Well we had another round of appointments at Boys Town last Wednesday. We started out with audiology where they tested him in the sound booth. To us it seemed like a waste of time (which of course I never said out loud) but apparently the audiologist thought the same thing because she kept reiterating that doing this test wasn't a waste of time because it's getting him familiar with the sound booth room and the "game" they're trying to teach him. Those of you who have a child with hearing loss know exactly what I'm talking about but those of you who do not... well here is an explanation...Once a child is of appropriate age (6 months and older) the audiologist likes to do a sound booth test. This test can see if a child responds to sounds louder than 90db (however the child has to understand the "game" and 6 months old is the youngest they try this). Nick held Briggs on his lap and an audiologist sat in front of him and another one was outside the room talking into a microphone. Anytime the audiologist says something the other one sitting in front of Briggs would point towards a light that was flashing off to his side. So once the baby learns the "game" they would look at the blinking light when they hear a sound - if they hear a sound. The audiologist said to us before we started that this first time is just getting him used to the booth and training his brain to look at the light when he hears a sound but she would be VERY surprised if he actually responded. Well they tried for about 2 or 3 minutes is all and then he was ready to get down and play and they were done. They also only tried it with the hearing aid in his left ear (we only have 1 hearing aid and we switch it from one ear to the other every other week). She said she would like to repeat it a few more times but they may never see a response. She said he's just too young and since he'll be implanted at 10 months he may not pick up on the game. Of course I asked the purpose of doing this and she said they like to have documented whether or not he responds to any sound before implanting since the implants take away any residual hearing that may be there. We do not have another sound booth appointment scheduled at this time.
Then we moved on to the speech/language evaluation appointment and this appointment was a requirement for Briggs implants. It was basically a talking session with a speech pathologist since Briggs isn't implanted and he's so young. She asked us if he is vocalizing and watched him play and that sort of thing. She said we will do this every 6 months for the next 3 years and then 1 time a year for a few years after that. She'll work with LPS and they'll set goals for him etc.
Then we saw Dr. Lusk (Briggs E.N.T. and surgeon for the cochlear implants). He checks him every 2 months to be sure there is no fluid in the ears and everything looks great. We talked to him some more about the surgery and Briggs ears looked great so that was good news!
Our 4th and final appointment was the most exciting... it was another device orientation and Nick and I chose a device for Briggs!!! I know it doesn't seem like that big of a deal but it's a VERY BIG deal and I've been doing so much research on the devices and it was great to get all our questions answered and agree on a device.
Our next round will be in 2 months (first week in February). Briggs will be 9 months old and he'll have an MRI and CT at Children's Hospital and then we'll head over to Boys Town to meet with Dr. Lusk and go over the MRI and CT results. If everything checks out fine with the MRI and CT then all paperwork will be sent to insurance and we'll patiently (yeah right) await approval (fingers crossed and lots of praying)!!! The approval process will take about a month and if they approve then his surgery will take place right away the first week of March. From what I understand though, if insurance denies you have to wait a certain amount of time before pre-authing again??? C.I. moms, correct me if I'm wrong please... I'm sure all insurance companies are different. We have Blue Cross Blue Shield and from what I hear they approve the surgery.
Until next time...
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