Upgrading Again

It is that time again. It's been a little over 5 years since her last upgrade and although we were hoping to make it through fall before we began the lengthy process of an upgrade, one of her processors quit. For good kinda quit, like the clinic said she needs a new one. The other one still works part time which is probably worse than not working at all so she is getting by with her backups (Freedoms) which are obsolete. So you see we are kinda in a pickle.

We sent in the order forms last week and the ball is rolling but I don't look for her to be in them before school starts back in August. When we get an idea that they are shipping out we will go ahead and make an appointment with the clinic so she can be delayed no more. Just in time for volleyball season!

She is super excited to get new N7s and can't wait for them to work directly with her iPhone. She loves music so the Bluetooth capabilities are calling her name. The struggle will be worth it in the end.

I Want You to Hear

Sensorineural. Conductive. Audiogram. Milestones. What are all these new vocabulary words being thrown at me and my new baby? This became our reality years ago when my first child failed his newborn hearing screening. His tiny little ears were soon adorned with rather large super-powered hearing aids. The best of the best on the market and even those floppy devices couldn’t bring enough sound to those tiny ears, to hear my voice.

Having no history of hearing loss on either side of the family, we didn’t even know what questions to ask at that point. Months passed by, then years. We introduced him to his new little sister with what little signs and gestures we had developed as our communication methods. We were introduced into the Cochlear family by our doctor as our next step toward living in a hearing world full of possible speech, language, music, and voices.

While little sister was developing her babble, her various toddler words, we were shocked to find out she too had hearing loss. She soon progressed to severe levels as we prepared to our son to undergo his first cochlear implant surgery. Our hopes were high and expectations low as our now almost four year old would either soon begin to hear the world that had been so quiet, or he would remain in silence.

Not only would he receive the gift of hearing, but his sister would soon follow in his footsteps. We had therapy as a family to learn how to learn how to hear and how to develop appropriate speech and language. It was hard work for everyone on our team but both children are in public school, playing sports, playing instruments, enjoying their friends’ laughter and not enjoying their mother’s singing.

Now Cochlear introduces their new website as a resource for parents finding themselves facing a similar situation as we did years ago. A place to answer the daunting questions that linger can be accessed from almost anywhere. Find out more about the advanced implantable hearing solutions by Cochlear by visiting   www.Iwantyoutohear.com

This is a sponsored post from Cochlear written only by me. My opinions are my own.

Her "New Ears" Audiogram

Her last audiogram in 2013 w/her Freedoms

...and you can see her Speech Reception was at 20 db...meaning she can hear speech softer than that looking at the chart but not clearly enough to understand it until you reach 20 decibels.

Now with her new N6's...

 

 

She still hears very well with her CIs but can hear clearly at 5 db in the sound proof booth. That's a soft whisper!

 

We all know that in any type of noise that will dramatically decrease her ability to hear speech but we are very pleased with her new ears and the main thing is...she too is very pleased with them and that's the most important!!

 

She will be starting 5th grade on August 7th and as her team leaders, we have agreed that she can try the classroom(s) without her FM. She does NOT want it and this is the same grade Gage quit using his as well. We sought the advice from her Hearing Impaired Teacher and she agrees we could give it a try. If she needs it, we'll give it back to her no problem. I work at the school so I'm just a short walk away if she needs me.

New Ears Update

After a full ten week wait, we finally received B's new ears! She was so excited to go get them turned on a couple of weeks ago. She loves the fact that she can now change the colors without the messy stickers. We also figured out that the N5 covers (her brother wear N5s) fit her N6s and they are cheaper to buy so we ordered a few more colors for her along with the coil covers to match.

I am so proud for her and proud of her. She was asked to speak to a first grade class about her implants since their reading story was about a deaf child. The teacher has a deaf nephew and has taught my children in the past so she was quite familiar with the cochlear implants. Brooklyn was happy to show off her ears yesterday to the crowd of six/seven year olds.

We will take her back in a few weeks for some minor adjustments and put her in the booth for an audiogram so we'll have a better idea/comparison of how she's hearing. We only have two more weeks of school here in Alabama and we're out until the beginning of August! IEPs are done and State testing is underway. She has no special accommodations other than testing in a small group setting in case she encounters technical difficulties. I am sending her back-up ears just in case.

Brooklyn has also enjoyed the bilateral accessory cord she can plug into her electronics (and so do I). We have a few of the swim bags we will use over the summer but we will be looking into purchasing the new aqua devices Cochlear has come out with for both children so they can swim (without the embarrassing bags). All in all, we are very excited, very pleased and very Blessed people!

