Briggs Hearing Update

Yesterday we met and had our first meeting with the LPS (Lincoln Public Schools) team who will be working with Briggs and it went really well! I didn't cry!!! There will be a Speech Pathologist and an LPS teacher who works specifically with children who have hearing loss coming to our house every other week to work with Briggs and Nick and I. The teacher walked in and went right up to Briggs and started talking and signing to him and I do have to say that at that moment everything kind of hit home for me. That is the first time anyone has signed to him - well I think Nick has a little too but I haven't seen that. I really don't know how to explain my feelings. It almost is a surreal time for me. I guess the hardest part for me is all the unknowns. I almost feel helpless for him (which bothers me so much) because we really have no idea what is best for him or what we should be doing and in a situation like this we want to do the best for him. We have ALL these appointments and I never know what to expect so I'm very nervous before them. I'm also emotional when it comes to stuff like this so I usually cry when we have new appointments. I'm so glad Nick is always there. Anyway... the home visits with the Speech Pathologist and Teacher will increase as he gets older but for now there isn't a whole lot we can do - play peek a boo, use a lot of facial expressions, ect. One thing we REALLY have to work on is keeping his hearing aid in for longer periods of time. The minute we put it in it falls out and he loves to pull on his ears so he pulls it out and his little ears don't hold it well. Keeping it in isn't the easiest BUT we are just going to have to get used to putting it back in. The audiologist yesterday explained it as the more hours he wears it the more the auditory nerve will be stimulated, and the more we'll be able to tell if he's responding to certain sounds. Basically how I understood it was, if you lift a 10lb. weight twice a day you won't get good results but if you lift it 50 times a day you'll see results. I want to say how thankful Nick and I for all the resources that are available to us. So far LPS has been absolutely wonderful and we are so fortunate to have these services for Briggs! You feel so lost with no direction and I felt so relieved and not alone after yesterdays appointment. They have families who we can get in touch with who are going through the same thing and I'm excited for that. So what's to come... next Wednesday, August 27th we spend the day at Boys Town where we have 2 appointments for his implants, an appointment with the doctor, and then with the audiologist. Monday, September 8th we have his 4 month check up. Tuesday, September 9th the LPS team comes to our house for the first "teaching" visit and Wednesday, September 10th we go back to Boys Town for the genetics clinic. I'll keep everyone updated!!