The pull of the implants...

Hee hee hee. The games have begun again as a new baby in our home is fascinated by Chance's implants. They hold such an allure. They are rare, since not all people have them, they are right in your face when Chance leans in for a kiss, and they blink red. What is not to love?!

Chance takes this with his usual good humor. He adores his baby sister and she loves him too. The implants are just another reason to love Chance :)

Chance does the Grand Canyon

Chance hiked down to Havasupai Falls at the bottom of the Grand Canyon with his dad, brother, uncle and 3 cousins. He loved it.

The trip required lots of preparation as the guys had to pack in all of their food, bedding, clothes, lighting(it gets dark at about 6:00 p.m), and M&M's. There are no campfires allowed so the boys had to plan for their cooking needs as well.

Once we got home, I received a postcard that the boys had sent to me from the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Chance wrote,"Mom, I'm having fun. We hiked into the city. I didn't die so far. The canyon is cool. We saw a wall of rocks. Chance"

It was nice to be reminded once at home that Chance did not die on the journey. The 7 hour hike to get to the actual camp ground must have made Chance wonder if he would be able to go on :)
The kids spent much of their days swimming in pools of water or jumping through waterfalls. This of course meant that Chance did not have his implants on during those times. He apparently wore the implants right up until the time he got into the water. Chance's dad said that he got hoarse calling out to the kids over the roar of the waterfalls (imagine the sound of 450 gallons per second hitting a pool of water after a 100 or 200 foot drop). Chance must have just blissfully floated along, enjoying the scenery not hearing any calling or distractions (although he does say that he could hear the waterfall - as a whisper of course - without his implants on). Chance swam well so the extra swimming lessons this summer apparently payed off.

Chance had a marvelous time and made memories that will last a lifetime.

Walkie Talkies

Chance entered the living room engrossed in a conversation he was having with himself....at least that is what I thought when he first walked in. His head was pinched to one side and then I heard another voice coming from right where Chance was standing.

Chance had a walkie talkie and was communicating with a friend that was somewhere outside of the house. This intrigued me as I was curious as to how well Chance was hearing through a walkie talkie. My experience with walkie talkies has been one of strained hearing and muffled voices. At least if you are using the kid ones and the person is more than about 10 feet away.
I soon realized though, that Chance was hearing what was being said. He was making plans about where to meet his friend after he got a snack to share.

Wow. I never thought my little deaf son would be doing the oh so typical boy activity of talking on a walkie talkie! It was good see Chance just talking about boy things and making plans with his friends. It was even better to realize that Chance was hearing what was being said on his end of the walkie talkie.

I really like Chance's implants.

Chance needs quiet!

Chance loves math. This is the boy who would divide his M&M candies into colored piles before he would eat them when he was just tiny. This is the same boy who had a healthy competition going with a girl in his class as they competed to have the most 100 charts filled out in school.

Chance loves math and it is serious business when he is working out a math problem. Today as he sat at the table with his siblings doing math, he kept getting frustrated when anyone would make any noise as he figured out sums in his head.

"I HATE having to count over!" He bristled after someone had made noises.

Chance's siblings were actually not that loud. They were doing math themselves, but if they scrapped their chair on the floor, or made a comment to me, Chance would raise his head in frustration and say,"Shhhhhhhh!"

The math Chance is working on is adding large sums in his head and he is enjoying it, but he apparently wants complete peace and quiet while he is working:)

After a few minutes of Chance getting frustrated every time anyone made any noise, I unceremoniously took his implants off of his head and lay them on the table.

Chance looked confused for a moment and then he smiled, laughed and contentedly went back to his figuring.

"I wish I could do that." Chance's brother said looking enviously at Chance who was now totally engrossed in his math with out any distractions.

"Me too." Chance's sister chimed in.

I must add that I too wish that sometimes I could just shut the world off when the world got a little too loud or annoying.

Scary stories

Chance has entered that childhood milestone of being part of groups of kids as they tell each other ghost stories. The thing about these stories is, they always scare the wits out of the kids it's just that the kids are all too proud to say so.

This summer through a sleepover at grandmas with cousins and late nighters due to summer break, Chance has been introduced to the phenomenon of ghost stories. The set up is almost always the same.....a group of kids sitting around trying to tell the story that will scare the others(all the while giving themselves a good scare in the process).

