Fitz Four Flurry

Hilton Head 2009

2009-05-14T09:12:00.001-07:00

2009-03-17T13:29:00.000-07:00

Activated

2009-01-08T19:11:00.000-08:00

As you've noticed in the photo, Stephen is ON. The external device looks a little different from Molly's. Cochlear recently came up with a new option for parents to hook the processor/microphone to the back of the clothing. This "babyworn" clip has a safety pin attached. This way the child only has to have the magnet/coil attached to their head. We did try to put the BTE portion on Stephen and he was not tolerant. We will gradually have to get him to wear it. He really needs the microphone to be behind the ear, especially when he is sitting in a chair/car seat.

Let me back up to activation day. Our appointment was scheduled for 10:00am and Stephen had not had his morning nap so, needless to say, he was fussy and irritable the whole session. Many of you have asked how he reacted when he was first turned-on. His reaction to sound was not as evident to us as it was when Molly was turned-on. Thankfully our Adiologist noticed some reaction amidst the crankiness.

Stephen seems to be on track with his reactions and vocalization in this early stage. He is attempting to localize some higher pitch (ex. Rattle) and loud sounds. I am hearing more vocalization in the form of grunts and mmmm's. He is starting to imitate the long and short syllables of his "learning to listen" sounds from therapy. (for example, the long sound of Mooo for cow vs. the short sounds of Choo Choo for Train) In the past couple days, I've heard him say Ba and Ga. I am so thankful that I took detail notes of Molly's early progress with therapy, so now I have a reference to gauge Stephen's progress. Although they are two totally different kids in personality.

We are TRULY BLESSED to have both children in the hearing world!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T18:49:00.000-08:00

We hope you all have a blessed Christmas. On the eve of Christmas, here is a Not-so-Christ-centered Christmas carol. This would be Molly's monotone version of Jingle Bells. We have struggled to get inflection in her speech and in singing.

Stephen has been activated and is hearing----Praise God!!! I will write more later on this. What a Special Christmas this is for our family!

2008-12-12T07:37:00.000-08:00

Surgery Report

2008-12-09T11:43:00.000-08:00

Goodness, it is easier to upload photos and videos than it is to take the time to write. I have not forgotten about giving you a surgery/post-op report.

We give praise to our God for His goodness to our family in these last couple weeks. Mike had a few vacation days before he started his new job. Surgery was scheduled during his couple weeks of vacation, thankfully. Molly stayed with her grandparents so we could have some alone time with Stephen. We went down to UVA on Wednesday for a pre-op appointment and stayed the night in a hotel not far from the hospital. They asked us to arrive at 6am on Thursday because Stephen was first case. Our little fella was totally unaware of how his life would be completely changed in a matter of hours. Mike and I sat in the family waiting lounge for 3 ½ hours, thinking the same anxious thoughts that we did when Molly was under the knife. Only this time we had a few more concerns about Stephen’s anatomy. His surgeon mentioned in pre-op visit that Stephen had a small/short cochlea (seen on the CT). The surgeon did not express concern, but we were a little worried that they would not be able to get a good connection to the hearing nerve. This again was all in the Lord’s control. After the surgery, the surgeon came to the lounge to speak with us. He said that all went beautifully and when they tested the hearing nerve after the device was put in, they were able to get an excellent response. As you can imagine, we were elated to hear this. This gives us great hope that the device will work when Stephen is turned-on on December 19th. ( The audiologist waits a month for the wound to heal before she activates/attaches the external device.) So we went to the post-op area to find our wounded soldier in the arms of a nurse drinking pedialyte. He was not pleased to have the dressing wrapped around his head. Thankfully he wasn’t groggy like Molly was at this stage. They gave Molly morphine and it knocked her out for the rest of the day. They managed Stephen’s pain with infant Tylenol and that was all he needed for the next couple of days. After an hour of monitoring Stephen we were free to go, on the condition that we stay fairly close in case Stephen had complications. Yup, outpatient surgery! Amazing!

