Emma Updates (February 2004 Archive)

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February 2004 Archived Emma Updates

2/16/2004-Well Emma has come down with a sinus infection. We already suspected she was coming down with something. We have made the decision to delay surgery by a week and we want to ensure that she is well at the time of surgery. She is now scheduled for Wednesday, March 3. The thing I hate about this is that is only gives us another week to worry about it!

2/14/2004-Well today is Valentine's Day and our little sweeties got a big surprise this morning----SNOW!!!! Yep, it is snowing in Texas! As of 2pm local time it is still coming down and there is about 4 inches on the ground. Good wet snow too for great snowballs and snowmen. There is a photo above of our "Snow Cowboy." Landon is getting over his sinus infection. But the bad news is we think Emma has come down with one. This means that she can not receive her Prevnar Vaccine on Monday and surgery may have to be delayed. I hate that! The longer we wait, the more anxious and worried I become.

Emma is really talking up a storm! She is now conducting her own AV sessions. She will sit down with her stuffed animals and start making the noise they make. She also now says "up up" as she wants to be lifted up to pull the chain on the ceiling fan. The kids got Lion King 1 1/2 for Valentine's Day. Emma got a "Sterling Silver" colored rose from her daddy. Above is a photo of her smelling it. Landon got some new Hot Wheels cars. Mommy got chocolate, and Daddy got the joy of watching his family play and have a blase together----best gift I could ask for. Mommy, Emma, and Landon made Daddy a homemade Valentine Card----the best kind you can get! We continue to be amazed at Emma's language development. We are now compiling a list of Receptive Language words (words she recognizes meaning to but can not say) and her expressive language (things she knows the meaning too and CAN say). It is strange because she can actually say something and we know many times what she wants. After we made our list (which was pretty long) we realized there was a lot of words we left off. So it is getting harder and harder to keep up with her progress as she is doing so well. we hope we do not have to delay surgery much longer. We are still scheduled for the 25th but I am concerned about her signs of coming down with something. We immediately got her on Augmentin. I soon plan to have a technical section of the website regarding CI, LVAS, and hearing loss. It will have links to Medica Journal articles for those that want to find research. There have been many hits from educational institutions, parents of newly diagnosed children, and people interested in more technical data. It will take some time but I will get it up and running within the next month or two. The Photos Link now has recent photos. Most are archived from what have been posted on this page.

2/6/2004-The GUEST BOOK feature is now working. Feel free to drop us a line!

2/5/2004-EMMA'S COCHLEAR IMPLANT SURGERY SCHEDULED!!!Emma had another ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response), ASSR (Auditory Steady State Response), and OAE (Otoacoustic Emmission Test) done today. All confirm what we already knew so no big surprise there. Severe to Profound (more like bilateral profound) hearing loss. We selected the Medel Device today and scheduled surgery for February 25, 2004. So we are less than three weeks from Emma's surgery and less than 8 weeks from Emma beginning to hear again. After all the second, third, and fourth opinons we have decided to move forward with Dr. Brian Peters and the Medical City Dallas Cochlear Implant Team. We liked all the physicians we met but it all came down to our "gut" feeling. Dr. Peters' was "in-network" for us, had already gotten the surgery approved by insurance, has a support staff, cochlear mapping team, and audiology lab right in his office. Not to mention, the person that will do Emma's cochlear mapping is a neighbor of ours. We are scared, terrified, excited, anxious, sad, happy, and hopeful all at the same time. There are minimal risks that we are aware of and Emma is at a slightly higher increase in risks than the average cochlear patient but they are still very minimal. As Dr. Peters once told us, "Do not let the slight risks associated with this procedure come between Emma and her hearing." Today was hard going through the ABR and even harder making a device selection but I think the despair feeling will soon pass and turn to excitement. We know Emma will do great! She already is.