Savanah's Story: April 2011

Friday, April 22, 2011

Heartbreak

Savanah is the SWEETEST child you will ever meet.
She will befriend everyone.
She just wants to play.
Giggle.
Run. Jump.

Recently on our trip to Moab,
Savanah found several friends around our campsite.
She just walks right up and starts playing.
"Hi Friends!" She exclaims.

It doesn't matter to Savanah how someone dresses.
What color they are. How they talk.
SERIOUSLY. . . she is a friend to all.

On this camping trip. . .
a few of these "friends" were not being very nice.
Running from her, hiding from her
And than the kicker, throwing sand in her face.

I was devastated for her. She walked up to me.
Sand in every crevice.
Tears welling in her eyes.
She broke down.
BECAUSE of the sand. Not because she knew they were being mean to her.

Desmond and I sat down with her.
Cuddled her.
Explained to her how sweet Savanah is and what a wonderful friend she is.
And people who are good friends with her, they are the lucky ones to know and love Savanah. We explained kids are mean, for reasons we will never understand. But we told her to continue to stand up for herself, befriend people, love people no matter what and just be the Savanah she always is. She told us she would not play with those mean kids anymore. And she didn't that night. But than the next morning came, and Savanah quickly forgave and went on her way playing.

If we could all be a little nice, a little more understanding, a little more aware of people's feelings and be more of a friend to others, wouldn't this world be such a better place? We could all learn a little from Savanah.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Happy Hearing Day #4

WOW!
Really it's been four years?!?
What an amazing journey just this short time has been.

So in honor of another happy hearing day. . .
Savanah has chose to attend the Provo Beach Resort,
AND. . . it also falls on her SPRING BREAK from school.
Double bonus!

So next week, you can catch us @ the beach resort.
Boogie boarding, rope coursing, bowling etc!

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.