I must mention how thankful we were that Stephen was finally well for surgery day and he has continued to stay well. He bounced back pretty quickly when we brought him home. We are now 2 ½ weeks in recovery and Stephen’s stitches have absorbed and the bruising/swelling is gone. Now all I have to be concerned about is Stephen falling on the implant side as he learns to walk (it has already happened). Always an adventure!

Thanks for your many prayers and concern for our family during this time. You are an encouragement!

Say Cheeseburger

2008-12-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Photos of Post-op/recovery

2008-11-24T06:05:00.000-08:00

Here is our wounded warrior right after surgery drinking pedialyte.

Stephen showing his disgust for the dressing, as daddy cuts it off.

Vaseline slathered over the beautiful stitches to keep it moist

Nothing holding Stephen back from learning to walk

Two days to go

2008-11-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

For those of you who have remembered us in your prayers for this big week, we thank you. Lord willing, Stephen will have his surgery on Thursday morning. We don't know the time until the evening before. We will be heading down tomorrow for a pre-op appointment and stay the night in the area.

Stephen has mostly recovered from his sinusitis. He does have a little runny nose today. Hopefully that won't be a problem come Thursday morning.

Genetic Testing

2008-11-07T18:54:00.000-08:00

Many of you have been curious to know the cause of our children’s deafness. We initially, with Molly, decided not to do genetic testing. Once Stephen was diagnosed with deafness we knew that it was without a doubt genetic. It was Molly’s speech therapist that recently suggested doing testing after expressing her concern for Molly’s oral motor and speech difficulties. We thought more about it and realized that, before the move, it would make sense to see a Geneticist thru UVA’s health system.

Last Tuesday, we met with the Geneticist and Genetics Counselor to discuss our options with how we should proceed with testing. The first option was to do a simple inexpensive blood screen that would detect the two most common genetic causes for non-syndromic deafness (connexin26 and connexin 30). We decided to go with this option as a start before we drained the finances with the complex testing. They only drew a small amount of blood from our brave Molly. She was happy to be rewarded with a band-aid. Oh, the simple things in life!!! :)

Three days later, the Genetics Counselor called with the results. Connexin 26 was detected (ending our testing process). We are grateful that the results showed that it is not syndromic and that there are no other associated medical findings present with it (guessing her naughty behavior doesn't count). This gene is inherited in an autosomal recessive manner —meaning both Mike and I are carriers. This still means that our chances of having a deaf child is 25% (even if we have 2 that are deaf–the chances don’t change). Also we have a 50% chance of having a hearing child who is a carrier and a 25% chance of having a hearing child who is not a carrier. Fascinating stuff! With or without the odds, we serve a sovereign God who has ordained this to happen for His purposes.

Changes

2008-11-06T11:57:00.000-08:00

"I like my new house, I like my new church, I like my new Target"
This is what Miss Molly has been saying over and over for the past two weeks since the move. Thankfully Molly is adjusting well to these many changes. She is also thrilled to live within an hour from both sets of grandparents and her 6 cousins.

Unfortunately, this move takes us further away from UVA health system and the kid's Audiologist, Speech Therapist and ENT. We will continue to use their services for now, though the drive is about three hours. Our hope is to find a speech therapist in this area so that we can continue with weekly sessions.

We are two weeks away from Stephen's scheduled surgery. He has been sick with congestion and a junky cough for about two weeks. Our prayer is that he will be well enough to proceed with surgery on the 20th. I do remember having these same concerns with Molly a few weeks before. God has this in his control!

Disney Halloween

2008-11-05T19:20:00.000-08:00

Molly chose to go as Sleeping Beauty and Stephen is dressed as Squirt the sea turtle (recycled costume from Molly).

BIRTHDAY GIRL

2008-09-15T04:04:00.000-07:00

Happy 3rd Birthday, Molly! She sure was surprised when she realized that the birthday party was for HER. Oh boy, a whole year went by---what happened!

As you can see below, our resident artist has been honing her "happy-face" drawing skills. Hope this makes you smile!

