2009!

Happy New Year everyone!

David is off working in Maine, while I spend my weeks here in CT being the taxi driver for the kids.

He's continuing to progress well. He has lots of quiet to work on speech and listening.

Santa brought him a pretty blue iPod nano for Christmas as well as a book, and a giftcard for iTunes that was enough to buy said book as an audio version. He's been listening to the book and music on the iPod.

Santa must have known that an iPod would be a fantastic therapy tool :) Smart man that Santa.

Not much else to report. He has another mapping session scheduled for February. I'm going to try and get a sitter for the kids so that I can go with him. He'll pick back up on speech therapy when he's home.

Now, about that other ear...

September Update

I REALLY should update this thing more often. Life is crazy!

Things are going very well with his implant. He started working on speech therapy with just the implant, not using his hearing aid in the other ear.

He still uses his HA at work, but takes it off when he gets home to practice more.

I'm constantly amazed at how his speech is coming along. He still has some trouble with his R's, but he's correcting 28 odd years of speech problems. It's going to take time.

His audiologist and ENT have both said that he can and probably should get his left ear done as well. Dr. Cameron (ENT) said just give him a call when he's ready to get the ball rolling on the next surgery!

He has 6 month testing coming up on soon to see how he's doing with the implant and then a re-map.

Simply Exhausting

I debated posting today, but this sight pushed me over the edge.

I went with David to speech last week. It was exhausting for him. He concentrates so hard and works very hard to make sure that he's forming the words correctly, and hearing them correctly. It's really shining a light on this whole process that I didn't fully understand. Never in a million years did I think that 45 minutes of therapy could make a 28 year old man so worn out. (Granted, he does work a very physical job for 8 hours before going...)

This past week I've been super impressed by David. He's worked harder than I've noticed before. Maybe something clicked, or maybe it was because I was finally understanding a little bit of what he's going through.

David has been self correcting this week. Normally, if he mispronounces a word, or letter, it is my job to repeat the word slowly and correctly, then have him mimic what I did. This past week David would say something, then correct HIMSELF repeating the word slowly and differently than he had before and looking to me to see if it was right. If it was he repeated it several more times so that he could feel, and hear the correct sound of the word. If it wasn't I would correct him and he would soak that in the same way.

It's lots of little things like the self correcting that I'm starting to notice on a day to day basis. I've also noticed that he's reading to Jaime a lot more these days. Taking time to make sure every word is read correctly. Jaime LOVES the attention, and is addicted to books. Reading bedtime stories has turned into a wonderful bonding and learning time for father and son to have together.

Once again I find myself bursting with pride at how well David is adjusting to his cochlear implant. Of course there are ups and downs, but at this point it has been far more ups, and it's making a huge impact on our family's daily life.

Free shipping (and life as usual)

Cochlear is offering free shipping this month for web orders. It's usually $9.95 for shipping and it's shipped FedEx 2 day.

I'm sorely tempted to buy David a Hatis system for his phone, but even on sale with free shipping it's pricey. It's worth it right?

So, Jaime corrected David yesterday when he mispronounced Ballerina. We all got a laugh out of that.

I honestly can say that I never appreciated how difficult the English language is until David started speech therapy.

Listen is pronounced liss-en, not LIS-TEN. I never realized that certain letters have the same mouth position, just different vocalizations. Why would you if you're hearing?

When you grow up as a hearing person, it's second nature. You learn to speak that way and you don't really have to work at it. It's much easier to learn when you're young. David is working very hard to learn it at 28.

Jen, if you read this, I'd like to congratulate you on your recent surgery, and David and I wish you all the luck in the world with your upcoming activation :)

Mickey Mouse and Cell phones.

Mickey Mouse. Apparently when David was first activated this is what I sounded like. I asked him yesterday if I still sounded like that. He said "no, you sound normal now." I asked what normal was, he said I have a pitched voice (not high, not low) and that it sounds like it did with his hearing aid.

He's hearing everything "like a hearing aid" now. It sounds the same, not so mechanical, but sharper, clearer. It's amazing. I can't wait to see how he does with speech therapy, and what changes that brings about.

The good thing about the speech is that Martha (audiologist) and Rebecca (speech therapist) will be working together and communicating to better map David's implant. If he's having a hard time with a certain sound, Rebecca will let Martha know and she'll tweak that electrode so David will hear better.

Cell phones. David was able to talk to me and carry on a clear conversation with the HOUSE PHONE. From the cell phone it isn't as clear. In fact, he had to switch to talk on his left ear, with the hearing aid. I don't know what his current phone is rated. We're about to both switch cell phones. I'm looking for phones with a T4/M4 rating for David.

Maybe someone can answer this question for me...

Would it make a difference if he was on a T4 and I was on a T3? Should we both be on T4's? Would that make things clearer?

small update...

David starts speech therapy next week :)

After that, he'll be re-mapped.

♥ appointments...

One month later...

This past month has been a whirlwind of appointments!

David had his most recent mapping session on Monday. She re-tested him using the same test that she used prior to surgery.

He did better with the implant then he had done with his hearing aid :) She even suggested he might want to get the other ear done because he's doing so well. Obviously, it wouldn't be for at least another year, but so far David is exceeding everyone's expectations :)

We're still waiting to hear from the speech therapist before we set up another appointment for mapping. She's waiting to hear from the insurance company to see if they're going to cover the therapy (They'd BETTER...)

We're all just plugging along, working on new sounds, and trying to stay sane with our insanely busy lives!

Speech Evaluation

David had his speech evaluation yesterday. We went in and talked about his goals, what he felt he needed work on and about how we're going to have homework, then I took the kids out so she could do the testing.

He was tested with the implant and the hearing aid, as well as with just the implant.

He practically aced it. He can determine word length, sentence length, environmental sounds, high frequencies, low frequencies...you name it, he did it. The only thing he really needs work on is some vowels, and consonant sounds. She is writing up the report for the insurance company so that they will cover his sessions.

She is going to work on the consonants with him, as well as distance, so that he will become better at understanding me if I'm in another room, or not looking directly at him. She will also work with him on environmental sounds without giving him choices to help him figure out what it is. She'll play a sound and have him tell her.

She told us for now to work on putting stress on different words like: I am going to the store. I am going to the store. I am going to the store.

Hopefully the insurance will come through quickly so that Martha and Rebecca can work together so that David's mapping will be more fine tuned.

I'm once again, simply amazed at how well David is progressing.