Have You Seen This Rechargeable Battery Pack?

We have had implants in our family now for about 9 and 1/2 years.  In all that time, we have never permanently lost a rechargeable battery pack.  Sure one would go missing every once in a while, but we always found it eventually.

That has now changed.  We lost a battery pack.  Ammon's new battery pack.  It is new because he has had an implant for less than a year now. It happened at a birthday party.  The party goers had gone to a trampoline place where kids are able to have immeasurable amounts of fun doing flips on trampolines, playing dodge ball on trampolines and jumping into foam filled pits.

Now, if you are thinking that this scenario was a disaster waiting to happen, I want you to know that I planned this all out.  I called the boy's mother and we talked about the implants and had a plan. Ammon was going to wear his implant and hearing aid to the facility, then, when the boys all started dashing off to jump, he was going to give his hearing devices to the boys mother in his little yellow hard case that would offer protection.  The case even has a strap to put around your wrist should you so desire.

The plan played out very well at first.  The kids got to the trampoline place, Ammon took off his devices and handed them to his friend's mom as he ran up a ramp leading to a trampoline. Then the kids had fun for 2 hours.

When it was time to go, Ammon got his implant and hearing aid back from the mom.  He asked her where the battery pack was.  She didn't know.  She didn't realize that the implant had two parts until that moment.

The search began.  This woman and her husband emptied her purse where the implants were, looked around couches, got down and searched under chairs and around the foam pits.  They found nothing.

Meanwhile, Ammon got home from the party and after excitedly telling me how fun it was, he went about his business.  He mentioned something about needing a battery pack, but I thought he meant his implant battery was about to die.

Then the phone rang. This poor mom asked me if Ammon had said anything about his implant at the party.  I could tell she was a little nervous, then she told me that they had lost the battery pack and had searched all over the place for it, but found nothing.  She felt really bad and responsible. I told her that it was part of the program when you have kids with implants and that we were not mad at them at all.
She said that she had accidentally left the yellow case on the kitchen counter with some other things that she was supposed to take to the party, and had wrapped the implants and hearing aid in a napkin before putting them in her purse.  She didn't realize there were two parts to the implant until Ammon asked about them after the party.  I am sure this was not a fun phone call for her to make.

So, my husband and I drove down to the trampoline place. Kind of like a date where you go searching for implant parts together.  Doesn't everybody do that?  We looked under couch cushions, under chairs, around foam pits and around the dodge ball pit.  We found nothing.  Some of the workers helped us look and they were very nice and helpful.  We left our name and number so they could call us if the battery turned up.

It has been three weeks now, and the battery has not shown up.  I think we may have to admit that the battery has moved on to another place.  That means buying a new battery (several hundred dollars), which we have not yet done.  We have been surviving on disposables hoping the rechargeable one would turn up.

I guess it was bound to happen eventually when you have two kids with implants in the family.  By the way, if you should find this battery pack, we are looking for it.

Movies and Treats

Halloween was on a weekend this year which meant more opportunities to party.  And we partied all day long.  We started out with Ammon's birthday party, which involved a pinata, games and donuts.  Then we headed off to Chance's last soccer game of the season. It was a BEAUTIFUL day to be playing soccer.

As the sun set, we headed over to a friend's house for dinner and then started trick or treating through the neighborhood.  The weather was so nice that it was delightful to be out and about.  The kids ran from door to door saying, "Trick or Treat!"  We saw people we knew on our journey and chatted with folks as we made our rounds around the neighborhood. There was no chilly wind or rain or freezing temperatures this year.  Instead, we could hear crispy leaves blowing down the road,  and enjoy the walk from house to house. Naturally we had our annual theme going on which this year was Hawaiian.  Since Chance studied in Hawaii this past summer, the theme only seemed appropriate.

After the trick or treating, the teenagers in the house had a party.  We had rootbeer with dry ice, chips and salsa and of course candy.  The kids all brought a bag of candy to share. The little kids watched "A Charlie Brown Halloween," while counting their Halloween spoils.  All was going as planned.

But then, Chance and his party downstairs started to watch a movie.  Chance and his deaf friend came upstairs and said they needed captioning.  BUT, Ammon was upstairs using the device that supplied the captioning for his Charlie Brown movie.

We love captioning at our house.

Thankfully the Charlie Brown movie was not long so everyone got a piece of the captioning to make the night complete.