2008-08-20T11:26:00.000-07:00

Click on the comic to enlarge. My dad put this comic together using some classic Molly faces.

2008-08-16T19:22:00.000-07:00

Amazing that I have a few moments to give you an update. Molly has been with her grandparents over the last couple days. It has been nice to give Stephen some special attention.

From my last update, I mentioned that Stephen was responding to more than we ever expected. We wondered if Stephen could ever get by with just hearing aids. As time has gone on, we have seen little evidence that this could ever happen. Stephen stopped his baby babble at 6 months—meaning he is not getting enough in for speech. He does use his vocal cords though, when his pacifier is not in. He has continued to respond, inconsistently, to some sounds of a high pitch. All of that said, we are still moving ahead with implant surgery and have it scheduled for late November, on Stephen’s birthday. Perfect gift!

I took Stephen to the hospital in Charlottesville on Thursday morning for a scheduled CT scan and ABR. While under general anesthesia, the ENT checked Stephen’s ears and found fluid behind his ears. They decided to put tubes in for preventative measures before surgery.

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Miss Molly’s progress:
- Molly is saying some 5 to 6 word sentences now. For example "See me riding on horse’s back" (as she gets on Mike’s back). She is using "me, I, I’m, mine, you" now too.

- Molly has memorized some of her well known books and she fills in the blanks when we stop reading. She will usually recite the next few sentences on the page (not exactly word for word, but close).

- Molly will tell us about the sequence of her day. For example when she wakes up she will come find me and tell me "Molly wake up, opened eyes, opened door, see Molly, see Daddy". She will do this with everything now.- Uses the words "today, tomorrow". Not sure if she completely understands them yet.

- More confidence in language has come from a game that Molly and her daddy play before bedtime. Molly will say "Pretend you are a ________" (a particular animal) to Mike and he will act out the animal. This has forced her to think and speak on her own. This has also given her an interest in learning a ton of new animals,bugs, etc. We have been reading her animal encyclopedia lately. Recently she has been asking Mike to "Pretend you are a______"

(particular profession). So Mike has been acting out for example what a doctor, nurse, teacher, preacher, cashier, farmer, etc. would do. This has helped with her creative role play during the day. She loves to pretend that she is a waitress taking our order or a cashier scanning our grocery items.

2008-08-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

Molly's confidence level is growing----enough to sing little into the karaoke microphone.

2008-06-11T11:20:00.000-07:00

Interestingly enough, Stephen is giving us some indication that he is hearing with and without his hearing aids. He turns to localize higher pitch sounds---like a rattle, tapping of fingernails, crinkle of paper, etc.. I have been able to see some reaction to speech as well. All of this makes some sense because he does have some haircell function. The big question is if he is hearing enough to produce sound for speech/language. This is something that his Audiologist and Speech Therapist have to determine in the next couple months. We are still moving ahead with implanting him at 10months, unless we see something that will make us wait.

2008-05-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

We came home from vacation to find that our poppies were in full bloom. Molly picked a few of them, held them tight at her chest and said "bride". She is such a little girl.

2008-05-14T11:48:00.000-07:00

Here are a few shots from our vacation in Hilton Head last week.

2008-05-14T11:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Spring!!!

I have been meaning to post all the fun new things that we are hearing from Molly. She is now forming 3 to 4 word sentences with her limited vocabulary. She is singing quite a few songs---still a bit monotone. And now she is reciting all the Bible verses that she has heard over and over for a year. I will have to get some of this on video for you in the near future.

2008-04-13T12:36:00.000-07:00

Trout Unlimited had Kids fishing day at the local creek yesterday. Daddy was so proud to take his little two year old out with the rod for the first time. She was quite scared of the worm on the hook and terrified of the fish that they (I mean Daddy) caught. We need to take more opportunities like this to toughen her up. :)

2008-03-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

After Molly's nap yesterday, I left her alone with Stephen for a few moments and came back to find Stephen looking like this. His eyes tell it all. I was not too thrilled with her seeing as she came VERY CLOSE to his eyes with the pen. I'm afraid this won't be the last time he is her victim.

