Great Weekend

What a great weekend! We went to Tulsa for a family reunion. It was so great to see all of Seth's aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. I think I meet new people in the Holestine family each time we go! Seth, Abby, and I left around 7pm on Friday night and got to our hotel at around 1am. Seth Robert rode down earlier in the day with his PaPa, Aunt Alissa, Claire, and Lawson. Abby did really well in the car. She was awake until about 10pm which is really late for her, but she just played and talked and ate Pringles.

On Saturday night we went out to dinner...all 50 or so of us. We had several tables pushed together in and L shape and had (like I said) about 50 of us at those tables. It was very noisy and I never know how well Abby will hear in those situations. We were sitting across the table from Aunt Linda and Aunt Nan. They were talking to Abby and I wasn't sure she was hearing them or not. Aunt Nan starting singing "I Love You" to Abby. Over and over she would say in a sing-song voice "I Love You". Abby was just smiling and loving the attention, then out of nowhere Abby says "I wub oo". I COULD NOT BELIEVE IT. Here we were in this very noisy environment, Abby has only one hearing aid in right now, Aunt Nan was not talking loudly to her, just in a normal voice and not only did Abby hear her, she repeated what she was saying. I am just amazed at what that girl can do with those hearing aids. It is truly unbelievable that with her level of deafness, she is doing so well.

Ok, so we also followed up with Dr Clary last week. He said he is really happy with how everything is looking. Abby is only taking the antibiotic now and no pain medication. She will keep taking the antibiotic until end of the day on Tuesday and then will no longer take it unless she starts getting a cold or runny nose. We have to make sure she doesn't get any ear infections while everything is still healing.

Where'd it go?

Since Abby got her implant, she has been sticking her finger in her left ear, shrugging her shoulders, and saying 'where'd it go'. Once you get a CI your normal functioning ear functions no more. So any 'residual' hearing that Abby had in the left ear is now gone, and therefore no reason to stick a hearing aid on it.

We have a follow up with Dr Clary today. She is still doing amazingly well. I only give her Tylenol w/ codeine twice a day and she probably doesn't even need that anymore. I think this weekend I will try just regular Tylenol and see how she does, and then move her completely off anything for pain. She will keep taking anti-biotics for at least one more week.

Audiology called yesterday and wanted to move Abby's initial stim up to next week. I would have LOVED to do this, but Seth and I have already scheduled vacations for the original dates of 7/9 & 7/10 so we will keep the dates as is.

I just was pointed to a really awesome website www.deafvillage.com. It has links to tons of blogs of families dealing with deafness. I sure hope to make some new friends there as many of them have already been thru experiences we are just beginning.

Update

It's been a while since I've updated. Things have been pretty uneventful lately. Abby started getting REALLY dizzy on Friday, and was still pretty dizzy on Saturday. I figured this was normal since her inner ear fluid had just been disturbed and her inner ear was 'drilled' into. However, I wanted to be sure and called the Dr on Saturday. He said it's normal and that she would eventually adjust to the change in her inner ear fluid distribution.

It was kind of (half) funny watching her though. She was walking around with her head cocked to the left side and almost walking in a circle she was so off balance. She is healing very nicely. She had a few days of LONG naps, but unfortunately that is over and we are back to her normal once a day, 2 - 3 hour nap : )

On another note, I spent Abby's nap time last week updating our master bath. I was going for a 'spa-like' look and I think I accomplished it. I painted the walls a very light, icy blue color; put up a bright white cabinet; nice big fluffy white towels; and a few other decor items. It turned out very nicely. Seth is hanging white wainscoating for me today so hopefully I can finish everything up tonight. I'll take some pictures and post them after it's all done.

Doing Great...and Seth

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple days. Abby's doing great. The first night at the hospital was very long. She keep moaning in her sleep, and would wake up and cry. Seth and I took turns semi-sleeping in the bed with her. Dr Clary did come in late in the evening and told the nurses they could be 'more liberal' with her morphine. So they up'd the next dosage around 1am and she was in a little less pain. She started waking up around 5am and I tried to get her to sit up and start playing a little. she did and by 5:30 she wanted a banana and more Sprite. Around 9am she decided to get out of bed, and there was no stopping her then! She road all around the hospital floor in a wagon with her baby, her drink, her princess balloon, and a cell phone. I have some cute pictures I will post later.

We went home around noon and picked up big brother! Abby was so happy to see him! I had asked Seth if he wanted to go to the hospital the day of Abby's surgery or if he wanted to spend a few days at Cousin Lawson's house and go to Vacation Bible Camp. Thankfully he chose the more fun option and had lots of fun with Claire and Lawson. But he was very happy to get home and see his sister.

