Emma Updates

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April 2004 Archived Emma Updates

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Friday, 4/27/2004-Emma is doing great!!! She is repeating all sorts of sounds. She is showing great intonation (up and down pitch changes) in response to hearing a sound with pitch change. Emma seems to be a totally different person since the initial hookup almost two weeks ago. She is much happier (and we did not know that was possible), much more active (we also did not think that was possible), and has really come out of her shell. She now walks right up to her Granddaddy and Uncle Bryan and expects them to pick her up. Six months ago, the only man she would allow to hold her was me. Now Emma does not seem to know a stranger. Last night, she was in the back seat picking a fight with her brother and I said (without her seeing my mouth or face), "Emma! No!" She immediately put her face in her hands and put on her dramatic "poor me" act. It is amazing how much receptive language she is developing. We can tell her to put something back and she does. We can tell her to "take it to mommy" or "take it to daddy" and she does! Her receptive language is really developing and they say that is what develops before the expressive language (talking). I can not express how well she is doing and how pleased we are. It is almost as if we no longer feel like she is deaf. I have stopped signing to her (I never really signed that much) but I do not feel like I need to get her attention anymore. I can call her name and she looks up!

Monday, 4/26/2004- Second Mapping Session Today- Emma had her second mapping session today. They really expanded her range on volume today and she is responding VERY well! I will have the video of today up and running within a few days on the video page. Emma is really trying to talk. We all went to see her Granny this weekend and she was responding to her name outside some 50 feet from where we were sitting! She got to play with her cousins and their pet bunnies. Emma was not the slightest bit afraid of them. She picked them right up and pet them.

New Photos, are posted here.

We have posted a new page with Emma's Story here.

Tuesday, 4/20/2004-They said Emma's hearing would improve from here on out. And boy were they right!!! Emma is not only hearing sounds, but she is attempting to repeat them with the correct intonation (up and down voice inflection). In addition, with the hearing aid on the other side, she is localizing sound!!! As I was reading to her tonight, Amy would come to her door and knock and Emma would look up and point to the door. Then Amy would go around to her bathroom door and knock and Emma would turn her head and look into the bathroom! We were also reading from a book of animals and Emma would point to an animal and I would purposely make the WRONG noise to see if Emma would pick up on it. She would keep pointing at that animal until I made the correct sound. Then when I did the correct sound, she would move onto the next animal and wait for me to get it right! I was so amazed. After her bath, she reached over the side of her changing table and grabbed her speech processor and coil and was trying to put it on! We are so amazed! Amy said today, she seems to already be forgetting that Emma is deaf! Emma comes to us when we call her. Tonight, Emma had gotten some paper cups out from under her sink and started to run into the living room with them until Amy said, "Emma, put them back please." Emma immediately stopped, turned around, and headed back to the sink. She opened the cabinet door and not only put them back on the shelf but back in the plastic bag where they came from!!! This is so incredible. Emma is also making noises and sounds we have never heard before! She is "talking" up a storm. I can easily see Emma talking well within the next 12 months. If I had known how well this was going to turn out, I would have never worried myself sick! I do not think there was any way around that one though.

I am working on rendering more video for the site and hope to have more up later in the week. The video that is posted now is only of Emma hearing the system check on the internal device. It is NOT her hearing the environment around her. That is the video I plan on posting later in the week.

Monday, 4/19/2004-HOOKUP DAY!!!-EMMA CAN HEAR!!!!! At 1:00pm today we went to the Callier Center in Dallas for Emma's initial cochlear stimulation ("hookup"). When we got there we went over all the info on how to change battery packs, different cables and cords, and general care instructions. Next we were prepared for what we might expect from her as far as her reaction. We were told that some kids cry because they are scared as they do not know what they are hearing (for the first time), some think it is great, and some show no response at all. Amy said she thought Emma would cry. I said I thought Emma would not react to one extreme or the other and would probably simply lookup. Next, Janee ran a check on the internal piece that showed all 12 electrodes functioning normally. As they were doing this, Emma could hear some beeps and such (we could not hear anything as it was directly connected to her internal device). When the first electrode was stimulated at a sufficient level, Emma immediately stopped playing, turned to her right, looked up at us, grabbed her right ear, and looked surprised! She DID NOT cry. Everytime Janee would check another set of electrodes Emma would look up at all of us. No tears. In fact after a few she started smiling and clapping. Remember, at this point she could only hear the beeps of the computer. Then the rest of our family came into the room to see how Emma would respond to environmental sounds for the first time. She immediately responded, again, with no tears. Landon was one of the first to talk to her and play with her. He was so excited for her!!! She liked hearing so much they went ahead and programmed her volume right up to 100%!!! Apparently, they usually do not get them to 100% the first MAP. We will go back on Monday for another mapping session and hope to expand things a little more. Today has truly been a miracle!

The video is posted here. Simply choose your connection speed (dialup, DSL/Cable/ISDN) and your media player preference (Real Media downloads the fastest with the best quality, Windows Medoa should not require any software to be installed if you are using a Windows bases OS).

THE HOOKUP VIDEOS ARE HERE!!!

Thursday, 4/15/2004-We have a new little hearing impaired friend that needs some help. His name is Parker Shoun and his insurance company has DENIED his implant. This means the family is left holding the bill of around $60,000!!! Parker needs any financial contribution you can make. His father's work is holding a raffle for a John Deere tractor and tickets are $10. If you could please help him out. You can read more about him here .