2008-03-20T18:59:00.000-07:00

Here are a few goals we are working on in therapy:
~ understanding here vs. there (she is finally using them)
~ Molly is asking questions. She asks "what is that?" (sounds like "wa sat") and "where?". She will ask me "wa sat" when she wants to know a certain person’s name. We are working on "who is that?". :)
~ working on he/she. I think she is starting to understand this concept. Working on me/you. Not getting it yet.
~ understanding "what is he doing?".....she is using some "ing" words and I think understands this question.
~ understanding 1 vs 2. She can count, but she does not completely understand what the numbers mean.
~ understanding a possessive + noun (ex. Can you hand me daddy’s spoon?)
~ understanding behind, in front, on top, beside, under

2008-02-27T07:43:00.000-08:00

Yeah--a video!!! Now you can finally hear Molly vocalize. This should give you a good idea of how well she is forming words. She can't quite say a few letters/sounds. This could possibly be developmental or because she is not hearing the sounds.

2008-01-31T17:13:00.000-08:00

Hearing Aids on Stephen????
Yes, it wasn’t exactly the news we wanted to hear AGAIN. After Stephen was born we were quite anxious to have the nurses do the new born hearing screen. They were having some trouble with the OAE testing equipment that day, so they decided to test him the next morning. He actually passed the test and we all breathed a sigh of relief. We set up an appointment to have our audiologist do an ABR test on Stephen, whether he passed his OAE or not. We knew that he had a 25% chance of being deaf if what Molly has is genetically related. We never did do the blood test, but we were pretty sure it was genetic. So we were optimistic that he would pass his ABR, seeing as he passed his OAE (Molly failed her OAE). Unfortunately, our Audiologist was not able to get a response from the hearing nerve pathways. She said that he most likely has what is called Auditory Neuropathy. In my understanding, this diagnosis is given when there is hair cell activity present in the cochlea (which the OAE shows), but no neural components of the ABR are present. AN seems to be quite rare in congenital hearing loss. AN patients could have hearing loss ranging from moderate to severe. There is an outside chance that he could get by with just hearing aids. Our plan is to monitor Stephen with hearing aids for the next 7 months. If we see that he is not hearing enough for speech/language, we will move ahead with the Cochlear Implant when he is 10 mos old.
We take great comfort in knowing God’s purposes in all of this are right and good. Molly’s progress has given us much hope for Stephen’s future in the hearing world.

2008-01-03T19:25:00.000-08:00

Long time no blog....... I have so much to tell. Where do I begin??? I will start with Molly and give you the news on Stephen later.

I would never have described Molly as "sweet" before baby Stephen came along, but she has proven to us that she does have a tender side. She really does adore him and wants to be mummy’s little helper, particularly with diaper changes and bath time. She looks for him when she wakes up in the morning and after nap. She is quite concerned when he cries (she calls it "cwyin"). She always wants him next to her when she is sitting. She pats the floor and says "sit down here baby" (how’s that for a four-word sentence). When Stephen was a couple days old, Molly noticed his umbilical cord and said a three-word sentence, "oooh dirty cut". Since Stephen’s birth, Molly has had somewhat of a speech/language explosion. Could be because the daily focus has been taken off of her — not the center of attention. She loves to say the full alphabet over and over in speech babble. She is identifying most colors and shapes by name. In the last two weeks she has decided to care more about numbers. She likes to combine them with the alphabet ("1-2-3-4-i-j-k"). Just a bunch of sounds to her at this point. A couple days ago, I noticed that Molly was counting Stephen’s fingers aloud. Pretty cool.

2007-12-19T15:45:00.000-08:00

Molly announces the arrival of her baby brother, Stephen Michael. Stephen was born on Tuesday November 20th. Molly is very proud to be the big sister. She adores him!