Abby has a about a 3 inch incision that runs behind her ear from the top to the bottom, she also has a tiny incision a little above that. Dr Clary is the best as far as I'm concerned, but he's not too good of a hairdresser (J/K) There was a good chunk of hair shaved off. The poor girl is going to be a little lopsided for a while until I can take her somewhere to try to somewhat salvage her doo. For now, I've been trying to keep it all pulled up to the other side so her hair doesn't get into the inicison area. Oh, we took her bandage off today so we've got to watch her even more closely that she doesn't bang her head on anything.

More to come.

Success!

The sweetest words we could hear! Dr Clary came in around 4:45 to tell us that they were done, and Abby was in recovery. He said everything went exactly as he had hoped and the implant was successful. One of my biggest concerns going into this was the fact that Abby's cochlea's are not formed properly. This is not the reason for her hearing loss, but a factor to consider in placing the implant. He was not sure the electrodes would 'slide' in as best as possible. However, he was very pleased with the placement of the electrodes, and was able to confirm in an X-Ray that it is positioned very well into the cochlea. The audiologist who was in surgery also did some initial testing of the device and everything is working as expected.

Abby will not get her implant 'turned on' until July 9 & 10. They call this the initial stimulus. They wait until 3 weeks after surgery to allow her time to heal. When they turn on the implant they start out very conservatively, but it can be extremely scary for some kids. Probably another reason they wait a few weeks. The surgery is enough trauma for now!

So, Abby is now out of recovery and is in a really cool pediatric room. They just opened this wing of the pediatric unit last week so everything is brand spankin' new. There is a nice couch and recliner for Seth and I to spend the night in. Abby is not very happy yet (as you can expect). She has been sipping on the same Sprite since she was in recovery around 5pm and she's still not done with it. She seems to be in a little pain (hard to tell since she's so young) and she is getting Morphine thru her IV right now. Dr Clary will be back at 6am and plans to discharge us at that time. He expects here to be up and running tomorrow morning.

Above is a picture of Abby right after recovery and looking very ticked off. The red bandage is a compression bandage over the incision area. I'm sure she will use this one as blackmail on us later...to remind us of her ordeal : )

Here we go

Abby's surgery is finally underway! They got her back about an hour late, around 12:45. So far everything is going well. Don't have much to post except that she will be SO happy once someone gives her food or drink this evening. We woke her up for a snack around 10:30 last night in hopes it would hold her over somewhat this morning. She woke up this morning around 7am and immediately pointed towards the kitchen. She was very upset no one would give her anything to eat or drink.

Here is a picture of her in the hospital this morning. She was very happy to have her own TV and remote control. She also enjoyed standing outside her door and telling everyone 'HI' as they walked by.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow....

Tomorrow is the big day! The day we have waited for the last two years. Abby is having her implant surgery tomorrow at 11:50am. The timing isn't the greatest because she cannot have food after midnight and can only have water until 7:20am tomorrow. She is going to be MAD at us tomorrow when we don't feed her. We will have to find something distracting to do in the morning so she doesn't think about being hungry. Maybe I'll wake her up at 11:50 tonight and make her eat a full meal : )

I am so excited about this! I'm really not nervous (yet) but I'm sure as soon as they take my baby girl away tomorrow, the nerves will hit.

I will take Seth's laptop to the hospital and try to post updates throughout the day. If she's up for it, I might take a few pictures later in the day and post those...No promises. Tomorrow is all about her and making her comfortable.

Talk to you all later.

Super Heros?

I was raised in a house of all girls so it was all Barbies and baby dolls. I had no idea boys (at the age of 4) believed in Super Hero's. Seth is really into Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Monster Trucks (are they super hero's? : ) Anyway, when he grows up he is going to be Superman, and he runs around the house using his 'Super Powers' on all of us. Really, I did not know this started so young. So here is a recent picture of my little Super Hero.

Piggy Tails

OK, so since Abby was born, I've been wanting to put cute hair things on her. So, she was born with very little hair, and didn't really have any hair until she was almost one. So, the first year of cute hair thingy's was out. Then she slowly started growing hair, but would not keep ANYTHING in her hair. She has very fine, thin hair so usually her hair is just a matted mess...even just minutes after I brush it and wet it down.

Well now that Abby is two, and somewhat understands the concept of 'threats & bribes' we are able to keep piggy tails in her hair.

12 More Days!

OK, so far I'm not so good at keeping up with this thing. It's a lot of pressure, and I don't have much to talk about : )

Abby's surgery is just 12 days away. People keep asking me if I'm nervous, and really, I'm not! We have been waiting for this day for over 2 years now. I know Abby has the absolute best Doctor performing the surgery, and I am just at peace with everything that's going to happen. I also have complete confidence that God is taking care of her and that everything will just go great!

I'm very anxious to see the changes in Abby once she gets her implant turned on. I really believe her speech is just going to take off within a few months of her 'initial stimulus' (turn on of the implant. She gets her implant turned on July 9 and 10, so between that and her surgery I have lots of excuses to take time off work!!

Ok, I REALLY wil try to get some pictures uploaded here over the next day or two.