What is a Cochlear Implant?

Ok, so after much therapy and research, we've decided to go ahead and get a Cochlear Implant done on Seth's right ear.  When I first read about Cochelar Implants (I will refer to Cochlear Implant as CI from here out), I wasn't sure about it.  First of all, they say you will lose any natural hearing that the ear had once the CI is implanted.  This scared me a little.  I wanted Seth to have as much natural hearing as possible.  But after almost a year of auditory verbal therapy, it has become evident that Seth cannot hear enough to hear speech sounds, and therefore may never be able to learn to talk clearly because he cannot hear what sounds he's trying to make.  Imagine trying to form a sound with your mouth when you cannot even hear it.  Even if the CI fails, meaning it gives him no benefit, what has he really missed out on?  I've read that CI's sound different than normal hearing.  This is also concerning, but since Seth doesn't hear anyways, what's he missing out on?  I'm looking at this from a hearing person's point of view when I should be looking at it from a deaf person's point of view.  That really changes the way you think.  A friend of mine whose daughter is getting a CI, also has another daughter who is paralyzed from the waist down.  We'd discussed the pros and cons of a CI and what we should do for our children. Then she told me that if there was a surgery that gave any hope for her paralyzed daughter to walk again, she would do it.  So that was why should was going ahead with a CI for her deaf daughter.  That made me think.  I love watching deaf people sign, and I think it's a great world out there in the deaf community.    I met another lady who chose to not to do anything for her deaf daughter (hearing aids, CI, etc).  Her opinion was, why try to fix her, she's not broken.  Of course this makes me think as well.  After much thought and prayer, we've made this decision.

So, what is a cochlear implant?

Deep in your ear is a remarkable pea-sized structure called the cochlea. The cochlea is fully developed at birth. Tiny, delicate hair cells in the cochlea communicate sound signals to your brain, allowing you to hear different pitches and sounds. If these delicate cells are damaged, you can lose some or all of your ability to hear.

Cochlear implants are designed to compensate for the damaged cells, helping to restore your ability to perceive and understand sounds. A cochlear implant works by bypassing the damaged part of the ear and sending sound signals directly to the hearing nerve.

1. The external sound processor captures sounds, then filters and processes the sounds.

2. The sound processor translates the filtered sounds into digital information, which is then transmitted to the internal implant.

3. The internal implant converts the digital information into electrical signals, and sends them to a tiny, delicate curl of electrodes that sits gently inside the cochlea.

4. The electrical signals from the electrodes stimulate the hearing nerve, bypassing the damaged cells that cause hearing loss, allowing the brain to perceive sound.

(Info taken from www.cochlearamerica.com)

Seth will be getting the Nucleus 5.  Now our biggest dilema, what color?  The outside wires and processor come in five colors: black, white, beige, brown, and charcoal.   I think we'll get the wiring in brown and the processor in beige.  

This is what will be outside his head or what you see.  The processor is worn behind the ear, just like a hearing aid.  The wire (coil) attaches to the head by a magnet! 

This is what will be underneath his scalp and muscle.  See the magnet in the circle where the outside coil will attach?

And this is what it will look like. 

Nothing New Here

So, I'm like trying to post at least every week to keep family and friends updated about us.  We're real boring though, but I'm good with boring.  A lady in our ward had her home broken into and ransacked while she was at the temple last week.  I can handle boring.

Tuesday we see the audiologist over Cochlear Implants.  We will discuss what's going to happen with Seth.  Although I think none of it will be anything new.  I've done a lot of reading and talked to several people about CI's.  Yeah, I know, Cochlear Implants are real boring.  I'm enjoying easy right now.  When it comes time to have Seth's surgery done and all the follow-up therapy that goes along with it, life will be crazy. So, I'm taking boring and running with it.

So here's Kate on her first day of school.  She looks real excited.  We've officially been through two weeks of school now.  Of course, there was the Labor Day holiday, and the day off for Rosh Hashanah, and then of course we'll have this Tuesday off for Election Day.  Let's see, what other holidays can I use as an excuse not to have school?  No, really, we took these days off because the other children, i.e. my public schooled children, had these days off.  Crazy schedule, but we'll get into a groove soon.  I've got pics of the other kiddos too on their first day of school, but they are on my phone, and I haven't taken the time to learn how to download them.  Ok, I'm just lazy and won't look for the cord so I can download them onto my desktop.   Whatev'.  I love that word.  I say it a lot to the kids, especially when something crazy happens.  What do you do?  Just say, "Whatev'".  Alrighty, time to get off this technological contraption.