2007-10-15T09:42:00.000-07:00

Could this be another reason why we are saving Molly's second ear for new technology??? Check out this new research on how to simulate hearing via infrared laser radiation. Will be pretty wild to see what's next.
http://www.technologyreview.com/Biotech/19206/page1/

2007-10-14T12:11:00.000-07:00

It has been a fall of celebrations! Molly turned TWO in early September and last Friday marked a year of being implanted. I’m not exactly sure where this year went. We must have been on over-drive with all the changes that were taking place in Molly’s life. She is now such a big girl and full of life. Busy, Busy, Busy and into everything like a normal 2 yr old. Plus she continues to test us each day with her strong will.

Molly has finally realized that it is far more exciting to have mom/dad read to her than to sit and look at books alone. This is a good thing for me now that I am in my 8th month of pregnancy. I know that reading will help expand her auditory memory.

She has recently been very interested in colors, shapes, letters and numbers. Seems age appropriate, huh? She can say yellow, green and pink (not perfectly) and has a sound (not quite identifiable) for most of the other colors. We were taking Molly up to bed the other night and I was saying "A B C D" and Molly followed by saying "E F G". We were both stunned! Guess we don’t realize all that she is taking in and remembering. Repetition is paying off!

2007-08-21T18:26:00.000-07:00

New phase in Molly's world:
~She has finally decided to say " yeah" as her answer to all of our yes/no questions. Seems hypocritical to correct her with a "yes" when we find ourselves saying "yeah" all the time.
~When we ask her "what does a cow (or any animal) say?", she immediately responds with the appropriate animal noise. Great way to get her to talk in public.
~Molly jabbers on and on to herself, to her toys and to us (with all kinds of hand movements and facial expressions). Makes perfect sense to her, but we can barely make out any of the words. Seems like a great foundation to building sentences.

2007-08-20T16:56:00.001-07:00

2007-08-20T16:41:00.001-07:00

Last week I met a mom with a one year old recently diagnosed with deafness . We were in the audiology waiting room and they were waiting to have him fitted with hearing aids. I was reminded of the constant battle of trying to keep the aids in Molly's ears, not to mention a gentle dose of her prior screaming. I dug up this video clip of Molly at 7 months. This is for you Jennifer!!! :)

2007-07-02T12:41:00.000-07:00

Well, it’s about time I give an update to the few of you who are still checking on this blog.
I must say that Molly has come a long way in these last 3 months of not posting. We were struggling for months to get Molly to do what her speech therapist wanted her to do at home. We focused so hard on getting Molly to be attentive and listen during home therapy. I guess we began to wonder if Molly was getting enough input in her "ear" or if it was just her strong will. She does choose to do things on HER TIME. Finally, Molly had a mapping session in early May and her audiologist upped her levels significantly. This has made all the difference in the world for her. She has grown by leaps and bounds in expressive and receptive language since then.

Molly will directly imitate vowel and consonant sounds, as well as combination sounds. She has recently imitated the letters "T", "S", "P" and "K". She may not have heard these sounds prior to the mapping. Molly is now saying 7 full words and over 75 sounds/sound combinations for specific words. Her receptive language is obviously greater than this. She will respond accordingly to many commands, without visuals (from up close to across the room). Go upstairs, sit down, brush your teeth, sit on the potty, stop, throw the ball, jump, dance, pick that up, throw it in the trash, etc.... It has been a tremendous encouragement to us to see such progress. Reminds us of how blessed Molly is to have the opportunity to hear. We praise God!

