and she wanted him to have time to adjust to the first one first. But again, I really don't know, there may be benefits to having them turned on together. I do know that even the one is a tough adjustment. Logan didn't like his at first. He kept signing to us that everything was too loud for the first few weeks and even hid his implant under his mattress! Good Luck with the decision, keep me posted on what you decide.

About the hyperlink, after you type in your text, highlight the word you want to link and click on the green icon above (with the white link around it) and type in your web address there--hope that helps.

Oh, one more thing, if you haven't already, I highly recommend signing up for The John Tracy Clinic's home lessons. They are free and will help you a ton on doing the oral approach with Alexander. Go to www.jtc.com to register.

Love the new blog, he is a doll!

P.S. We do not have a date yet...still waiting!

Kindermusik with Celeste said...

Wow...that was a big comment, sorry! :)

MB said...

Congrats!! So excited you guys have a date. Isn't it amazing they can do it before their first birthday now? Fantastic.