Monday, October 19, 2009

1st Appointment at NYU Cochlear Implant Center

Today Maria woke up around 8:00 after a very restless night of sleep. We tried to get her to eat breakfast at the hotel, but she was not interested. She was tired and had a tummy ache. We tried to wait it out at the hotel, but she just became more and more grumpy. We decided to leave the hotel and take the bus to the city a little early. She was definitely happy to be outside. She enjoyed the bus ride. It reminded us of our time in China.

We made it into the city around 11:45am and started walking. It was a beautiful day and we had until 2 for Maria's appointment. It took about 45 minutes to walk approximately 12 blocks. We carried Maria on and off. She enjoyed walking, but would suddenly fall down like a limp rag doll. We carried her while she just hung, which made a 20 pound little girl feel much much heavier. Then when she was ready she would get down and run down the sidewalk once again.

We made it to a Subway around 12:30. Again Maria had no desire to eat. She played and made a mess with her food instead. After Subway we checked in at the medical center and Maria played with the toys in the waiting room.

At 2:15pm we met with the audiologist and discussed the future appointments and what to expect. Then the audiologist took Maria for sound field hearing testing with hearing aids and without. We tried to train her to the test---in other words to look at a tv when she heard noise. We also used a bone conduction vibrator for her to feel the vibrations. She appeared to maybe respond to 2 sounds.

We discussed that a cochlear implant would not be as effective if she does not respond to more sounds. On the other hand it seems to be the best and only option we have at this point. She has 3 more audiological exams, so hopefully she'll respond better next week. The only thing that would completely stop the process is if her CT Scans show an abnormality of her auditory nerve or any other abnormality of the ear in which a cochlear implant will definitely not work.

This week we are looking at 3 cochlear implant companies in order to choose the manufacturer that we would like to use.

After her appointment we walked a little faster, maybe 35-40 minutes to the bus stop. We took the bus to our car and started our 5 hour drive home. The trip home was longer as the traffic out of Jersey was worse than when we drove in.

We made it home at 9:30pm and were able to say goodnight to Macella and Kirstie, so that was nice.

Next week we leave after work on Tuesday night, so we'll be getting into NJ around 10pm. Please pray for the 4 appointments we have next week.

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