2007-05-13T17:25:00.000-07:00

2007-03-05T10:12:00.000-08:00

Most mornings after breakfast we do what I call organized therapy in Molly’s "listening chair". When I put her in the booster seat at the table, Molly knows that she has to listen. Some days I get 5-10 minutes out of her. I don’t push it! Each week we have a lesson to follow from her speech therapist . Sometimes it is accomplished in the chair, but most of the time it is done while she is playing.
There are some kiddos who react to sound quickly. Molly is not always like this. Which makes me wonder often if her device is working properly. We are realizing that Molly is more of a "thinker". She is always busy doing many things and looks like she is not listening, but she will respond appropriately in her time. Seems really silly that we are figuring out her "learning style" at 18 mos. Guess a lot of this seems silly to all of you who are reading this!
As far as receptive/expressive language.... Molly says Hi to everyone and everything. She can identify the nose, eyes and ears on people, animals, toys, etc... She says "oh" for nose, "eyeeeee" for eye, and "eeah" for ear. She is saying "aaa eee" for Daddy and "ma eee" for Molly. Right now she seems to be obsessed with birds, which she calls "er". We bird watch out the back window each day.

Molly's cousin from Texas came to visit this past week. As seen in the photo above, the girls are bundled up for a cold day at the park.

2007-01-31T17:02:00.000-08:00

Where do I even begin??? It is so exciting to look back over these last three months of activation and see results. Kids are little sponges. They absorb more than we think they do. With an implanted kid, you have no idea what sounds they are taking in until they spit them out.
Last night I wrote down all the sounds/words that Molly understands or at least seems to understand. To my surprise I came up with about 25. She is saying 15+ sounds for specific words. It has been so cool to see Molly’s unbelievable desire to communicate.

She is quite obsessed with "The Itsy Bitsy Spider". If I start to sing the song, without visuals, she will do most of the motions. On occasion, I find her in her highchair or carseat doing the motions and "singing" along. You know, I was singing this to her ad nauseam for the first 2 months and she showed zero interest. I took her to storytime at the library and she saw the librarian and kids singing/doing the motions and she decided it was pretty cool. Go figure!

Here is a picture of our little singer in her rocking chair.

2007-01-08T10:56:00.000-08:00

Molly has been making some progress with her vocabulary and word recognition. We did have a few setbacks in December because of sickness and traveling. There were days where she refused to keep her external device on (constant battle with mommy). There were days where she did not babble/talk at all. This was probably due to not feeling well, out of her environment or too much background noise. I assume all of this is very typical.

Lately she has been saying "ah, ah" for up, "own" for down and "baaa" (southern drawl) for bye. She will turn to her name and "no". When we say "no"(without visuals), from across the room, she will stop and wag her finger at the object she is not allowed to touch. Silly kid!

Speaking of silly....Here is Molly playing dress-up with her cousins on New Years Day. Still Bossy!

2006-12-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

I am thankful for all of you who give me the gentle nudge to keep on posting.

Last week Molly started to babble like crazy (like a normal hearing 7 month old would). "YaYa", "rarar", "EEEE" are some of the sounds she will make all day. She will say "Mooo" for cow, "Maw" for cat, "hooohooo" for train, high pitch "wa, wa" for dog, "ah" for up and "baa" for sheep. She will mimic duration, pitch and volume changes to a lot of these sounds. All of this output with only 6 weeks of activation.

Music.....Molly LOVES music. Her eyes light up when we turn on the jukebox in her room. She will dance and attempt to hum along. All of her toys that make music are played over and over now. Thankfully batteries have a short life :). This attached photo is of Molly and her friend Ben at music class. Can you tell who the bossy one might be?

The Audiologist did a sound field audiogram on Wednesday. We were both enthusiastic to see her responses to such soft sounds. All of you in Tennessee would be happy to know that her speech detection threshold was clearly obtained in the normal hearing range (10 dB).

2006-11-20T18:29:00.000-08:00

Since turn-on day we have seen a tremendous amount of progress in our little kiddo. We still can’t quite get over the fact that she can hear now. It is a 21st century miracle. Yes, we are flying high!!! Molly actually wants to hear. Occasionally in the morning or after nap she will point to her ear before I have a chance to get her device on. She wants to hear right away! That is so cool to see so early on!

We have already had two speech therapy sessions (an hour once a week). We chose to take the Auditory-Verbal approach. Seems to be a very aggressive yet effective approach. Essentially the AV practice teaches kiddos how to hear, listen, understand the language of their normal hearing parents, and how to effectively speak that same language. It emphasizes hearing rather than vision (no sign or cued speech).

