An interesting little thing about implants.

Cochlear implants have an interesting little quirk. That is, being electronic devices, they are affected by static electricity. Static electricity can erase the programming that is stored in the device. In rare cases, it can cause device failure(both external and internal).

Pass any children's park or playground these days and you find plastic slides, platforms and play areas. If you have ever ridden down one of those plastic slides, you know how much static that can cause.

Last night, we were at baseball games(our usual June night activities) watching the kids play ball. Chance's game was over, so I took him and some of his siblings over to the play area to play. As my baby got done going down the slide, he rubbed his head. I laughed thinking it was the wind. Then, he rubbed his head again the next time he went down the slide and I felt the hair on my arm go up each time I got close to the slide. You could feel the static electricity. This caused a bell to go off in my head as I remembered the strange relationship that plastic and implants can have with each other.

Chance was merrily swinging from monkey bars and dashing down slides. I called him over and told him that there was static electricity at the playground and that he needed to be careful because this could ruin his implant program. Chance looked at me kind of funny. I went on to tell him that you could not see static electricity, but that it was around us and we could feel it.(Poor kid. The concepts he has to deal with on a playground!) As we talked, a light went on for Chance. He told me that his dad had told him about that. He then showed me how he was supposed to touch one of the metal bars holding the slide after he went down the slide. This is not a park that we frequent, but Chance seemed to really internalize the fact that after he went down a plastic slide, he needed to touch something metal. This discharges the static built up in him through his finger, rather than through the implant.

Since the concept of static electricity is a little hard to grasp at Chance's age, I was glad that it was so high that day just so I could prove to Chance that it was indeed around us. I had him look at my arm with all of the hair all neatly in place. Then I slid my arm closer and closer to the slide and the hairs all stood at attention. Chance's eyes got big, and then he tried it with his own arm. It was a good visual aid:)

Research shows that the brand of implant that we chose, is less prone to serious complications(such as internal device failure), from static electricity, but it is still an issue to take seriously. Static electricity can still cause issues with implants. There is a coating that the slide can be coated with by the manufacturer, but the manufacturers do not want to make the extra effort. It is simply a convenience for most kids not to have static electricity when they go down a slide. There is also a coating that you can spray on slides yourself we have heard, but it only works for that one visit to the park. Although, it might be interesting to see the look on other parents faces were we to show up at a park and start spraying something all over the slide. We would probably have the police called on us. We have learned so many fascinating things about life through having a deaf child! Who knew there was this much to know about going down a playground slide?