September 12th, 2013 marked the 1 year anniversary of Patrick's cochlear implant being turned on. He has made some amazing strides in that process. We've been very fortunate to not have any major issues come up, and with today's technology, we've been able to enjoy even more activities than I was able to with hearing aids!
Over the summer we spent a lot of time at the pool. The implants Patrick and I have are water resistant, meaning they can fall into the water up to 3 feet in still water, and still be fine. We took advantage of this all summer long. It was a new experience for me to hear things at the pool. We also were able to go to the beach with the aqua accessory for Cochlear. While we didn't really wear our implants to go wave jumping, we did wear them in the SAND. That's what we used the aqua accessory for, to keep the sand out of the microphones. It was so fun to hear everything the ENTIRE time I was at the beach, and Patrick loved it too. The only thing he didn't love was the big waves coming at him.
A year ago today, Patrick was only make Ah and buh sounds. Today, he has a vocabulary of over 50 words, and is beginning to put two word common phrases together, such as thank you, more please, etc. He can imitate all sorts of sounds, and is beginning to point to his ear when he wants us to take notice of what he's been hearing. He has also been picking up on cueing as well, even though our main focus has been on his auditory development.
We've had to replace the coil cables on his implants a couple of times, fortunately they were still under warranty.
We did have one incidence that I would highly recommend parents not do:
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| This is what NOT to do with implants people! |
Patrick likes to take off his cochlear implants in the car, and play with them. He gets really bored, and if we're not quick enough, he'll take these apart and it takes a LONG time to find all the pieces to them. We've gotten into the habit of taking the cochlear implants off, putting them somewhere and holding on to them for the car ride. Well, someone (who shall remain nameless), took the boys to the aquarium in Baltimore. This one time, instead of putting the cochlear implants in a pocket or bag or purse, they were put on to the car, as you see above. In the rush to get the boys in the car, the cochlear implants were forgotten. Somehow...they managed to STAY ON THE CAR from Baltimore to Annandale. Seriously, we were SO LUCKY.
You'd think we'd learned our lesson from that. Nope, did it once more. Except...they weren't forgotten this time, instead, as we shut the door...one cochlear implant was just low enough to be caught in the door slam, thus cracking the skin it case and the battery. Fortunately, the processor itself wasn't damaged. Unfortunately, the batteries had just gone outside of the warranty date, so we couldn't get a free replacement. Fortunately, we have lots of back up batteries.
Seriously...do NOT stick cochlear implants to the car thinking you'll get them later. You won't. Lesson learned.
