Dane's teeth

Dane fell this afternoon while he was riding his bike and hit his teeth on his handle bars.  His top two teeth were pushed in quite a bit and it also busted them.  What do you do when you have a mouth injury at 5 in the evening?   I didn't know where to take him.  Because it was just his teeth that were injured and no other lacerations, we decided to call the dentist, and thankfully they were still open!  Our dentists here (Bernstein and Perkins) are the best dentists I have ever been to!  They had us come right in and dropped everything they were doing so they could both make sure that Dane was ok.  They were so nice.  So, after four x-rays and a visual exam, it was obvious that Dane had knocked the top two middle teeth back and that they had been chipped pretty good.  They needed to be moved back into place ASAP, but we would need to see an oral surgeon for this.  So, the dentist called the oral surgeon and had an emergency appointment set up.  We were to meet him in 45 minutes at his office.  He was in Virginia and would have to drive all the way back to Silver Spring.  I kind of felt bad making him drive all this way, but both the dentist and the surgeon said it needed to be moved back into place right away.  Dane was a pretty brave trooper through all this.  He was in a lot of pain, but he let everyone look inside his mouth.  The oral surgeon numbed Dane's mouth real good and gave him some nitrous oxide to relax him.  It didn't look like it was all that hard to push the two teeth around, the surgeon made it look so easy!  The got the two teeth back into position and put a little plastic bridge over the tooth teeth to anchor together so the teeth wouldn't move anymore (that's the white thing on Dane's teeth that you see in the picture).  He also got one stitch to close up a gap that had been made when the teeth were pushed back.  Now Dane can't use his front top teeth to eat for several weeks until the teeth have healed.  I have no idea what this will mean for his two teeth.  We won't know if they will be ok or if they're going to die.  We were told that we needed to see a root canal specialist to see what he thinks.  I'm not sure what they'll do about the teeth being broken either.  That won't be fixed until the teeth are more solid in the gums again and the bridge can come off I'm sure.  What's even more crazy about all this is that this happend right as the missionaries showed up at our house to eat dinner with us!  But crazy doesn't faze me anymore, I'm a seasoned warrior. (I must insert here, without sounding "churchy" or anything, that my Heavenly Father has helped me get to this point, lots of work, but well worth it.)  We just cleaned up Dane's mouth, I took Dane to the dentist, and Todd fed the missionaries.  No big deal.  I think Dane's natural tendency to have his mouth always hanging open saved him from having any mouth injuries.  The dentist and the surgeon were a little surprised he hadn't bitten through his lip when he hit his mouth.  If you know Dane, his mouth is always open and his top teeth are always showing.  See, a blessing in disguise!

The white bridge is covering up both teeth to stabilize them (blood still everywhere, the mouth bleeds forever!). You can see below the bridge how his teeth are broken, looks like a half circle. 

The Missing Piece

The Missing Piece

Surgery Date!

I was shocked and surprised when one of the staff from Bethesda called today to make a pre-op appointment for Seth's October 15th surgery date. I was like, what?  We haven't gotten a date yet?!  After meeting with the surgeon this past Wednesday, he told us to call in two days and they'd let us know what date we could expect for surgery. We were expecting within the month, maybe later. Well, the surgical team decided on a date and got the ball rolling before we knew it!  I was so shocked, but said we'd take it! That's only three weeks away!  It seems like this day has taken forever to get here, now it seems so soon!  Am I doing the right thing?  Seth has no clue what's going to happen to him, how's he going to handle all this?  I'm sure that's just all the jitters and the initial excitement of it all.  Todd will have that day off so we can go together.  We were told from beginning to end, it will be about five hours, the actual surgery lasting about 3 hours.  We were told if all goes well, we could be released from the hospital that afternoon!  Luckily, the youngest patients go first, and so far, Seth is the youngest.  Man, I'd hate to have to wait all day.  So, that's the latest on the CI.

Alex eating Crab!!!

On Saturday we drove to Easton, MD for the PWSA of MD/VA/DC picnic.  Easton is on the east side of Maryland and you have to cross the Bay Bridge to get to it.



This video is of us crossing the Bay Bridge over the Chesapeake Bay.  It is so awesome looking across. It is 4.3 miles across. (The San Francisco Bay Bridge is 4.5 miles across for anyone who may have gone over that for a comparison.)  Try not to get car sick watching it, though!

Apparently, eating crab is something you do when you picnic in Maryland.  Alex had to try this.  Fortunately, we had a great teacher who showed us how to eat crab.  There's really not much meat, probably spend more time breaking the sucker open than eating, but it was fun.  Alex had it down good.  All the crab here is fished from the Chesapeake Bay.  I think he ate at least six crabs! The children enjoyed swimming in the pool and Seth loved the swing!

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.