cochlear implant

 I was so nervous about our appointment in Seattle Children's hospital - my first time driving to Seattle, and my first time going to that hospital, and also it was for a hearing booth test, which has been pretty stressful in the past (baby girl just didn't understand the rules of the game). But she did really well on the drive, and she did really well in the booth, and I'm really encouraged because they only want to do one implant to help preserve her natural hearing as much as possible. Traffic on the way home was terrible, but again my 5yo did really really well, so it was just annoying (and uncomfortable, sitting for 2 hours in the drivers seat). 

Up next - another booth test (can't remember exactly why, but they did mention trying bone conduction), speech language pathology evaluation/meeting, zoom meeting with a psychiatrist, and possibly meeting with the surgeon? We also have an appointment with an ENT, but it looks like we probably won't have to do more testing, since she already had a genetic test and an MRI (though there's a chance they want a CT scan). And then we just have to wait for an opening in the OR schedule. 

THEN we get a small break to let her heal, and to turn it on they do it gradually over 3 days - I guess it's pretty weird sounding at first, so they do it slowly so it's not outright rejected - so we'll go up to Seattle three times in a week. Oof. Not really looking forward to that week. Then appointments to check up on it at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months. It's like a little implant baby. And weekly speech therapy (for like 3-4 years), but that will be a little closer to home. Hopefully in Lacey, possibly as far as... Federal Way? But we won't have to go to Seattle every week. 

Anyway. It's a lot! and she might have to have the surgery around the beginning of kindergarten, which is kind of a bummer! But it's also encouraging and I'm really excited to have her learn to talk. I wish I could have done enough sign language that she was fluent, but whether it's my fault or not, it just isn't enough, and she needs proper communication. I still want to learn for when we're swimming or whatever.