We love our therapist. She is a phenomenal teacher and very creative. Much of this therapy is parent training, of course. So I take what I learn from each session and implement it into everyday practice. Or at least try! The trick is to disguise the work at home as play. After all, she is an infant!!!!

2006-11-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I am doing a pretty lousy job with posting. Thought I would tell you a little bit about Molly’s activation session as well as how she has responded in this last week.

On activation day, Molly had a positive report from her Audiologist. She started out by sending signals to the implant and gradually raised the volume. There were some slight responses at first. She then started sending low tones to high tones, like a piano scale. Molly actually cried when she hit the high tones. Tears of joy for us!!! She then turned her "ear" on to live sound and Molly seemed to respond to a few things in the environment. All of our waiting for this big day was well rewarded.

As far as how Molly is taking to her new "EAR".....She is a NEW KID (at least in the last couple days). What happened to our little screamer??? We were seeing a little reaction to loud sounds in the first couple days, but nothing like yesterday and today. She has found that all of her toys that make sound have a whole new dimension to them. She wants interactive play now (in the last couple months she has been playing quietly by herself). For those of you who know Molly, you know that she has quite a loud and frequent scream (especially in public). Yesterday was my first grocery shopping experience with a quiet child. Let’s see how long this will last. :)

I should also note that she is taking to this device far better than she ever did with her hearing aids. We are assuming it is because she is getting more input and LIKES what she is hearing. She yanks the device out though when she wants our attention. Hummm..... Still naughty!!!!

There are three parts to her external device. What is hooked the the halter on her back is the body-worn processor.

2006-11-01T05:42:00.000-08:00

Molly is now wearing her new Nucleus Freedom device. She is actually alerting to sound in the pic. Pretty Cool!! The coil portion is magnetized to the head where she has been implanted. The pink portion, which SHOULD go BTE (behind the ear), is the microphone. She also wears a processor that we attach to her pants. I will send a better photo later.
Here is our little Squirt from Finding Nemo

2006-10-31T18:38:00.000-08:00

A VERY HAPPY HALLOWEEN

I seem to be having some trouble uploading pics on Blogger tonight.

We took Molly to her Audiologist to be activated this afternoon. What a cool day it was!!!! I will write more later, but the visit was extremely encouraging. She responded very well to different sounds. It looks like the implant is working!!!! Praise the Lord!

2006-10-25T12:13:00.000-07:00

Six days to go until Halloween, turn-on day. Um, let’s just say we’re a little excited!!!
As you can see in the picture, Molly’s scar is healing beautifully. Now that most of the swelling is gone, you can see and feel the very defined implant beneath the skin.

Would love to share yet another LINK /video clip with you. ABC’s "Good Morning America" covered a remarkable and touching story about the McBride family, which some of you may have seen in May 06. All four family members are deaf and can hear with the aid of a cochlear implant. Recently, three of them were bilaterally implanted. Just thought this would be helpful in seeing not only what the external device looks like, but also how each family member is progressing in speech/ language. Amazing!

2006-10-16T20:37:00.000-07:00

Our Bionic Baby

Molly is blessed to be implanted in a time of such advancing technology. Over 60,000 people in the world have been implanted. The FDA began to approve implantation in adults in the mid-80's and extended it to children in the 90's.

The very primitive devices had 1 channel. Multiple channel devices were introduced in the 80's which helped greatly with speech recognition. I’m not certain, but I believe that Molly’s device has 22 channels. We will learn more about the device in the next few months. Huge learning curve! I tell you all of this because I want to share a couple websites with you. Both sites have audio demos that simulate what speech/music would sound like through a cochlear implant. Audio Demo1 , Audio Demo2

Molly testing out her healed head wound.

