Savanah's Story: November 2011

Monday, November 21, 2011

D isn't for DOUBT, it's for DARING to do it!

To all the doubters. . .
to all the people who have heard. . . "You're child is deaf. . . so they will not be able to do this or that. . ."
"They will not read till later."
"They will do terrible in school."
"Strangers will never be able to understand them."

SAVANAH proved everyone wrong!

She is reading right along with her appropriate grade level.
She is reading chapter books.
She is doing math and understanding it. She even adds and subtracts in her head, no manipulatives needed!
She is learning about history and this week can tell you all about Thanksgiving.
About the Pilgrims and the Indians, who brought what to dinner and why we celebrate it every year.
A few weeks ago, after her science lessons, she could name all the different kinds of moons that we see in the month of October. She even explained why this happened.

She is one INCREDIBLE little girl.
She is truly a gift.
Desmond and I continue to be amazed everyday at her spunk, her intelligence and her non-stop "wanting to learn everything" attitude!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Our Halloween Pirate

Savanah is not a girly girl
Not by a LONG shot.
At least I have one and she was the bride this year.
We looked high and wide for a pirate costume.
Something that was perfect for an almost 8 year old
not a 21-year old. Halloween costumes sure are turning
into things that belong in adult shops, but that's another post
for another time.

We found this costume.
It just fit Savanah's personality perfect.
She loved it and the bonus was. . . she was the only one with the costume!
Score 1 point for Mom.

I got thinking while we were out trick-or-treating
the town. . .
the reason why Savanah can say trick-or-treat,
or listen for cars coming
or hear the creepy music,
or the screams coming from other kids. . .
is because of this wonderful, most amazing device!
This cochlear implant continues to show it was the best decision
we've (her daddy and I) have ever made, next to creating Savanah!

And the reason she could say "Argh Matey's!" Well you know why! :)

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.