Savanah's Story: Activated

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Activated

Savanah got her second implant activated on January 29th in Logan! It was another one of the experiences that Desmond and I are able to sit and look at and think WOW! This is for real. This amazing medical technology that we have chosen for our deaf child is working. It's working and she can hear us and communicate with this world. She doesn't have to rely on ASL, or reading lips. She doesn't have to be another statisic. She can live like the majority of people in this world. Although we know that CI's are not a cure for deafness, they are one of the most incredible gifts we could give her and they are a tool in helping her live a productive and successful life. If she so chooses, she may take them off whenever she likes. She is still getting use to that second implant but she is beyond thrilled to have brand new processors. We upgraded from the Freedom to the N5 with Cochlear. We've all been very impressed with these. They are lighter, sleeker and much more attractive, and come with a remote and killer rechargeable batteries! Yes!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...: HI ya! Curious...I have an implant, too. I've had mine for 12 years now.
I still do not comprehend speech.

You are saying your daughter comprehends speech perfectly without lipreading? Boy HOWDY!

There is such a huge gap between "hearing" and "comprehending what you hear" that I'm still pretty amazed when people say, "She can hear."

I just stumbled upon this page, so haven't gone back to day one. What caused her deafness?

ALOHA!
Larry on Kauai; February 8, 2013 at 2:04 PM
Nicole said...: So wonderful! What an amazing and brave girl Savanah is. She is a rockstar!!!; February 11, 2013 at 11:29 AM

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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.