Cochlear Implant Activation!!

Here we are again!
 

Kendall had her cochlear implant activation on February 27th, two weeks after her surgery .

We made it a family affair and brought her brother Kemper with us. He was so excited for Kendall to  "get her ears turned on."

   Her audiologist started the activation with the introduction of beeps and tones from the computer into her implants.  The initial sounds didn't phase her but as they continued she would stop playing with her toys and look up at me like "what the heck was that?" 

When her audiologist first transitioned over to speech sounds Kendall got a little nervous and began to fuss. The sounds were quickly turned off and she continued to play. The second time speech was introduced she didn't cry or fuss but she quickly turned to me for support. The third time she hardly took notice. She just took a quick pause from playing to look at me in wonder then she would start doing a little bounce in my lap each time she heard a noise.

We had a special guest follow along with us on activation day. Our local news channel had contacted us when Kendall was having her surgery and asked if they could do a story on her. They also wanted to do an update on Kemper. They had done a story (can't find video version) on him back in 2010 when he was implanted. It was fun but so nerve wrecking. They take so many shots and ask so many questions, so you never know what they will use. Plus trying to wrangle two kids while talking on camera is near impossible. Two versions of the interview were shown on the news that day, thankfully the one with me talking showed up late night. I thought the prime time version that I have linked below was much better. My husband did the talking!;)


North Texas Toddler Hears for the First Time « CBS Dallas / Fort Worth

Kemper and Kendall's audiologist takes a picture of  all her cochlear implant recipients on their activation day. K found his as well as the spot left open for his baby sister.

With our favorite audiologist Leslie.


It took Kendall a good two/three weeks before she was fully comfortable and understanding sounds. We had to make a several trips back to the audiologist to make some tweaks to her C.I.s during those first few weeks.  Her audiologist originally give us four programs, each one gradually increasing her access to sound. Every couple of days and we were supposed to go to the next program as tolerated. Only thing is we could never get to program 2 before she started blinking at sounds requiring us to keep her volumes and sensitivity settings really low. Each time we would adjust her programs she would be fine for a day or two but then she would start blinking to sounds, alerting us that her program was too loud. It was like as her brain adjusted to hearing sounds it was requiring less and less stimulus to get a reaction. This was quite the opposite for her brother.When he was activated we had to make multiple trips back to increase his settings.

Kendall has taken to hearing like a fish to water. She loves to hear. We thankfully haven had any issues with her taking  her C.I.'s off, except while in the car. Although everything tends to come off while shes in the car bows, shoes, socks...;)




Here are a few videos of Kendall in her first 2months of hearing.

March 17 (2wks 4 days hearing)
responding to her name and understanding "hi"

March 19 (3 weeks hearing)
A friend posted a video of her baby making raspberry noises with her mouth, Kendall didn't even need to see it in order to imitate it!

March 26 ( 1 mo hearing)
Kendall responding to her name and acknowledging that I am speaking to her.

April 21st (almost 2 mo hearing)
Trying to shake her egg but shakes her booty instead!
I did not give her any visual cues, she understands the word shake!

Happy 3rd hearing birthday!!

February 11, 2013 

Three years ago today my baby boy heard his  first sounds  ever through the use of cochlear implants. We always take this day to say thanks to our family, friends, doctors, therapists, and teachers that have helped us along the way. K is doing awesome, far better than we could have ever imagined. If you didn't see his C.I.'s behind his ears you would never think this child was born profoundly deaf. While our journey is still not over, we are forever grateful for the love and support we continue to receive.

To continue his traditional hearing birthday we did our usual big family dinner followed by cake and ice cream.

Kemper insisted on going to the store and picking out his own cupcakes for his "ears"
He also insisted on having his own grocery cart. Thank you Kroger for supplying mini carts, they make shopping so much easier :) When we got to the cashier to checkout I asked him how he was going to pay for them and he replied "With the money in your purse!"

Time to blow out the candles with a little help from his cousin Nolan.

Enjoying his cupcakes and being silly with his cousin Nolan.

My husband and I try and keep it simple just dinner and dessert, but his grandparents can never resist getting him a present.They got him a garbage truck with all the lights and sounds of a real one. It even picks up trash and dumps it! It's such a boy toy & he loved it.

Cheers to many more hearing birthdays!!

Happy Hearing Birthday!!!

Kemper's Cochlear Implant Activation
February 11, 2010



Sorry it has taken me a while to post but we have been soo busy getting adjusted to K's new equipment and to now having a very mobile baby. Little K and his daddy also came down with colds, so I was on nursing duty as well.

In all K's activation went well. He had his huge entourage, my family, our ECI teacher, and even K's MeMe flew in from San Angelo. The activation began with the audiologist introducing tone bursts into K's implant through the computer while he played with some toys. K responded by becoming still, almost as if he was frozen. He couldn't quite figure out what was happening and wasn't sure if he should be happy or scared. Occasionally when he heard a sound he would tightly grab on to me and bury his head in my shirt. He became upset and cried once but then the audiologist immediately turned down the sounds and he was fine. When his processors were changed to hearing speech he once again became still but surprisingly did not get upset by it. As the session went on and more sounds were introduced he seemed to get use to them and a slight pause and a "what's that?" look was all he did to tell us he was hearing.
The goal is to gradually increase what K is hearing every couple of days by changing the programs set on his processors. They want him to gradually get use to sound and accept it as a good thing. So far he has done really well and seems to be taking a liking to sound.


My frozen stare


What was that??

Since K's activation we have noticed a huge difference in him. He has become way more active and very interested in his toys. He is now getting into everything, trying to stand, and climb on things. He is so much more curious about the world. It could just be a coincidence that he is now 10 months old and he's hitting those developmental milestones, or that now that he can hear some things and his toys are now more interesting and he wants to explore more. It's so crazy, it's like we flipped a switch and turned him "on", not just his ears.



K getting a little scared and seeking protection from mom.


Poor little guy when he started to get upset.

Here is the most recent video of K. He is responding to some noises and occasionally he will respond to his name. He found his CI storage cases and decided to use them as a jungle gym. His other new thing is that he loves to wave hello, I love it!! ( please excuse my annoying mommy voice! ;)