She's Not Been Approved

We've waited (almost) a month now since we had our fundraiser, since we sent in our initial paperwork, and finally we have a response...she has not been approved (YET). We are just now getting to that approved/not approved point. I did receive a figure (a total) on the amount of out of pocket expenses for the processors and WE HAVE ENOUGH FOR TWO!!!! Hallelujah.

I quickly responded with "Move forward, move forward. We have it!" Several thousand dollars is a lot of money but Praise The Lord He's seen fit for her to get two new ears, not just one. Now they are sending the "okay" to my insurance company to proceed with paperwork and when they approve her..(yes, I'm claiming it, V-vi-ctory!)...we will place our order. I already have her an appointment AEA week in hopes we will have them in our hands by then, and ready to TURN THEM ON!

And what's even better? We have enough to buy two new "ears", the accessories she wants, extra batteries, the aqua-packs for swimming, and maybe even enough left over cover the clinic bill once she goes in for her MAPping session to have them turned on and in tip top working order! Covered-in-full. If, and that's a big IF, anything were to be left over after I get her all set up, I will buy a few extra parts for Gman's CIs so he will continue to be in excellent shape and we should be set for a while!

We could not have done all that on our own, so thanks to HIM, HE guided our little community and provided a way. Thanks to those who followed HIS lead! My two PTO friends who worked so hard, the two wonderful families for singing, and every last person who donated money or food for the event or even prayers! I had one lady hand me a check one day and with tears in her eyes she told me that after her daddy died (recently) she had a little bit left over and instead of buying herself the earrings she wanted....she wanted to give it to my B to help with new ears. She said she couldn't stand the thought of her needing new ears and knowing she was spending money on "bling" so she wanted to give. Warmed my heart!

Because of this wonderful community, this rural, small town big-country place...it looks like my baby girl will be hearing better in no time! Thank you all. B is smitten!

Thank You

As we begin to fill out our thank you cards, I realize I didn't buy enough. There is no way for me to personally thank everyone because there were so many people who donated money, food, their voices, and prayers for the event last weekend. There were people in the crowd I never got to see, or hug, and filling out these cards seems like such a small thing to do. Our community has pitched in and raise over $5,000.00 towards Brook's new ears. She said the other day, as I tried everything to just turn one of them on, "I want ears that match. I want some that are all the same color and not pieces put together!" We have submitted her paper work to SunMed Medical and now we wait. They say the whole process will take 8 to 10 weeks but we are very excited, and nervous, and trying to be patient.

Awaiting the Call

I am now just awaiting the call back from SunMed (I had not contacted them prior to this weekend's email) to see if we have enough to proceed with Beez replacement processor order! I have to work all day but can't wait to get home and see what they say. I know they'll have paperwork to do, info to wait on from insurance etc. but to know that we have taken one step forward towards getting her new "ears" is beyond exciting. I was shocked when the benefit singing raised so much in one night but I shouldn't be. The Lord Blessed us all in that room Saturday night and I'm grateful we were just present! The Angelic voices that my children could hear, the Testimonies that my children could hear put a smile on my face but the Angelic voices that I could feel and the Testimonies that I could feel, put a smile on my heart. We love our community and are very close to that upgrade because of them!

Prepping for an upgrade

We are now prepping in high gear for Brook's upgrade to the N6 Cochlear implant processors. I suppose being out of the loop, not reading blogs like I used to, not reading the group messages, etc. I am just now getting the word from Cochlear that they do not bill my insurance company. That will be up to me to seek reimbursement for any durable medical expense. We will be required to pay the $7275.00 (I am aware they cost over $9,000.00 each but we will do a trade in to receive a discount) upfront for each ear. We are taking it one ear at a time at this point! We have some local friends doing a benefit for us which is scheduled for January 25, and we are very excited. We have a really good start and I thought it would help our friends and family keep up with the process/progress with a visual so each time we add to the "pot", I'll put up a new chart and carry it right through the upgrade process. It's sad that these things cost this much but a blessing that she hasn't got injured or had a failure to require surgery again. Insurance would be billed directly then and we wouldn't have such an upfront expense but we are excited for her, she's been needing an upgrade for years now and this will only make us work harder to get it for her! We aren't looking at it as a set back but a push forward. We've been praying about it, so we encourage all of you to keep praying for her, HE can and will make it happen. We're claiming this one!