Houston, we have a launch!

It is official! WE NOW HAVE TWO IMPLANTS INSTEAD OF ONE! Chance was really excited about getting his second implant turned on. Everything went really well at his appointment, Chance was a pro at throwing the blocks in the bucket when he heard a sound. And he heard all of the Ling sounds with his new implant today which is really good. (aaa, eee, uuuu, shshshsh, sssss, mmmmm).

The audiologist was working on getting Chance to tell her when the sound was too loud with the new implant, but Chance either hardly ever thought it was too loud, or did not understand when it was too loud. Chance had a sheet on his lap with a picture of a monkey looking swell and the word "good" under his image. The next picture over had a picture of a monkey holding his ears with the words "too loud" under his image. Chance only pointed to the "too loud" monkey a few times though. The audiologist kept asking him if it was too loud, but Chance just shook his head "no". So we are supposed to ask Chance this week if his implant is too loud at random moments to see if he can tell us anything. Right before we left from out appointment, Chance told the audiologist that "it was just right!" So there you go.


The process is the same as last time. There are 4 settings on the implant and we start out on program 1. After a few days, we go to level 2, etc. The goal is to be to level 4 by the next visit which is next week. If Chance complains of discomfort, we will hold off on moving the program for an extra day etc. Last time, Chance hardly ever resisted when we moved the programming up though so we'll see.

This is so exciting!! We have two implants! Sure, I know that it is really Chance that has two implants, but I am living my life through him as I will never get implants myself.(at least not that we know of yet:)

When we got off the elevator after the appointment, Chance said "I can hear that!" I don't know exactly what he heard, but he his face lit up at whatever the sound was. As we were walking out of the building, I asked Chance if he could hear with his other implant. Chance did not hesitate for a moment. He just nodded his head enthusiastically and said "yeah". The setting on the implant is quite low, so Chance is most likely not hearing like he does with the first implant, but I think he really likes having both ears hearing. He has had no problem keeping the new implant on, and is showing everyone he knows that he has a new implant. And not only that, but he has a "Halloween implant". It has a touch of orange. This implant came with colored plackets that you can change to make the bottom outside part another color. So, I am sure that we will be having a Thanksgiving implant with brown, Christmas with red or green and then we'll just go from there.

Since I had the camera with me from the appointment, I took a picture of Chance at school when all of his friends from his deaf class saw him. They were all impressed with the second implant and surrounded him to get a better look. Then all of them ran into class to tell their teacher that Chance had a new Halloween implant. Chance missed his mainstreaming class because of the appointment. But who knows. Maybe tomorrow, all of the kids in his mainstreaming class will wish that they had Halloween implants too.

Another thing that has changed from the first implant is that there is now a "mini" unit that goes over the ear. This device takes two instead of three batteries but does not allow for any plug-ins (FM systems, personal mics, personal audio, phones). It also has a rechargeable battery pack. We have one mini and one regular size unit as we get to choose two. After seeing the "mini" on Chance's ear, I would really like to get him one for the other ear as well. It just seems to fit more comfortably on his ear. (it only costs $1500.00 !) His right ear has adjusted to the bigger implant but it also kind of bends in a different way in order to make accommodations. There will be times when Chance will need the plug-ins that come with the bigger implant, but the mini looks more comfortable for now.

We are on an amazing journey with Chance. One that no one is real familiar with since Chance is one of the first ones in Utah to get a bi-lateral implant. We are all learning as we go along. Chance, us, the Audiologist, the doctors, teachers...it is an adventure to be sure! But we are excited to be able to on this path.