Going cochlear

Elin had her first appointment with the Cochlear Implant division at Seattle Children's hospital. We were fortunate enough to meet with the director of Audiology for Children's, Dr Norton. She was wonderful and Elin warmed right up to her. She was able to explain how the cochlear implant works, what the surgery entails, and the benefits (and limited side effects) the device can have.


We have always wanted Elin to be a part of the "hearing" community as much as possible and it looks as if a cochlear implant in her right ear will assist with that goal. Is it risky- not really. Can she loose what ever residual hearing she might have in the right ear- it's possible. But Dr Norton assured us that they have been implanting babies and toddlers with less severe hearing loss (meaning not totally deaf) and have had amazing results. So we are all in.

The next steps are making sure we get an accurate assessment of Elin's hearing via behavioral testing. This is no small feat. She has been less then enthused in the past about the conditioning game and sound booth so we are crossing our fingers. She did do some testing while we were in the appointment and she actually played the game- so there's hope. We are aiming for some conclusive testing after our trip to Hawaii and hope we can move forward with the process at that point.

In other news, Elin is still seizure free since July 4th. We are actually feeling like a "normal" family and have been able to let our guard down a little (something we all desperately needed). So now is the perfect time to go to Hawaii! We have been able to reduce Elin's medication by quite a bit which has helped her blossom. She sparkles now! It's is so wonderful to hear her laugh and play games with us. It has been an amazing few months.

As far as therapies go- Elin is chugging along. Every week our PT is pleased with her progress and Elin really tries hard when she is here- it's almost like she knows. Her speech is developing also- she has started babbling a lot more which is like music to our ears.

We have had some feeding therapy too because Elin still will not feed herself. She has no interest in picking up food on her tray and putting it her mouth- so that is a work in progress. She does however have an affinity for my green smoothies (kale, apple, berries, spinach- etc) which is surprising since they aren't exactly the tastiest things ever. Go figure- at least she gets her vitamins and minerals that way.