Cochlear Update Round Two!

Hello Folks-

As promised I would keep you guys updated. I had my second round of appt today in STL back at Barnes-Jewish. Cherise was kind enough to come with me to the appointment, and true to our relationship as friends, we of course got lost at the hospital! It was a long two hour drive, but thankfully one of my other good friends, Joe T, texted me to try and be there with me in spirit so thanks for that Joe! Appreciate the support from everyone who texted or left a message.

We got to the hospital about an hour early, but of course, Lucy (myself) and Ethel (Cherise) got lost right as we walked in. Apparantly my room was on the other side of the hospital, so after calling my father a million times, stopping to ask different hospital personals literally 5 times we finally found the room we had to go, 40 minutes later :)

Luckily, I arrived into the office JUST in time to fill out some paperwork, and do all that. They for some reason assigned me an ASL interp, which I specifically told them I didn't need, the poor guy sat in the room making conversation with Cherise barely moving his fingers to sign.

I went into the testing room, and I had a series of test this time WITH my hearing aids on. I of course failed as usual which is what we want! I was really surprised how bad I did. The first sequence of the test was to click a button anytime I heard a sound, I did that.

I had to do this with both hearing aids, one off and the other on and vice versa. Same thing with one word speech, a word would be spoken and I had to speak it outloud what I thought was said. She said I got one more word right out of my right ear over my left ear.

Then the last was to repeat a sentence I thought I heard or interperated, and I know Cherise had so much fun with this. I came up with the most weird sentences, for example I had to say whatever I thought I heard regardless of how strange it was because they were also testing to see how well I could interprate it. One sentence I said was "The bear is fishing in the car" Which we know doesn't happen, but it is what i heard!!!

That was all done, took about one hour and a half. We met back in her office, and she once again reiterated what the surgeon said and that she felt strongly I am definetly eligible for the cochlear implant! So I am now 2 for 2!!! *thumbs up!* I should hope so if I thought I heard "the bear is fishing in the car" I mean honestly!

The audiologist said the next step now is to wait until we hear from the insurance company, once we are contacted regarding that, we can now begin the pre op surgery appointments which involve meeting a few "-ologist" doctors, radiology, and neurologist and whatnot. Each of them I have to meet with and as long as I continue to meet the satisfaction of the CI requirements, they will continue to approve it for me as I meet each doctor. This is simply how the process goes.

However long that takes, I would be scheduled for surgery, most realistically by end of summer, anything sooner would be fantastic but not likely. I do have concerns of it starting right around school time but I frankly have no choice. After the surgery, i will be given 2 weeks or so to heal before I go back to be "turned on". I have to then go back up for 6 weeks, 2 times a week to continue the mapping and such. This is going to be a pain and hard on me, for those who are unfamilair with my location it is a 4 hr round trip drive everytime I go to STL ahhhh, but hopefully if it all works out in the end it is worth it!

Anyhow, that is the updated for now, so to recap, the audiologist (after the surgeon also) has also approved my CI Surgery for go ahead to meet the next doctor, next step is now to wait to hear from the insurance which may take up to a month, who knows. Then after that is to schedule an appt to see radiologist regarding the cat scan I believe.

Thanks again for all the support, and leave a message if you have any questions!

Alex