Hello all its been a very long time since my last post.

Just wanted to update on Jack's great Audiology Apt recently. His scores were as follows....and this was with severe apraxia....by the way!!! We were all very happy.

Nu-Chips - (Right CI) MLV/45db Word Score 25/25
Nu-Chips - (Left CI) MLV/45db Word Score 24/25

MLNT Easy #1 (Right and Left CI) Word Score 92% Phoneme Score 98%
MLNT Hard #1 (Right and Left CI) Word Score 92% Phoneme Score 98%

PBK#2A - (Right CI) Word Score 72% Phoneme Score 89%
PBK#2A - (Left CI) Word Score 80% Phoneme Score 90%
PBK #1A - (Right and Left CI) Word Score 92% Phoneme Score 97%

As you can tell on the PBK testing Jack score much higher with both implants on. Another clue that two ears are better than one! Hurray for bi-lateral hearing.

What a Great Year!!!

Jack is making such great strides in regards to his apraxia. His hearing if you can believe it is actually his strength, thanks to his implants.

I just had Jack's parent teacher conference and his is doing quite well, better than I expected. He is keeping up in math and his teacher says that his patterning is at the highest level they test so far this year. Yea!! He is quite the little artist too.

He is getting so much better with his speech and his teachers have noticed a big improvement from last year. He still has some word retrieval issues associated with his apraxia, but it is getting much better with training. No we see as things have been sorted out that he infact, does not have memory issues and it is all do to his filing cabinet (brain) and the things he wants to say have not been in the right place for him to grab. Finally, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Jack is still having some issues with speech errors, but those too are finally being sorted out and his is speaking wonderfully.

Finally, I can now sit back and relax a bit........Jack is progressing and progressing well. He is even keeping up in school!

The picture above is from our summer vacation. Ahh....summer....please come back!!!

Totally Implantable CI's In Our Future?! YES!!!

I just read an article on completely implantable Cochlear Implants. I am very excited to see what the future will hold for all CI's users. Just to think that my son will one day be able to hear in the pool, shower, while sleeping........ Never to be without sound is amazing. No more stress of being invited to pool parties! One day this will be available and hopefully soon......

http://www.citeulike.com/user/thenose/article/3318698

Progress Notes

Hello All, It's been along time since my last post and I felt I should give an update. Jack has made the biggest gains this year and it is a miracle to us. Jack is finally getting good control over his speech and working on increasing his sentences. His ablitlty to be understood also has increased. He still has the diagnosis of Apraxia, but I have been told by his therapist that one day (hopefully soon) he will be free of his diagnosis.

As I have said in earlier posts, hearing is not Jack's main issue anymore. Yes, he is deaf and wears a cochlear implant, but he hears and is able to reproduce any sound as a hearing child with beautiful sound quality. Jack can hear me when he is upstairs or in the other room and we can talk back and forth and he has hearing friends that he communicates verbally with. The implant is a wonderful miracle, and that I can see hearing is not an issue is beyond what I could have ever imagined when Jack was first diagnosed.

We are still working hard with Jack, but Jack's progress this year has been the biggest of his life so far. Jack is a spirited young boy and able to do anything he sets his mind too. We are blessed to have such a wonderful caring team behind us and helping our son.

Harmony Processor

Jack is now using the Harmony processor! We are very lucky that when he had a internal device failure (vender b) Advanced Bionics upgraded Jack to the Harmony processor for free, on both ears. We are all loving the new features of longer battery life. Jack can now go about 11 -12 hours without changing his batteries it is so nice to not have to think about that like we used to. Jack can now go to school all day without having to change his batteries and they are the SLIM size batteries too!! Also, having the light to let us know if something is wrong is nice too. Jack is not using the 120 programming yet, but I'm sure we will be upgrading to that when it is available. The new t-mic hook is something you should try also. It is much smaller than it used to be and is available now. It can be used on all processors.

Jack is also making such great progress in his speech, finally! We have found Jack's missing link into why he was so far behind in his expressive language. Getting him help with his apraxia has made a tremendous differnence. Jack is now starting to put 3-4 word sentences together and they are getting clearer by the day. A prayer has been answered!

Picture is from Jack at school last month.

Another Sucessful Surgery

Yea, surgery is over and we are back home. Jack had his re-implantation yesterday and the surgery went great. The surgeon got full insertion again, and said it was "test book". Jack is at home and resting (trying to get him to rest) and doing great. These kids bounce back so fast it is unbelievable. Jack's turn on is scheduled for May 2nd....can't wait to get things back to normal again.

Jack is doing so well with his "newer" ear since his failure. I can't believe that he is caught up without doing much individual work with that ear. He has not missed a beat and has attending speech and school without any problems. I have notice a big difference in hearing with background noise, but other than that he has done great. I recommend bilateral implants to all families out there. I don't know what we would have done if Jack would have been completely off air for the last 3 weeks......

AB Failure after 3 Years

After 3 years of hearing out of his right side my son has now lost that hearing due to a device failure. We just had it confirmed yesterday by his Audiologist. I thought that this might have been happening a little at a time for the last month or so because Jack would complain that it would go in and out.

Jack is scheduled for reimplantion in 2 weeks so I will post on the outcome. They said it will take Jack a couple of weeks to a month to get back to where he was again on that side.

On a positive note Jack will receive that upgraded Harmony processor which I am happy about. I thought we would be fighting insurance again soon for the upgrade, I'm glad I will not have to deal with that now.

Another thing I am thankful for is Jack is BILATERAL!!! What would I be doing now if he wasn't. He does not know sign language and I don't know how to deal with him any other way than though speech. I think about how Jack would be with a device failure and not hearing at all for a month!!! Jack really was upset when it first happened, but now is going about his day and not really missing a beat. He saw his SLP yesterday and actually had a great session and he will be going to school this afternoon. This is another reason why bilaterals are such a benefit....you have a backup!!! That makes it all worth it alone, not to mention the other incredible benefits!!!!!