Savanah's Story: June 2008

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Before her surgery. . .

We decided to take her on a trip to Las Vegas and Phoenix to visit her cousins and play before her big day.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

One of my biggest fears of the cochlear implant surgery was the fact that some of her hair had to be shaved. Savanah had the most gorgeous, long blonde hair for a three year old. I took pride in her hair, made sure it always looked good. We would spend about 20 minutes doing her hair each morning. So when I walked back to my little girl in the recovery room and found a huge clump of her shaven hair next to her and a gauze wrap around her head, I almost fell to tears. Not because I was upset, but I was so overcome with emotion. I knew we had made the right decision for her, I knew that in one month, when she was activated she would be able to hear things she had never heard before. Her hair didn't bother me, the bald spot didn't bother me. She was still my beautiful baby girl who had overcome a tremendous surgery and did wonderfully. We ended up cutting her long locks in September of that year to help the part that was shaven grow and catch up with the rest. She now has the most adorable bob you've ever seen.

Monday, June 16, 2008

My Hearing Doggy

The night before her cochlear implant surgery I thought it would be a wonderful idea if we took Savanah to Build A Bear and let her create her very own surgery buddy and in the process, put all of her old hearing aid molds into whatever she picked out. We arrived at the mall and she immediately went for this brown and white dog, she had so much fun making this all her own. She gave the heart a big kiss and made wishes, she brushed and washed her all up and carefully placed her hearing aid molds into the dog and sewed her up. She didn't want any clothes for her dog, silly parents. . .dogs aren't suppose to wear clothes. When it came time to name her, we decided the only phrase she could say clearing was "Oh Baby" that is what this special doggy became. She traveled to surgery with Savanah - staying every second with her and since then has been everywhere also - even in bed with her everynight.

CMV, Hearing loss and Cochlear Implants

Some of you who have read our family blog are already familiar with Savanah's story. But I decided to start an entirely different blog dedicated to Savanah's journey. Her triumphs, challenges and this wonderful adventure we are all on together. Savanah failed her newborn hearing screening when she was born. We were told that she had fluid still in her ears since she was two weeks early. I brought her back to be re-tested six weeks later, and she failed again. I was told she was deaf and I was completely devastated. We have no hearing loss in our family and so she was tested through a blood test for many different things that could have caused deafness. It took several weeks for the results to come back. I had this perfect little baby who might have something wrong with her. The test that we had to wait on was called the "TORCH" test. The letters in it stands for a few common viruses and illnesses that cause deafness and the "C" stands for cytomegalovirus. Most of us have had this virus which is in the herpes family, but when contracted during pregnancy if you have never had it before can cause deafness, blindness, seizures, brain calcifications and learning disabilities and even death. When her results came back positive with this virus, our entire summer with our brand new Savanah consisted of many different doctor appointments. Traveling to Primarys, the U, ENT's, audiologists etc. It was extrememly exhausting, particularly because there was so much unknown regarding cytomegalovirus. We learned from a neurologist at the U that she would continue to shed the virus through her urine until she was about six months old and that particuarly children who had never had the virus could become infected. We had to take many precautions to make sure that did not happen.

At the six month mark Savanah recieved a hearing aid in Sept. of 04 and after a year, we noticed she was making very little progress with her speech. I started looking into alternative answers to help her to hear. We were learning sign langage as a family but it was difficut for some members of our family to learn and Savanah really wasn't very interested in signing. I wanted people to be able to comunicate with Savanah and have relationships with her. We decided a cochlear implant would be awesome and allow her to hear like a normal individual when on. Savanah recieved the cochlear implant surgery on April 13, 2007. It was such a wonderful day, the start to something big.The surgery took about an hour and a half. She recovered beautifully. She was riding her bike later that day. The incision was rather long and very easy to take care of. She was just like any other 3 year old during the recovery until she could be activated. She was activated on May 20, 2007 and since then has been a hearing girl when it is on. I highly encourage everyone who reads this blog to research cochlear implants and learn more about them. I have added some links below. Savanah has attended school through Utah Schools for the Deaf for three years. She is now catching up to her appropriate age for language and is a thriving, healthy and happy eight-year old. We are so proud of her everyday! She is mainstreaming 100% in our neighborhood school. She is on grade-level with her third grade class and loves to learn! She is a wonderful reader and always gets PERFECT scores on her spelling.

She just recently received her second cochlear implant, she was implanted on January 9th, 2013 at the University of Utah by Dr. Shelton again. The surgery went smooth and recovered quickly. She was activated on January 20th, 2013 and has absolutely loved having a second implant. She now wears two BRAND NEW N5 processors from Cochlear.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Before her surgery. . .

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Hair

Monday, June 16, 2008

My Hearing Doggy