So Elijah was activated on June 7th. Activated as in had his new cochlear implant programed and turned on - not activated for military duty or anything...NOW, I am beyond excited that he can hear things, don't get me wrong. When we sat in the audiology office and they said "on" for the first time...and Eli did nothing...I was a little bummed out. After some adjustments and programming, Eli finally heard a hand clap. He just stopped an smiled.
HE HEARD A HAND CLAP - holy crap! A simple action and he HEARD it. CLAP CLAP CLAP - just like that. JOY ABOUNDED... And that was it.
We were told that the auditory nerve needs to be strengthened before massive amounts of information (electronic impulses) can be fed into it. I guess that makes sense. Before you can use a muscle, it needs to become stronger. This means that we need to work him UP to human frequency sound. SO he can hear clapping, stomping and some driving bass beats in music. This is AMAZING, but I am still a little tiny teeny small bit disappointed that he still cannot hear me. We were all ready to work on his first sounds, teaching him how to identify sound, etc, etc.
So we wait.
He has 2 processors and 8 programs. We are on P6 (program 6 - my cochlear lingo). So far we live in reactions to booming noises. He smiles and stops. He did hear the beginning of the noon siren...so that was cool. BUT COME ON - the wait is KILLING me. Is that bad? I'd like to be happy in the amazing excitement of him hearing ANYTHING - but I would really just love to have him hear me. The audiologist said that maybe at the one month mark he'll hear us...depending on where the computer sets his next set of programs. I just HATE waiting...
...but it is pretty cool my son's hearing is controlled with a little remote I get to carry...
SO STAY TUNED - I know this post was fast and short, but I wanted to get it out there that I am an impatient woman...especially after waiting SO LONG just to get the implant turned on!
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