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Friday, June 02, 2006

Does everyone have a magnet in their head?

I was walking out of my room this morning, when Chance came up to me and tried to put the magnet part of the implant on my head. When the implant wouldn't attach to my head, Chance looked genuinely surprised. Then he shrugged his shoulders and walked off. Today he has tried to attach the magnet to all of our heads and has been quite shocked when it doesn't attach. Chance told me that his baby brother would get his head cut open and a magnet put in when he is older. Honestly, I have wondered about what else would attach to the magnet in Chance's head. What about the magnets on the fridge, would they attach? I thought it better not to play out my thoughts. Chance's older brother had no such restraint though. He and Chance walked into the living room to show me a magnet that was attracted to Chance's head. The magnet did not hold on to Chance's head, but the pull was there. The boys thought that was great. I have a feeling that other experiments will follow. As it is, Chance will ask me to put the part of the implant on that hooks over the ear, but he insists that he attach the magnet.
Chance wore the implant all day today. He does seem nervous though that it will fall off. He sometimes tilts his head at an angle and is more timid when he runs. At one point, he ran in from outside and the part of the implant that hooks over the ear (the processor) was upside down. When I tried to fix it, Chance told me no he had fixed it. Apparently the upside down method did not do what he wanted because later Chance put the implant back right side up. The implant is bigger and heavier than the hearing aids so Chance may just be adjusting to that. We don't want Chance to feel timid when he runs. He has always been so free. So if it turns out that the implant continues to make him nervous, we will contact the maker of the implant to see if there is something we can get to make it feel like it is more secure. We have heard such an item exists.
Chance seemed a little more sensitive today, but he went on with his day as usual, playing outside with friends and siblings. I can imagine that it would be weird to have such a change to your sense of hearing. It would affect how you felt about the world around you. You would probably feel more vulnerable and less in control. At one point tonight, a motorcycle was revving somewhere in the neighborhood. Chance stoppped on the stairs and kind of cocked his head and then went on. We have been tapping Chance a lot to get his attention and we have to manually touch him to let him know that we are talking to him. Chance seems to be taking it all in stride though.

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