First Day of School

Today is the first day of school for all the children.  Alex was up bright and early as his bus comes right before 7 a.m.  This is great for him as he loves waking up early.  Because he's in Special Ed, the bus comes right to our house.  It's so great.  After getting him off on the bus all the other children are waking up and getting ready for school.  Kate, who is in 6th grade, will be home schooled this year.  She was up bright and early with everyone ready to start school.  Kate starts her home school routine right after breakfast.  She does somethings on her own, but by the time the other children are out the door, mom comes to help with Math and whatever subject we are learning about that day.  I drove Emily, Dane, and Karsten to school for their first day.  Emily and Dane were ready to leave me the moment I parked the car and wondered why I wanted a picture of them.  Really, mom, it's just school!  Not like we haven't been here before!  So I let Emily and Dane go on ahead and head to the gym to meet up with their teachers while I took Karsten to his class.  The teachers were having the Kindergarten students line up in the hall until the bell rang.  Karsten is about the fourth student in his class to arrive, so he lines up behind three other girls and just stands there waiting.  As I stood there watching the other children come in with their parents, it was interesting to see the different ways the children were handling this first day of school.  There were the children who were anxious to get going and happy to be there.  I would include Karsten in this group.  He's wanted to go to Kindergarten for like a year now!  Then there were the "not too sure I want to be here" type.  There were also some who had come by bus or had no parent standing with them, so I put them into the "I can't cry, I'm stuck here and I guess I'll be ok" group.  The final group would be the "what's the big deal, I do this everyday" type, the ones who probably were in preschool and starting Kindergarten isn't such a big deal for them type.  I just wanted to hug them all and tell them they were all going to be great!  But, this is a public school, and I'm a stranger, so that would be really weird.  I'm sure they would have called the police on me and instead of teaching Kate, I'd be sitting in jail.  That would make a very interesting first day of school.

So after waiting for about 10 minutes, I decided I could leave Karsten, as they would be entering their classroom soon.  I asked him if he wanted to give me a hug, he said no.  So I hugged him anyway.  I'm way excited to hear about how his first day went.  By the way, it's full day Kindergarten.  Crazy.  But, he hasn't napped since he was like 3 years old, so I know he'll do fine.

I came home and Kate had finished all her morning assignments.  We moved on to Math and US History.  Kate finished everything up by noon.  Now she's got the afternoon free.

The house is quiet.  I miss the kids.  I'll see them in three hours.

Blast from the Past

Watch out people!  I am going through all my pictures and scanning them into the computer.  It has been really fun looking at old pictures.  Some are embarrassing, some are funny.  I may post a few here and there on my blog, so be warned, you could be up here next!  Alright, no more pictures of Hailee streaking.  Wait, that was on the family blog, so no one really saw it, Hailee! :)


So here are a couple I wanted to post.

Alex's blessing day in Mescalero.  Kate told me that Sarah looks the same and was easy to tell who she was!

(half cut off is Matthew Naiche, Carolyn holding Alex, Angela, Kathy, Sarah, me, and Rhonda)

Oh, and one more thing (mainly for me for journaling purposes), the outfit that Alex is wearing was given to me by Sister Mertz, it was a preemie outfit.  That's when it was hard to come by a preemie outfit.  Seth wore this same outfit when he was blessed!  None of the other boys could wear it because of their large statures when they were born.

Ok, so the reason I posted this picture was mainly for those who remember how we fed Alex.  It was so tough.  We would tape the feeding tube to anything nearby (in this case the kitchen chair!).  Oh, and Sarah, sorry I keep calling you out, but remember living with us when we lived in this house?  I think that's you, Tonnia, sitting in the chair?  I'm not sure.  

Fun in New York

Here's a few shots of the children while we were at Lake Seneca on our trip to New York.

Ok, this is a picture of Alex, but not at Seneca Lake.  This was at Decker Park years ago, I think in 2000.  Anyways, the reason I post it is because of the following picture.  Alex and Seth are wearing the same hat doing the same thing in the water!  Can't keep them out!

Yes, Dane is carrying a dead fish.  The kids thought it was so cool.  Wonder why the lake has dead fish?  

Kate in the kayak.

Alex in the paddle boat with his Uncle Warren and cousin Nathan.

Dane going out!

Todd and Karsten in a row boat.

Alex trying out the kayak; he eventually capsizes.  

Hey, that green goop is the best!

Dane out on the lake.

Some Plans

Alright, here's the plan:  we have two weeks to see if Seth picks up any new words or anything close to a new word.  If not, we will make an appointment with the Cochlear Implant specialist at Bethesda to start the process of qualifying Seth for a Cochlear Implant.

Developmental Pediatrics

I took Seth to see the Developmental Pediatrician today.  I love what he told me:  Seth is not developmentally delayed, he just has a communication disorder!  He told me never to refer to Seth as being developmentally delayed because he is smart.  He is right on target physically and cognitively for a 25 month old.  So this means no delays.  However, his speech is way behind, obvious, but the doctor told me this has nothing to do with his cognitive skills, just an obvious side effect of being partially deaf.  We are leaning more toward a Cochlear Implant.  We haven't made a final decision.  Surgery and therapy doesn't scare me.  Just waiting on the opinion of our auditory verbal therapist, Pratibha.  She is awesome.  We are so blessed to have her working with Seth.