5-27-10 Ear tube check up

Well today was an important appt. We had to go see Dr Germiller to check Morgan's right ear tube that was all clogged at her visit after her surgery. We did peroxide for about a week and a half and then perscription ear drops for 5 days. We were hopeing it was all clear because it if wasn't she would have to have surgery again to replace it. Good news was that it was all clear and she is good to go for another 6 months. As much as we love Dr Germiller it will be nice not having to go back until November. Yippy!!! Morgan continues to work very hard everyday at learning to listen with her new ear. Its is very exhausting and frustrating as times for her but she is doing amazing. On Tuesday when she only had her Right(new) CI on, I called her name and she answered my by saying, "what". It was music to my ears. She was able to recognize the sound of her own name with just the new ear! What a great morning that was. Now two days later she is a pro at responding to her name with only the right CI. Keep up the good work Morgan, Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!!!!

Exciting!!!

Well yesterday when I got home from work Morgan and my borther had a special show for me. It almost brought tears to my eyes! Morgan had me sit down on the floor so I could watch and listen. She sat on my brothers lap looking at me. Jamie would say a word and then she would repeat what he said. It was all just random words or names that he was saying! I was in shock that she was able to hear and distinguish language already. I wasn't expecting her to be able to do that for at least a month or two after activation. This morning Morgan and I were looking at a book with just pictures. The one page had a pictures of body parts (hand, foot, nose and eyes) I would say "hand" without her seeing my face and she was able to point to the correct picture!!!!! It was so exciting...I am one proud Mommy!

1st mapping after activation

That was a fast week! We did end up going to the please touch museum after activation and sure enough there were 3 tickets waiting for us along with 6 tickets to ride the carousel and a parking pass. That was such a treat and we are very thankful for that kind lady we met in the store!!!! Thank you! We all had a great time! Today May 17th Daddy took Morgan for her mapping, they had an 8am appt so had to leave at 6am again to beat some of the traffic. They made good time again, but this time I had to leave Daddy in charge of fixing Morgan's hair...I can only imagine! LOL. Morgan was able to get through all 4 of her programs by Wed afternoon after just being activated Tue. She likes having two ears on but is not a big fan of only wearing her "new ear" She isn't able to hear us talking yet with that one, and can only hear muffled loud sounds. We are hoping with this new set of programs she will start to hear more things! She did a good job this weekend in NY at a parade listening to bands play with only her "new ear" She was even taking the "old one" off without me even telling her too. I was very impressed and proud of her. This week the intense therapy will begin. Carmen her audiologist says she will notice the biggest difference between her progam 3 and 4. We can't wait to see how this week goes. She doesn't go back until June 15th.

Activation Day!!!!!! May 11, 2010

Today is the big day!  I could hardly sleep last night I was so excited.  Activation was at 8 am so we left the house around 6am to make sure we made it on time....You know how the traffic is on 476 and 76.  Horrible all the time.  We just picked Morgan out of her bed and put her in the car, so she slept till we got there and woke her up.  We got there around 7:30 am.  We had just enough time to wake her up and get her dressed before we went in.  This was such a special day, with Morgan getting activated and both Ben and I having off at the same time.  We were going to treat Morgan to a day at the Please Touch Museum after she was "turned on".  Once in the hospital we stopped in the tiny convenient store to grab a little something to eat and drink.  Morgan was telling the cashier that she was going to hear for the very first time today out of her New Ear, and that Mommy and Daddy were taking to the Please Touch afterwards.  It was so cute listening to her tell the lady all about getting to hear for the first time!  The lady asked what our names were and told us to just go to the front desk when we got to the museum and there would be tickets waiting for us.  Ben and I looked at each other and were thinking could this be real?  Well have to wait and see.  Activation went fantastic....Morgan did a great job, but we were a little out of practice at our condition response listening game.  We need to work on that.  She was acting like this was no big deal and Heather her TOD(teacher of the Deaf) and I were about in tear when she said "I HEAR IT"!  Morgan has 4 programs to go through until she goes back on Monday the 17th.  These 4 programs are very basic just to get used to everything, so hopefully after next Monday we will be able to really start some intense therapy. I will post videos.