It appears that Chance is hearing the details of these stories just fine. He asked me while we were at his grandparents house if I thought someone was going to try to kill them while they slept. Apparently, the stories were a little too grizzley so the next time the kids were telling ghost stories Chance's dad sat close to the hut reading so that he could hear exactly what stories were being told.

Not only can Chance hear what is going on around him, he is getting the details of stories that other kids tell him as well. Now, if we can just get on another theme besides death and carnage.....

Chance is on the map

Chance had his implants mapped this week. This has become a family affair as Chance's audiologist moved about 2 and a half hours from our house and since we would be lost with out him, we drive the distance. The whole family comes and we make it a day.

We learned on this trip that none of us should leave our clothes in the hotel bathroom, as Chance does not hear anything when he takes his implants off to shower. His sister had left her clothes to change into on the counter in the bathroom and Chance went into shower. We banged on the door, and rattled the doorknob, but Chance blissfully spent his time in the bathroom in peace and quiet. His sister just had to wait until Chance was good and done and had put his implants back on.

This mapping, our audiologist said that the sentences he usually gives to test what Chance has been hearing have become too easy so he gave Chance the test he usually gives to adults with cochlear implants.

The adult test did test Chance's abilities and made him work for it. He did really well though I think he may have gotten a little bit of an education with some of the sentences he was supposed to repeat. Things like, "How long has this been going on?" Chance heard, "I wonder what's going on."

Then there was also a sentence that said,"You should be used to taking money from women." Chance could repeat that one, though I think it is a good thing that he looked confused as to the exact meaning of this particular sentence.

Chance did really well in the audiological booth. On the word test where adults usually score in the 50 to 60% correct range, Chance scored 56% in his right ear and 54% in his left ear. The audiologist was very excited about this. With both implants, Chance scored 80%. We just love 80% on an adult test!

Chance even scored in the 10db range a few times. This means he is hearing really well. We are excited with the results of the tests and find that they match what we are finding at home. Chance is hearing very well with his bilateral implants and continues to astound us with his abilities.

Ok then, why didn't I hear you then?

Most mornings at our house find children with jobs to do and rooms to clean. On this particular morning, as Chance was heading back to his bedroom, I asked him to please take the matchbox car that was on the floor in the living room and put it away in his room.

To make sure that Chance heard me, I repeated my request and he even looked at me and nodded.

Half an hour later, while passing through the living room, I noticed that the matchbox car was still laying exactly as it had been all morning so I called out to Chance to come see me.

"Chance, I asked you to put this car away half an hour ago. Someone is going to step on it and get hurt."

With great conviction, Chance explained that I had NOT told him to pick up the car and take it back to his room.

I assured him that I had indeed asked him to put the car away.

Then Chance, with his head bent and his voice full of exasperation asked, "Why did I not hear you then?! "

Where to start with this question. It obviously did not occur to Chance that he would not have heard me. The problem was mine. I wanted to laugh, but Chance was so earnest and serious.

Honestly, I think that this moment had less to do with Chance's hearing loss than his being a typical 9 year old boy who gets distracted as his mother is talking to him sometimes.

Apparently, for future record though, if Chance does not hear me, it is my doing. Not his :)

Riding the 'Wican'

We pulled into the parking lot of the amusement park and Chance bounced out of the car ready to take on the rides.

"I'm going on the wican!" Chance declared, referring to one of the rides he had heard his brother talking about.

"Where is it?" He wanted to know as he scanned the park from our parking spot.

"Do you want to go on the wican?" Chance asked some friends who were with us. They didn't hear him so they did not catch his mistake.

"It's called Wicked", I explained to Chance. I could just imagine Chance in the amusement park asking about riding the Wican.

With a name like Wicked, you have to know that the ride will pack a punch. Chance has always loved these thrill rides. His dad and I went on the ride with him and his little sister who also appears to be an adrenaline junky.

You start out in a tunnel where you load, then the ride slowly takes you out of the tunnel and then shoots you up to a peak, where you immediately hurtle back down towards the earth, all the while watching the earth come at you since you are face down. It was a thrill. Chance hears nothing this whole time just thrusting and what he can see. No thrill screams from the people ahead. No WHOOSH of the cars as they sail over the tracks.

We eagerly watched the kids' expressions to see what they would think. They loved it. Both of them wanted to know if we could go again. The line was quite long by this time so we told them we would come back later.

We take Chance's implants off for the rides since we don't want to know what happens to them when Chance is hurtling around at 60 m.p.h.

