| CI Journey Journal Pg. 3 (Cierra's Hook-Up) |
| January 21, 1999 |
| WWWOOOWWW!!!! Where do I start?!?! There is so much to tell, I feel like I could write a book!!! Ok, Cierra and I left for Rochester on Tuesday, the 18th at around 2:15 pm. We had a wonderful trip there! Then Wednesday morning came early, we went to check-in and saw Dr. Facer, and everything went well there. Cierra was just so excited to get the implant on, so we then went over to Dr. Shallop and Ann Peterson's office. They had the room set up and we just got things in order. Kim, an outreach worker from Cierra's School, was there with us. They started giving the beeps, and Cierra was giving very consistant responses, saying she heard that, or putting pegs in, or raising her hand, when she heard the noises. Here, I was elated, because everyone I have known of(children) cried when they first were stimulated, but Cierra was very happy! Then we did the soft/loud test, and did good with that, so therefore her first MAP was created in a short period! All of her channels but 4 or 5 were created from condition, which they say that is very good, because they did not have to fill in many by guessing. So that day was pretty amazing! She heard many different things and turned to her name many times. She asked "Why do you say Cierra all the time?" Her audiogram before was from between 65 dB and 110 dB, and a couple hours after stimulation, it was between 40 dB and 65 dB! Plus, she was discriminating between 1 syllable, 2 syllable, and 3 syllable words auditory only! So, that night, she did not want to take it off. Then comes Thurs. morning. She woke up and wanted her implant on right away! She seemed like she doubled in her sound awareness, just overnight!! Then we went to the office for more testing and MAPing. She seemed to be bored with the beeps again, and they had done all 22 channels very quickly by condition, then it was time to do the soft/loud test. We were going along, and Ann just stated, "I wish she was the norm, I wish they were all this easy to program, she is an easy one to learn from" and I was thinking this was just miraculous! THEN...... it got TOO loud and Cierra started crying. It broke my heart. I was so sad. So, we basically were done for the day, and Ann created 4 programs, and sent us for the day. The rest of the day was wonderful, but Cierra wouldn't let me go from program 1 to program 2, as she said it was too loud, but yet she wanted the sensitivity way up on program 1. That was ok, as I did not want to push her! We had a ball, as her uncle and aunt were there to visi, and she was turning to her name 95% of the time. She was even starting to distinguish the difference between Uncle Trent's deep voice and Aunt Sara's and Mom's higher voice. Then Aunt Sara showed Cierra how to click the tongue, and so Cierra loved that sound and did it quite often. Anyhow, by Thursday night, after 12 hours of having her implant on, she was ready to take it off and go to bed! Then came best day, that makes me feel like I am in heaven!! God has shown me that miracles can happen right before my eyes! This is today, the 3rd day of stimulation. We went in and Dr. Shallop did an ABR, and it was NORMAL(with the implant on)!!!!! Then Ann created 4 more MAPs. Then she did speech awareness tests, and she hears speech at 30 dB now!!! AND, she passed again, with flying colors, the 1,2,and 3 syllable tests. Then they did testing with 1 syllables(ball, boot, boat, book) and auditory only, she got 8/12!! Then with the 2 syllable(toothbrush, airplane, hotdog, bathtub) and got 7/12! With speechreading, of course, she always gets 100%, but this is amazing for auditory only 48 hours after initial stimulation! OK, then we were so happy to be on the road!!! This is what truly amazed me. First of all, I must thank God for getting us home safely, because with all of the awesomeness happening with Cierra during the drive home, I was so caught up in that, and during the 3 1/2 hour drive home, I did not even pay attention to the gas level, or sometimes I don't even remember looking at the road! BUT HERE IS WHY...CIERRA WAS HAVING A BALL!!! She did not close her mouth the whole way! She was experimenting with all different kinds of noises. She really likes the