Stares

So I took Aidan with me to do the grocery shopping today. It was his first day to wear his implant in public. It felt so weird for everyone to be staring at him. Would have been much better had they just asked me what the heck that contraption on his ear was instead of walking with their head craned backwards. He did very well keeping it on though, the store is a nice distraction for him.

While checking out at the store I ran into a girl I went to high school with. I can't remember her name, heck not even sure I ever knew it. Anyway, she is also deaf and has a newborn daughter. I talked to her a few minutes-how neat that she can read lips and talk good enough for me to have a conversation with her. It was nice to see that even though she is deaf she still has a life. Something I worried about with Aidan-whether or not he would go on to have a family, go to college, all the typical adult things. Too bad I didn't think to get her email so we could continue talking, but I am sure I will see her again eventually.

Better and Better

Aidan is becoming much more accustomed to his implant processor as the days go by. Still not wearing it for long periods of time but we can get him to wear it for upwards of 20-30 mins before he starts really fighting us on putting it on. We even got an hour out of him yesterday and that was with him only pulling it off 2-3 times. We have come to the conclusion that if we take him outside and carry him around the yard, or pull him in the wagon, that he will leave it alone. We have bumped him up to the 2nd level and are on the 3rd volume of that level. No visible response to sound yet, but I think he does hear some b/c of the look on his face when I turn it on. Not sure how high of volume he may hear, but I think it is some.

New haircut

Took Aidan to get yet another haircut today. That boys hair grows so fast, but it is gorgeous. No more curls for now but I am sure they will be right back in a few months.

Before:


After:

And he is on

We had Aidan's activation today. Went pretty well. He does not like his equipment that goes on his head and pulls it over every minute or so. The audiologist put in 4 different levels for now. There are a total of 50 levels she will program into it over time. Each level has 9 levels of volume in it. So right now he is own the first level with volume at 6. Over the next few days we gradually go up to 9 and when we have been there for a while we go to the 2nd level and go through the 9 degrees of volume, then to the 3rd level, eventually getting to the 4th level with a volume of 9. After we reach that(within 3 weeks) we go back to the audiologist and she adds 4 more levels for us to work through. Eventually we will get through all 50 levels---each level gives him more and more hearing--I believe it is set at diffrent decibles and increases as we go up, but I am not 100% sure.

So right now he is hearing at the lowest frequency, meaning he really can't hear us right now. Mostly he is getting used to wearing the processer on his ear and stimulating his brain/ear to accept the new sounds. He is hearing something though as he cried as soon as the audiologist turned it on. He pouts/whines everytime I put it back on his head and turn it on. Hopefully he will stop pulling it off and get used to it soon. All in all, very encouraging.

Aidan playing on his new firetruck from Mimi:


What his implant actually looks like-a rare moment with him keeping it on:

New Activation Date

I finally was able to get the audiologist from Oschners Hospital on the phone today. We are now set up for an appointment on September 15th, so 10 days away. I am really looking forward to this day but I am also dreading it. This is the day we will find out if this is going to be successful for him-so it will either be a really happy day or a really really sad day. Overall, it will be an emotional day for all of us.

I did get his Dr's bill in today. In total, he has run up a bill of $55,000. That doesn't include the next several months of adjusting the implant to get it working right, the several years of therapy he will have, or the several years of Dr's appts that are sure to follow. Thank God for Medicaid or we would be screwed and he probably would never of had this opportunity at gaining some hearing abilities.