Wednesday, 4/14/2004-Emma is doing great and the countdown to hookup and her first day back into the hearing world has begun! We are less than 5 days to her hearing and the excitement is building. Amy and I are having difficulty sleeping again but this time out of excitement! Amy is a totally different person this week and I feel like a great weight has lifted. Emma is responding with her hearing aid great and when the phone rang today Emma actually went and picked it up, and pointed to her ear!!! She does not even have the implant activated yet! But that hearing aid is really starting to squeal and it is driving all of us nuts. I keep telling Amy that I am developing tinnitus and she says that it is only Emma's hearing aid. It's enough to drive you nuts and many of you can attest to this. We plan to post video of Emma's hookup on Monday night. It will depend on what time we get home.

Saturday, 4/10/2004-The links page is up and running. We also changed the color schemes around a little bit. I was getting sick of pink and I think it is a little easier on the eyes now to read. Let us know what you think!

Amy got some great photos of Emma playing in the Texas bluebonnets yesterday. They are in full bloom here. The photos are posted above. Emma is back to being 100%. She played hard all day yesterday with no nap. The neighbors were having a block party so we all went over there and the kids played. Emma has no problem making friends even though she can not communicate. We looked over after 15 minutes and she instantly has two other little girls following her around wanting to play.

The kids are getting excited in anticipation of the Easter Bunny coming and the big Easter Egg hunt tomorrow. We are attempting to teach Landon the meaning of Easter with the story of the Passion. I am re-doing the "Daddy and Emma" video as well as completing the "Dad and Landon" video. The hard part is deciding which photos to use. At last count (and that was last summer) we had over 12,000 photos of the kids and that is just counting the digital photos. That is the beauty of digital photography. You can shoot all you want and never pay for developing. We just burn everything down to DVD or CD. We have so many that it is difficult deciding which ones to use. I hope to have two new videos up and running within a few weeks on both the kids' webpages. Amy is working on one of her and the kids as well and we will get it posted when she is finished.

Good Friday, 4/9/2004-Today we heard what sounded like an owl outside the guest bath window. When we opened the door to look, we saw a mother dove nesting on the window ledge. It looks like she is preparing a nest. And right across on our neighbor's rooftop was the father dove keeping a watchful eye. Six months ago, I would have never have noticed this. But I do not think it is is coincidence or irony that these doves chose to build their nest on our window sill on Good Friday. Doves are the international sign of peace and this is yet another sign that everything is going to be just fine. I posted the photos of the doves above.

Tuesday, 4/6/2004-Emma is doing great! She is 100% back to normal with the exception of her hearing aid which will not stop squealing. Landon had his first T-Ball game tonight and Emma cheered him on. I think Emma is going to want to play as well in two years. She can already throw the ball pretty good. She is learning to tell her brother "no, no!" by shaking her pointer finger at him as she kind of grunts what sounds like "no! no!" She is so funny! She keeps us laughing. I still tell Amy that I think she may very well be the first deaf comedian. She keeps us laughing. Thank God she has the personality she has! It has what has gotten us through the tough times.

We have a new little friend that we met online. His name is Charlie and he received his cochlear implant yesterday. He is doing well. You can see Charlie's website here. He is one handsome little guy and is receiving his implant much earlier in life than Emma. He should be off to a great start. Feel free to check out his website and sign his guestbook!

Monday, 4/5/2004-The photos at the very top of Emma in her stroller and behind the wheel of a local firetruck were taken one week after implant surgery. As you can see, she is doing great! She is back to being the same little comical Emma that we have always known. Her infection seems to have cleared but I think we are all getting it now!

Two weeks from today and Emma begins hearing again!!! We plan on posting the video of her hookup if I can figure out the HTML code to post it. The Perseo hearing aid was money well spent. Emma seems to be hearing just as good with the hearing aid in one ear as she did wearing two. Couple that with the implant, and Emma should hear pretty good!

Sunday, 4/4/2004-Emma is doing great and her ear infection she had in her non-implanted ear seems to be better. We actually got her hearing aid in without feedback so we think the fluid in the ear must be gone. We also started her on a decongestant Friday and that may be helping. Either way, her balance is pretty much back to where she can walk unassisted. We only seem to notice a stumble when she tries to stand up and walk after sitting or laying for a long period of time (morning and after naptime). But she is doing great and is back to vocalizing. She literally becomes a different person when she has her hearing aid in.

Amy took a spill Friday while I was at work. When I got home, she was crying. I was freaking out because Amy does not cry much and it must be severe. I asked why she was crying and she said that she accidentally stepped through the drywall in the ceiling over the living room while getting some toys out of the attic. I said "are you injured?" To which she said "no." I said, then why are you crying? She was concerned about how much it would cost to fix (given the amount of money we just spent on Emma's hearing). I told her that I wished broken drywall was our worst problem! And in relation to what we had just been through, it was nothing! It is so strange how some horrible event in your life can really change your outlook on things. I thought to myself, "who cares" about the ceiling. Our daughter will be hearing in two weeks! The broken ceiling quickly became a joke! Man I sure wish broken drywall was the worst thing that had happened in the past six months!