Savanah's Story: It's been a good 3 years. . .

Friday, April 30, 2010

It's been a good 3 years. . .

but officially today. The warranty and "insurance" on the CI is gone.

GONE!

Ugh! So tell me parents, especially ones with Cochlear, what have you done. Did you pay for the insurance through Cochlear? Did you purchase other insurance else where? Have you just winged it? Home owner's insurance?

Des and I are at a stand-still. We really just do not know what is going to be the best option, so please comment away, I desperately need it.

2 comments:

misha~sha-sha said...: We kept Hadley's insured until she got a little older. Then, luckily, the one benefit of replacement surgeries (that I HOPE you never have to go through) is that we got a few extra processors in the deal. Now we have four processors and I don't worry about insurance. They almost feel disposable... But I'd insure it if I were you for at least 2 more years. Until she's really old enough to know how to take care of it and be super responsible.; April 30, 2010 at 7:25 AM
Chance's Mom said...: We keep insurance on Chance's. Once you let the insurance lapse, we've heard you have to buy something else to cover it. If you have to replace just the controller it is $1500.00. We have found that it is so worth it to have the insurance to replace parts. Just last month the plastic came off where the coil plugs in and would not plug in. With insurance we have been able to just send in our parts and have them replaced when needed due to the normal wear and tear. Chance is very careful with his implants and we feel the implants are well made. The parts just wear out over time. It is hard to pony up the money, but we would not go with out the insurance even now that Chance is getting older.; May 24, 2010 at 7:14 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.