How much more attuned must your other senses be on a roller coaster when you are not hearing anything?! Whatever the feeling is, Chance seems to really like it")

During our ride on another roller coaster as we were climbing up to the top so that we could Swoosh down again, a voice came over the speaker reminding everyone to keep their head back against the seat. I looked over at Chance as we started to descend and realized that his head was not against the seat and he was getting ready to hold his arms up in the air as we went down. The voice that told us to hold our heads against the seat, also told us not to do that. Since Chance could not hear me, I motioned to him to put his arms down and pushed his head against the seat. This meant that when we descended, my head was not against the seat until late in the turn. It was a little uncomfy and my head got whipped around a bit, but I recovered soon enough and was glad that I had made Chance understand what he needed to do. This discussion about our heads being against the seat and not holding our arms up in the air as we descend might be better had BEFORE we actually are zooming down the tracks. I'm just thinking.

Chance had a great time and I was amazed to see how much he got while talking without implants to one of the boys. I was on a ride behind Chance and his friend, and Chance nodded as his friend gestured and looked at him while he talked. After the ride, his friend was telling Chance what rides they still needed to ride and Chance understood all but the part where he was told which ride was next. So his friend dashed off and Chance turned to me and said,"Where do I go?"

All in all it was great day. Chance loves to hurtle through the air. If only Chance and I could trade places for one ride....I could ride in silence and see what that is like, and he could see what it is like to hear the screaming of other riders and the sounds the ride makes as it zips around the tracks.

Chance feels the music

Chance has been taking swimming lessons first thing in the morning so he usually just grabs his implants and doesn't put them on until he needs to hear instructions from his swimming teacher.

Today as we drove, Chance suddenly said,"Is that music? I feel music!"

From what I could see in the rear view mirror, Chance was even swaying a little to the music he felt.

Sometimes, I would like to be inside of Chance's world and feel what he feels for a moment.

Once Chance was at his private swimming lessons, I had to remind him that even though he could not hear his teacher, his teacher could hear him. I think Chance is so used to being in a class with several other kids, that he isn't used to so much attention from the teacher.

I would hear Chance say, "What?" when his teacher said something that he did not get a good lip read on, but Chance seemed to forget that even though he could not hear his teacher, his teacher could hear him.

I was again amazed at just how good Chance is at reading lips. His teacher was in the water with Chance swimming or walking along beside him and was really good at getting Chance's attention and putting himself in Chance's view so that they could communicate with speaking and lip reading. The teacher would also motion or use signals so that Chance would know what was going on.

It was a very positive experience. Chance worked harder than he ever had before during swim class. The class was tailor made for Chance's level and endurance and that is just what we need.

Chance plays checkers, and makes a satchel and a corn husk doll...

Today we went to Colonial Days which is a little replica of how a town would have been in colonial times. It was great fun. There were colonial games to play, satchels full of lavender to sew and crickets to eat. Yes, the Indians really did eat crickets and you could try them if you wanted. Chance did not want to try them. He did try his hand at several of the activities though.

Chance carefully sewed up the sides of a satchel and then filled it with lavender for me. Now all my clothes can smell good. He also made a corn husk doll for his baby sister. All of these activities were done in groups with someone dressed in colonial clothes giving out instructions. AND CHANCE COULD HEAR THEM! He sat in the groups and just listened like any other child. I never cease to be amazed at what he can hear....or that he can hear at all, let as well join a group of strangers making corn husk dolls and hear the instructions well enough to make one.

Chance also sat down at a table where a checker board was laid out and asked the boy his age sitting there if he wanted to play a game of checkers. I absolutely love to see Chance have the confidence to engage in these situations. The implants have just helped Chance to blossom and interact with people wherever he finds himself. He was extra social today and not timid about engaging people he didn't know in conversations whether it was to play checkers or ask a question about how to do a craft. Does Chance have to pay more attention then someone who hears without implants? Absolutely. Does he pick up some of what is going on by watching his surroundings? Sure. But he can hear and can participate in situations that he just walks into and is not familiar with. He has the capacity and the confidence to hear.

Chance even played a game of checkers with one of the adult volunteers who was all decked out in colonial attire.

Chance's confidence has really taken off since he has had the implants. Gone are the days when he is afraid that someone won't understand him or that he won't understand them. I used to ache when I saw him trying to communicate with people and they either didn't understand him, or he didn't understand them. I could see that his confidence was affected and that he was holding back because he didn't understand what was being said.

I look at where we are now 3 years into having him implanted and realize that getting Chance the implants has turned out even better than we dared to dream.