ACTIVATION

Cakes made by my sister-in-law for Evan's Surgeon and Audiologists...the edible gift tags read..."thank you for the gift of hearing!"

Evan & his rock star Audiologists after activation!

Daddy, Mommy & Evan

The infamous turtle before the big attack!

A close up look at his "super ear"

All done with activation, very tired & serious!

A full tummy & happier...at electrophysiology testing

Yes, I am two weeks behind, but it's been a busy two weeks! I will start @ activation...

The morning of activation was surreal! We had been awaiting the day since we had found out that Evan was Deaf! It was hard to believe that is was really going to happen! We had the girls geared up the day before, as we left them home with family so they wouldn't miss school. They had their supper man, AKA super ears, t-shirts on back at home to make the day special for them too. Rich, Evan, and I all were rather stylish in ours too. We were so excited that our little super man would soon have his super ear powers!

Activation was rather laid back and Evan seemed to sail through the first ear activation. The first thing I said to him was of course...."Evan, Mommy loves you...!" Thinking about it now brings tears to my eyes. Somehow that moment I didn't cry, I think I was so caught up in the moment and not actually aware of all the emotions I had running through me! Rich had the camera running trying to catch every moment. He had a few responses such as looking up at his audiologist, Rich, or I when different sounds were sent through the processor. He also had a few responses to voices in the room, as well. (Right now the voices probably aren't distinguishable, but will become so over time) Any change in behavior is considered a response, such as stopping when playing with a toy, looking up at someone in the room, crying, or sometimes squinting. He did amazing and DIDN'T pull the coil off at all during the right ear activation! He was such a pro!

On to the left ear...He was not so impressed now! Granted he had just been attacked my a toy turtle! He was pulling on the turtle his audi had in her hands and it bumped his little head, in not such a happy response he hit himself with it AGAIN in the head! This was not such a highlight of his day! I took him out of the seat and held him for the remainder of the activation. When it was turned on he again began to cry. When it was turned off, he stopped. Although we don't like to see our little ones cry...this is a great thing! It means it's working! His audi set the processors with 3 programs each and we were to slowly turn them up as Evan was tolerating the sounds over the next two weeks. His sound window is limited to begin with and with each appt. he will be turned up and his window will open a little more each time.

We had a quick lunch break, Evan was very tired. We were lucky enough to meet some wonderful friends at the hospital cafeteria for lunch. It was so great to share the exciting day with them! The fun of getting them to stay on his little ears began, as they were constantly falling off during lunch! We even tried a set of retention molds to help, his ears are just too tiny. After a quick visit with friends, we were on to electrophysiology ...this is testing his brain response to each electrode I do believe : ) It lasted about an hour, A coil is put on Evan and he is free to eat, sleep, watch TV, play, or whatever during the testing. I thought for sure he would sleep, but he wanted to play instead! Rich and I went through all of our new goodies that comes along with the CI kits. Tons of stuff with bilateral activation! The time flew by and our little trooper crashed as soon as he was buckled into his car seat.

We finished the big day with hearing his sisters for the first time! We picked them up and had supper with family. The girls were excited to see his new equipment and wanted to talk, talk, talk to him and squeeze him and love him! He was a little overwhelmed, but hung in there. I will post again soon and tell you all about my solutions to keeping the processors off his ears! ACTIVATION DAY was AMAZING!