Activation?

Abbie, you are an amazing blogger! The detail of your posts. How can you remember all that you do? Gosh I am getting old, I can barely remember my name! And thank you for keeping up on Brianna's progress. And thank you to everyone for your support!

We are 2 weeks away from activation. And boy do I have a ton of questions. Should I list them? I don't want to seem to demanding, but advise is openly welcome...

1. Is there anything I can do to prepare Brianna for what she is about to experience? I have noticed that she wants desperately to please me. So she tries to have the reaction that she thinks I want her to have. I am afraid that she may say that she is hearing something different than she is hearing just because she thinks that is what I want to hear. She is such a sensitive and caring child. Just a blessing!

2. What will she hear. I read that voices will not sound like voices. Ducks, Mickey Mouse, gibberish. Does anyone have any description of what it sounded like to them or their child?

3. How overwhelming will this be for her and her brain? I hear that you get really tired after activation from all that your brain is learning. Should I plan on keeping her home from school? Or do you experienced CI-ers think she is fine going to school the days following initial activation?

4. What comes in the kit? Call me a kid in a candy store, but I love reading manuals and playing with cables (I am in Information Technology and just such a dork). But I am dying to know what neat things she will get in the kit. She has Nucleus Freedom implants. Will she get cool stuff? Cases and whatnot?

5. Is there anything that I can do at home to help her with learning to use the implant once activated? This hasn't been discussed with me, and I am sure it will. But a little head start doesn't hurt, right? I read that books on tape are good. What about cartoons with captioning? Any other fun things that you all can think of?

6. I don't know if it will be a problem or not, but I have read that sometimes the implants can be overwhelming at first. Is there any tips from you parents out there to help Brianna want to wear them? Just in case she says she doesn't want to. I don't want to force her (I will if it comes to that), I just want them to be fun, and interesting and helpful to her. So that she wants to wear them. Did anyone go through their child not wanting to wear them in the first few days? Or did you yourself not want to wear them? Why? What got you through it?

7. What can I realistically expect? Deep down, suppressed in my innermost thoughts, I hope that Brianna will be activated, and she will understand me, and hear the world. But realistically I know that is not how it will go down. I don't want to go in there hoping for magic and get disappointed. I have read so many activations, and watched the videos. It is so hard to tell if the expressions are good, amazing and wonderful, or if they are disappointment, regret and sorrow. Please fill me in if you have any advise.

I feel like a needy worry wart! To tell you the truth, I am so excited! I can't wait for the "what is that sound?" and the "THAT is what a bird sounds like?!" moments. It will be like having a newborn. All those firsts, just different firsts. You all know I am sure. I am just counting the days, hours and minutes!! (that's 13 days, 14 hours and 5 minutes for all those counting along with me!!!)

A little note on the happenings of this week. Brianna went back to school yesterday. Her class brought in money to send her a bouquet of flowers and a cookie expressions bouquet. And they each made a personal get well card for her. It was the sweetest thing. Reading those cards made my heart melt. Who knew so many 7 year olds were so unselfishly thoughtful? So this past weekend, Brianna and I made "Cochlear Implant Bracelets" for each of her classmates, and her teachers. They consisted of a silver spiral in the middle and colored beads on each side. Really cute. I will put a picture up. Anyway, she and I made them, and I wrote up a little something for her to read to explain their meaning to her class. Apparently they were a hit (who doesn't like a cute bracelet?).