sound of laughter, and raspberries with your mouth! MANY, MANY AWESOME THINGS HAPPENED!! She responded to her name all of the time by saying , "what". Then, I told her she should take a nap, so she layed her ehad on the pillow, and she said, "Mom, turn off the music." I said, there is no music on. She said, "I can not sleep, the music is waking me up." We discovered it was the sound of the humming of the car driving on interstate. So, I told her she could take the CI off if she wanted, and she said ok, so she took it off. Then a minute later, she signed, "I can't hear nothing, I can't hear you talking, I can't hear nothing, I want the CI on, I will sleep later!" I said, "THANK YOU GOD, THANK YOU JESUS!!! She said, "My favorite CI! I LOVE HEARING MYSELF TALK AND OTHER PEOPLE TALK!" Then of course, we had a blast enjoying different things. Then about a 1/2 hour before we got home, Cierra said, "It's better, at Mayo it was loud, but now it is quiet, I want more sound please, I want you to make it louder!" Then she said, "Please Jesus, give Kelcie a CI too, I want Kelcie to hear like me!" So then I changed it to the second program. She was pleased! Then we got into town, and I have a stick shift car, and I came to a stop, and then I accelerated to go, and she says, "I can her the car." Then she heard me honk the horn when we got into the driveway! We got home, and she was thrilled to hear her little sisters voice for the first time, and her daddy's voice for the first time, and many of her toys for the first time!! SHE IS SOOOOOO HAPPY!!! She watched a video of herself that we took in December, and she was glued, because she heard herself crying on the camera. Then she heard all of the other voices and sounds! She was thrilled to hear the TV. She heard the "BOING" noise on the teletubbies when they jumped, she loves the sound of candy bags crinkeling, and she hears the doorbell, and the telephone. She was in the toyroom, and I told Jason to go ring the doorbell, so he did , and she ran out-" What do I hear?" Then she recognized it from earlier when we got home and said, "who's here?" and ran to the door!!! THIS IS A WHOLE NEW EXCITING WORLD TO HER, AND SHE COULD NOT BE HAPPIER!! She has heard so many things she has never heard before. Running water, footsteps, toilet flushing, peeing, and on and on. This third day is unbelievable, and they say it gets better! If this is all we would ever get, I would still be in heaven, I can say I feel 100% better for the safety of Cierra, as she can hear everything, and can be alerted!! I know that she is going to fly, or "sail" as Ann put it!! THIS IS SO UNBELIEVABLE!!! WHOEVER DOES NOT BELIEVE IN MIRACLES, SENT THEM OUR WAY, AND THEY CAN TALK TO CIERRA, AND I AM SURE SHE COULD ASSURE THEM! It is so funny, I say Cierra to get her attention now, and she said, "My neck is getting tired of turning to look at you when you say my name!" THANK YOU LORD!! She was going downstairs, and I was upstairs in the kitchen, and I said, "Cierra", and she rean back upstairs and said, "What do you want?" I think she is starting to think, "that is my name, don't wear it out!" Well, our journey has only just begun and I am telling you, we are already in heaven, so I can just imagine soon, as Cierra progressively understands and identifies and discriminates sound, that I will feel like I am sitting in God's lap, as I must say, this is truly UNBELIEVABLE, beings it is only 3 days into it! The most important and special thing is, CIERRA IS ON TOP OF THE WORLD!! I imagine tonight, when she gets home from the basketball game, it will be a struggle to get her to take off her CI. But, I could not ask for a better battle to choose, RIGHT!?!?! THANK YOU SO MUCH TO ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND CONCERN!!! WE ARE SO, SO , SO ,SO GRATEFUL TO GOD FOR THE WONDERFUL THINGS HE HAS DONE FOR US AND THE BLESSINGS AND MIRACLES HE HAS GIVEN US, BECAUSE WE WOULD NOT BE WHERE WE ARE WITHOUT HIS GRACIOUSNESS!!!!! In as close to heaven on earth right now, Misty Hauf :.) |
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| Hook-up Day # 2 Cierra w/ Uncle Trent and Aunt Sara |
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| Hook-up Day #2 Cierra w/ Ann (looking at the processor) |