She's On!

What an awesome day! We went for Abby's Initial Stimulus at St John's Audiology this morning (this is where she gets the external piece of the implant, and they turn it on). It was not as eventful as other kids initial stim's that I have heard of or seen via video. However, it was very exciting for us.

In Abby's case, she has heard SO much with her hearing aids, that she is very used to hearing a variety of sounds. While getting ready for her turn 'on' I tried to take the hearing aid out of the right ear, but she she did not want that so we left it in, but turned it off. Then came the first sounds she heard through the implant. When they first turned the implant on, several people in the room were talking, and Abby immediately pointed to her left ear (the ear with the implant). We knew right away that she was hearing through the implant!!!! She was NOT scared, startled, mad, or really even confused; she almost seemed just kind of curious like "what is that I'm hearing".

I asked the audiologist what she was hearing and she said the way adults with implants have described it as either clicks & pops or Mickey and Minnie sounding voices. Eventually the brain will just 'click' and the brain will start interpreting those noises as identifiable sounds. So, we really don't know what Abby heard, but she definitely heard something! We did a little bit of testing with Bev ( the audiologist from St. Joseph's who will follow Abby). Abby did a great job of playing the listening games with Bev. The St John's audiologist programmed the device while Abby and Bev playing their listening games.

I wish I could say it was more remarkable than it was. For me it was definitely an incredible experience because we knew right away that thing they put into her head and inner ear was working. However, Abby's reactions were nothing overwhelming (this is a good thing).

Later in the day after Abby's nap, I put the implant on first before putting on her hearing aid. After putting on the implant I said "SSSHH" and Abby looked up at me really quickly. I did this a few more times, and she looked each time I said "SSSHHH". This was probably the highlight of the day for me. SSSHHH is a sound Abby has not heard before unless you REALLY yelled it, and then we were never quite sure she really heard it.

I have some video from the initial turn on and once I figure out how to get my videos to clips on the PC, I'll post them.

Oh, we go back tomorrow for more testing and programming of the device. I will keep you posted on how she's doing/hearing tomorrow.