Monday, June 2, 2008

Tomorrow is the 3rd mapping session...

So it has been a while. We are doing quite well. Brianna is doing wonderfully. She is hearing her name quite well. She tells me that people talking sounds "normal", but I don't really know what that means. She understands everything I say when she is looking at me, and she gets simple words and phrases when she is not looking at me. So I know it is working so far.
At tomorrow's appointment I think they are going to put her in a booth. Just to see where she is I guess. We also ordered ear molds to help keep the processors on her head. She is still too sensitive to wear the double-sided tape (but it really worked other than the irritation)! So the ear molds should be there tomorrow. They are blue and purple. My daughter is not afraid of color. If you saw my house, you would understand how different she and I are. Beige walls, off white trim...BORING! Oh well.
So, we still haven't had any "What's that?" moments. Maybe she is just not the type to ask. I tend to catch her investigating sounds, like the rain stick. My kids have a rain stick, you know, the one where it sounds like rain when you tip it, and the slower tipping makes a different sound than the faster tipping. Well, she played with this thing for a good 15 minutes the other day. I asked her what she was hearing, or if she had any questions and she said that it "sounds like rain". I wonder if she has really ever heard rain. She sleeps through the horrible, wake you in the middle of the night thunder storms. But without really knowing when she lost her hearing, it is hard to say what she has and has not heard before.
She is taking it all in stride. She always has. This Thursday she is going to the zoo. That should be a lot of fun for her. I will be at work, but I can't wait to get the recap of the smells and hopefully sounds that she experiences.
Last weekend (Memorial weekend) we got to see my family. We all go down to Maryland for the weekend. Everyone was glad to see Brianna for themselves I think. It's one thing to be told that someone is ok, it's another to see it for yourself. I do have to tell you what "Mother of the year" did. (Thank you, thank you, hold your applause please). I was getting the kids ready to go in the hot tub, and so first it's take off the shoes and then put on the bathing suits. Make sure you wear your shoes out to the tub so you can put them on afterwards. And don't forget the towels! What did I forget? Oh yes, to have Brianna take off her processors. So about 15 minutes into the splash-fest, Brianna hysterically screams "My processors!" and jumps out of the tub. Well, they shut themselves off, and that's when she noticed that they were on her head still. Of course she is soaked. I mean, she was going under the water, splashing, there were 5+ kids in the hot tub, water everywhere. And you know what? The darn things are still working fine. I removed the batteries, and no dampness or anything in there. They turned off because the batteries finally died in the right side. (We got 5 days off 1 set of batteries!). So I walked back to my rental house and got the rechargeable batteries. Put them in, and wha-la...they worked. Who knew that these are forgetful parent proof as well?
So all is well here. Hope you are all well, and I will keep updating!

3 comments:

Laurie said...

Sounds like Brianna is doing well! I would panic, too, if my processors got wet. I'm very careful with them even though they are "water resistant" and put them in my Dry-N-Store unit faithfully when I take them off. It gets out the dampness, sweat, etc. out of them. I once got my cell phone wet and thought it was done for good. But my Dry-N-Store unit dried it out and got it working again!

I use "HandiTak" from the office supply store to keep my processors on when I exercise. That is the stuff you use to hang pictures & posters without nails and it works good.

My daughter accuses me of being "boring" also when it comes to color!

Have a great day! Laurie

Bill and Shelly said...

Thanks for the updates. It sounds like she is doing wonderful!! I also feel so much better about letting Allison splash around in the water now that summer is here. I have always hated the fact that once her CI is off, she can't hear her friends, so maybe she can be a "normal" kid and play in the water this summer.

Abbie said...

She has come a real long way in such a short time! The second and third mapping is usually when voices start to come through as themselves and not sounding like daffy duck :) She was probably thinking everything is a cartoon haha!

I never heard of a rain stick before, that is interesting gadget. I never heard rain before I got my implant either. I was never aware unless it was pouring from the sky in buckets. Otherwise, it was just a dull thud. Now it sounds so purty :)

I'm glad ya updated us! :)