She is doing well with going back to school. She bumped her head on the bus this morning and the school nurse called me after she calmed down to let me know that everything looks fine, she just was a bit shaken from the experience. When I asked her about it at home all I got was "The bus stopped and I hit my head. It's fine now." So I guess it was really ok! She is such a tough cookie, but worry wart mom called the doctor anyway. He of course said that since there was no bleeding or sign of trauma, she is fine until she goes in for her follow up on Thursday. You can never be too worrisome when it comes to your child, right? Anyway, she is doing great. Even with having no hearing, she got a 90% on her test yesterday. It was a practice state test. She takes them a few times a month to practice for the real one next year. Her grade before we got the student teacher for Brianna was a 68%. Big improvement. Thank goodness she really does go to a school that it more concerned with her academic success than anything else. I love this school district. Next Thursday Brianna has a field trip to go see a play. I asked that they try and seat her as close to the stage as possible, since she won't be hearing anything. I hope they do that for her. Then on June 5th, she is off to the zoo with the other children with hearing impairments. I hope that by then, the implants are really starting to work for her. How amazing it will be!

Ok, I am exhausted. Good night to you all, and thank you (in advance) for your input to my many questions!

Post-Surgery - Day 1

So today was a pretty good day for Brianna. She was dying to go outside, but her pleading got her nowhere. I was able to take the bandages off. That was much easier than I thought it would be. Nothing was stuck to them, so they lifted right off. Her incision isn't too bad. Starts at the bottom of each ear, and goes up to the top of the ear, and then about 3" at a 45 degree angle toward the back of her head. Her hair is barely shaved at all. He probably shaved 3" of hair, no thicker than 1/2". So, once we wash her hair, I bet you won't even be able to tell.
Brianna didn't nap at all today. Every time she put her head down, she said that it hurt. I gave her the Tylenol with codeine. She went to sleep about 1/2 hour - 45 minutes later. She only slept for about 1 hour, and must have moved her head, because she woke up crying. I say, this has been harder than I thought it would be. She can't seem to get comfortable at all. She says that the back of her head is sore, and so is her neck, so that doesn't leave much room for comfort.
My daughter is amazing. With that sentence, I feel such amazement. I would be a whining wimp in her situation. She is just the strongest, bravest little girl ever. My daughter is amazing.
One thing I found interesting...She says that she can hear herself talk. She said that sometimes during the day she was able to hear the TV. I wonder if she is hearing it. That would just make this experience so extreme. I know the doctor said 70% chance she would retain some residual hearing, but already? Is this real? We will see. I will keep you all updated on her progress.

Activation day is set for May 20th. Just under 3 weeks!

Thank you all for your support. I hope to have a bit of time here soon to thank you all personally, but for now, GROUP HUG! And a great big thank you!

Michelle

Update on Surgery....She's home

Brianna did wonderful. I will keep this short and sweet because I am truly exhausted.

We got to the hospital at 6:00am. They took us immediately to the pre-op area. There we played cards for a while until they were ready for her. We met really quick with the surgeon, anesthesiologist , and the nurses. They let me know that a rep from Cochlear America was there, as well as the ENT surgical students that I gave authorization to view the surgery. They took her into the OR at 8:15. At 10:30 I got the first call, the doctor was working on the 1st side, and everything was going great. It will still be a few more hours. The nurse suggested we go eat. We took her advise and went in pairs (Wes and my parents were there with me). So after lunch and a trip to the gift shop, I returned to the waiting area. At 1:25, Dr Diaz-Ordaz came in, and said that they were finished, everything went perfectly, and they were able to get full insertion on both sides. YEAH! She is in recovery, and they will get us when she wakes up. 20 minutes later, she was asking for mommy. They had removed the IV before she woke up (and put it in after she was asleep), so she didn't even know she had one! She looked so tired. By 3pm, we were out the door. She had 1 dose of Tylenol because she was saying that the incision area hurt. We came home and she was hungry. So 1 pudding cup, Reese's peanut butter cup and a bowl of soup later...she was back to herself. She watched scooby doo with the captions on, and was just as happy and full of energy as ever.

She received 2 of the cutest little koala bears with cochlear implants! She is asleep with them now. The doctor said that she has about 70% chance of retaining her residual hearing, so in a few days we will know if she has any of that available. If she does, the surgeon said that she can resume wearing the hearing aid after 1 week.

These are some pictures from today, and I will update again soon! Thank you guys for your support. So far so good!