2006-10-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

Kids are unbelievably resilient! It is day 5, post-surgery and Molly is definitely back to her usual self. She had discomfort in her left ear and around the incision for a couple days. The area around the incision has had minimal swelling and bruising, however that ear has been swollen enough to stick out. If you would like to see her incision and partial mohawk, click here. Mike was VERY pleased with the surgeon’s work, but it made me a bit queasy to look at and touch (keeping it moist with vaseline).

A number of people have asked us if she is able to hear now. So I guess I should explain a little bit about how the process works. The small device that was implanted is simply the "rewiring" to her hearing nerve. It replaces the structures she was born with that don’t work. After the surgery site heals (typically 3-4 weeks), the external device (which includes a microphone and sound processor) is attached at our follow-up visit with her Audiologist. I’ll also explain that the sound that goes into the microphone is converted, in the processor, to digital sound/coded signals that are transmitted through the implant to her hearing nerve. Yes, Pretty AMAZING!

2006-10-06T18:28:00.000-07:00

The events of October 5, 2006 proved to be better than expected. Everything about the day was clearly orchestrated by God’s gracious hand. We were very pleased with the personnel at the hospital. They made us feel quite comfortable and they responded well to all of Molly’s needs. Molly's surgeon said that things couldn't have gone better.
In case you are interested in reading about the implant procedure or want to see a diagram, click here.

Here’s a run down of the last two days:
10-5-06
6:30 am- arrival at hospital
7:15 am- Molly taken to surgery/Parents went to waiting room
10:40 am- Reunited in the recovery room
11:30 am- Discharged home
7:00 pm- Down for bed (with a little codeine)
10-6-06
7:00 am- Molly woke up in her usual form
6:00 pm- bandage off

Here is our "wounded soldier", as daddy likes to call her, at breakfast this morning. Her face looked a little puffy from the dressing.

2006-10-05T19:16:00.000-07:00

THE BIG DAY
We give all the praise and glory to God!!!!
Thank you for all of your prayers. All went well today. I will write more tomorrow. It has been a long day. Thought I would post a pic of Molly pre-op and post-op.

Molly waves good-bye to her parents before she is taken into the operating room.

A little groggy after anesthesia

2006-10-02T11:27:00.000-07:00

Guess I should give a little background on Molly and our journey this past year before we jump to the implant stuff. I will try to leave out the details and give you the facts. Molly was born a year ago in September 05. She failed her newborn hearing screen in the hospital and we were referred to the Audiologist/ENT for further testing. At three months, the Audiologist did an Auditory Brainstem Response test with results that showed Molly to have a severe-profound hearing loss in both ears. Oye, what do you do with that information as a parent? I’m not even sure if I could explain to you all of our thoughts and emotions at that point. We were grateful for the prayers of many and were comforted in our reassurance that God is in control.

Thankfully our town of Johnson City, TN has incredible early intervention services (incredible individuals who worked with Molly). They gave us the information we needed to make some crucial decisions for Molly and brought us much HOPE for her future in the hearing world. Because of their help, Molly was fitted with hearing aids at 4 ½ months. With the aids, she was responding inconsistently to loud environmental sounds. I should mention that it was quite a battle to keep her aids in her ears (she thought they were better suited in her mouth). Anyway, she was weekly being seen by the PhD/graduate Audiology and Speech Pathology students at ETSU. We were seeing quite a bit of progress as time went on. At 10 months she was mimicking the syllables/pitches of some words, but still not mimicking vowel/consonant sounds (other than Aaaa and MaMa). The input given by the aids was still not enough for speech and language development, so we began to move forward with the cochlear implant. We met with the implant team at UVa and they confirmed that Molly was a good candidate for the implant. When Molly was 11 months, we left the Volunteer state and moved to the Cavalier state of VA. So here we are at 13 months, gearing up for surgery on Thursday and her activation on Halloween.

2006-09-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

We are new to the blog scene. Let's see how faithful I am in posting. Ha!
So we're 5 days away from Molly's surgery. Excited, but a bit nervous to have our baby go under the knife. We will TRY to quarantine Molly from any illness in these next few days. This is all in God's control though!