Olivia's 2nd Surgery!!

I found out a few days ago that my daughter Olivia will be receiving her 2nd Cochlear Implant on April 16th, 2007. YAY! I'm UBER-excited!! I have been waiting for clearance through insurance for the past 3, almost 4 years and am happy that it's finally happening!

Olivia has to go and see Dr. Baker at the Hough Ear Institute in OKC for a work up before her surgery and then we will be spending the weekend before her surgery in OKC just traipsing around and doing nothing. Then Monday morning, she will have an early check in and the surgery will take place.

This is a great advancement in technology, when Olivia received her 1st implant, they weren't sure 2 would be available for another 7 to 10 years. Technology is awesome!

For those of you who don't know Olivia's story, Olivia was born profoundly deaf and did not benefit from hearing aid usage. When she was 15 months old, she was implanted with a Cochlear Implant and has been able to hear and speak as a normal child ever since. She is continuing in therapy even now, at nearly 5 years of age and is surpassing all our expectations.

It is shown statistically that Olivia will benefit even more from a 2nd implant by being able to hear from both sides as a normal functioning person can. She will localize even better and hearing up to twice as well. In that ear, she will start off as a newborn baby,(just as she did with the other ear)but should excel more quickly in the usage because of her excellence with the other implant.

I AM SO EXCITED! We are getting 2 brand new updates of the BTE (Behind-the-Ear) processor that she already has. The new version is called HARMONY AURIA HI-RES. and is compatible with normal electronic equipment that we use. Which means that Olivia will be able to talk on a telephone just like you and I do. This also means that she will be able to listen to such electronics as portable MP3 players and CD Players, etc...

Did I mention I'm UBER EXCITED??!!

The picture above is a picture of the new processors Olivia will be receiving when she has her surgery. The only difference is it will not be gold, but silver. It looks pretty much the same as the one she has now, only with the differences I mentioned above.