Savanah's Story: August 2008

Thursday, August 28, 2008

SHE is loving school!

Savanah loves school (it's no secret!) - She likes to pick out her clothes for school, get her backpack ready, get on the bus and have a wonderful day at school. Even more so now that she goes to two schools during the day. Kids Village and USD. And for a coincidence both of her teacher's names are Becky. (well @ KV it's Miss Rebecca and USD it's Becky!) - Same diff! I am so proud of her enthusiasm and willingness to learn and try new things. AND now we are starting into homework. Practicing handwriting, numbers, counting, phonics, US History, speech and language, art, computer class, mathematics, cooking, storytime and storytelling, recess and dance. This little girl is getting such a well-rounded education! Desmond and I really try to give her everything she is going to need to be mainstreamed next year for Kindergarten. We know she will do wonderful! Way to go Savanah!

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Savanah can be a grump. . .

But I am so thrilled that she can FINALLY express herself and her emotions with a range of vocabulary. When she is angry, she can say "Mommy, I'm mad." or when she is so happy - not only does she smile her biggest, brightest smile but she also says "Mommy, I am so happy." - WOW! What a difference this cochlear has made. It is so incredibly amazing to watch her everyday. I can give her directions now and she can follow through with them, I can ask her a question about something (I may have to repeat it twice) but she can answer it and the best part of all - like noted above - she is expressing herself through words! WONDERFUL Savanah! Your dad and I couldn't be prouder.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

J2H Pool Party

What a turnout! It was so much fun and SO NICE to get together with other families who have experienced the same emotions, triumphs and tribulations that we have raising a deaf child! Savanah had such a wonderful time and it was neat for her to see her friends from school.

Monday, August 4, 2008

We Love Cache!

And will be making the drive to Logan to have Cache Pitt map Savanah's implant! I don't feel she has EVER had better results then we have had with Cache. Since her first time seeing him in April, her vocab has increased tremendously and he has been very aggressive! So Logan here were come in October. . . also had a great turn-out at the "J2H" social at the pool last Saturday - took lots of great pictures but have had some technical difficulties uploading pictures. More to come!

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.