May 3rd, 2010

Today is an exciting day....we are going to CHOP to pick up Morgan's new N5!!!!! She is getting her left ear mapping all set up to wear the N5 and she will also get to wear just the processor on her Right side without it turned on so she can get used to wearing something on that ear. I was glad to be able to have a week to play with the new remote before we got the new one activated. We also got to see how good of a job Dr. Germiller did at making the two even. That is one of the hardest things for a dr to do when going bilateral. We also had appt today to see Dr Germiller so that he could look at her incision and clean out any leftover junk in Morgan's ear. She absolutly hates when he puts that "stick" in her ear. Of course the tube in the right ear was still somewhat blocked so he had us put peroxide drops in her ear until it "hurt". I was like oh great...does he not know this drama girl. She doesn't like drops in her ears so they always hurt. Well she actually did a great job with them and didn't complain of them hurting. We did the peroxide drops 2-3 times a day for about a week to a week and a half and then she started saying they hurt...It was actually exciting. So then we switched over to her floxin drops for 5 days. We go back to have that tube checked again on May 27th! Please pray that is all open and good so Morgan does not need to get another surgery to replace that tube. Thats the last thing we want right now....

On the way back to school...

Well on Tue April 27th Morgan was going back to school for just the morning, so we can get back into our routine.  Well that didn't end up happening that Morning.  On the way to school Morgan and I got in a bad car accident.  We were coming up a hill to a stop sign when a car coming down the hill started to lose control and was all over the road heading right for us.  There was a big field on our right hand side so I pulled off the side of the road right nead a telephone pole.  I turned around to talk to Morgan and just as I turned my head back to look out the front window the out of control car t-boned the telephone pole so hard it wrapped around it and totally took out the whole front end of my Jeep Liberty.  Morgan and I walked away with minor bumps and bruises but they young man who hit us was it bad shape.  My Dad did take us to the hospital so we could get checked out and have some x-rays done.  We were released shortly after.  We just keep praying that he will make a full recovery and we hope that we will be able to meet him sometime!  We feel a special bond with him!  So much for having a low key two weeks after surgery for Morgan.  We are very blessed and thankful!

Where to begin.........

Its has been a whirl wind of a couple weeks....so so so many things have gone on.  Well Morgan had her 2nd cochlear implant surgery on April 21st.  Here Pop Pop came along to keep me company in the waiting room.  My dad and I were together the day they told us Morgan was deaf and we were together the day they came out and told us all the electrodes were firing, and she would soon be hearing with 2 ears!  I am so lucky that I will always have that special bond with my Dad!  I don't know what I would do without my Mom and Dad, they are definitly parents that would do anything for their children and grandchildren.  They are the two most unselfish people I know.  They are always going out of their way to make it easier or to help their family out any way they can.  We are very blessed!   
Well we left for the hospital about 5:30 am and got there just before 7 am.  We checked in and they took us back to a room almost right away.  They did all the vitals etc and then we just had to wait for Dr Germiller to come in and do the measuring so he could try his best to make them even.  We waited for a long time.  They finally took her away from me around 10:30 am and started surgery around 10:50 am.  The nurses were great and came out ever hour to give and update.  My dad and I passed the time with a subway hoagie and kept busy searching on the internet.  We were anticipating Michael(the audiologist) to come out, he is the one that was testing all the electrodes to make sure they were all working properly.  There is always a chance that it might not work.  We were lucky and everything was great.  I broke down in happy tears!  Shortly after Dr. Germiller came out and told us that everything went great and we would soon be allowed back to see her.  I could hardly wait to see my baby.  Its the worst feeling as they take your baby out of your arms into surgery!  I knew it was the best thing for her though.  She was still asleep when we went back and she slept for a little while.  The nurse said that was great that she was sleeping like that. It would help her wake up better.  After she woke up we got her dressed and headed down to get xrays, to make sure everything was in the right place.  She was still really groggy, and slept the almost the whole way home until we stopped to she Melissa.  She wanted so bad to stop at the hair cut place to see her.  I have a picture of Morgan actually smiling with Melis and it took all Morgan had to get that smile out!  It brought tears to my eyes.  Around 8:30 pm that night you could tell the anestesia was wearing off and she was feeling pretty good.  She was no stop talking from that point on.  We thought we would be awake alot of the night but she basically slept right through the night.  She is a trooper!!!!  The next morning we were allowed to take the bandage off her head and boy it was a sight to see.  As soon as we took it off the blood started coming out of her ear and for a couple days after.  It was the worst that Friday night after we got down to the shore for what we thought would be a nice relaxing weekend.  I was a nervous wreck.  I called the ENT on call and he had no clue about implants and was having me go to the ER.  The bleeding did stop and wasn't to bad the rest of the weekend.  I did have Dr Germillers cell number so I gave him a call just to make sure everything was good so I didn't have to worry any more!  He calmed me down and we had a great rest of the weekend! Melissa was coming Monday to spend the day with Morgan so she had another day of rest before we went back to school on Tue Morning.  Pictures to come!