Cochlear Implants Here We Come!!!!

Briggs in his hospital pj's
Trying to escape before they give me that yucky medicine!

My mommy loves these cute pj's

Right after my scans. I'm a little sleepy but this bottle is yummy!

The anticipation for yesterday's appointment was comparable to your wedding. You worry and worry and stress for months about the big day and HOPE everything will turn out perfect and nothing bad will happen and you feel like the day will never come. Then the BIG day is here and you can't believe it's already here and everything is perfect and turns out the way you had always hoped for and in a flash the day is over. All those months of anticipation and worry and it's all over in a day! I know it seems like I'm making a HUGE deal out of the MRI/CT appointment when we haven't even reached the actual surgery date. I have not even really thought about the surgery until now. Yesterday's appointment was the deciding factor of whether or not Briggs could have cochlear implants and because he had no response to the ABR hearing test and the hearing aid has not benefited him at all (from what we're observing) and he only had 1 sound booth test which only lasted 2 minutes and they didn't even try both sides, I have to admit that I was slightly paranoid that there would not be an auditory nerve. I never said it out loud because I didn't want to jinx myself. We have been through so many appointments for these implants and even chosen the device and I've met many families with kids with C.I.'s and have seen how miraculous they are and I just knew Briggs deserved that same opportunity. I have been SO excited for him to finally hear our voices (which I know will take time for his brain to interpret). So yes, yesterday's appointment was a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE deal for me!!

I got very little sleep the night before which I knew would happen and we headed out of town at 5:40 a.m. Briggs was awake the whole trip and we got to Children's Hospital about 6:40. Of course we pulled in and my tears started. I knew he'd be fine and was in great hands. These types of situations are just difficult for me. So we got to his room and they did all his assessments and he was ready to go by 7:30. There was a patient before him and they were late getting him tot he MRI room so they didn't sedate Briggs until 8:30. He did VERY well with the sedation and the MRI took about 20 minutes and the CT took about 3 minutes. They brought him back up and he slept a little longer and then we woke him up. Nick was on one side of his crib and I was on the other and Briggs opened his eyes a little and reached up and grabbed Nick's face. It was so sweet!! He drank his whole bottle of juice and they monitored his vitals for about an hour and then we were released. We headed over to Boys Town to consult with Dr. Lusk. He first looked at his CT and what he's looking for is his cochlea's and vestibular aduct???? I couldn't remember much of that part but he said his cochlea's look perfect and the vestibular aduct wasn't supposed to be present??? and it wasn't. I could be way off on that but whatever it was supposed to be it was so he said everything looked perfect there. Then he pulled up his MRI and said both auditory nerves were present and looked good! He looked at us and said everything looks great! I wanted to give him a big hug!

We walked out of the hospital and I just started crying. Tears of JOY but also a reflection on everything we've been through these past 9 months AND I was completely physically and mentally exhausted. My parents took us out to eat to celebrate and that a perfect ending to a perfect day!

So I received an email from the cochlear implant audiologist and she said they all heard the great news and the next step is submitting everything to the insurance company. She's thinking that will happen this coming Monday and it'll take about 2 to 3 weeks to hear back from insurance. As soon as they approve we'll schedule the surgery date. Please pray for insurance to approve the surgery the first go around!!

Thank you ALL for the support and prayers! God is amazing and we are SO fortunate to have such a huge support base!! I will continue to update the blog as we move along. Now is when all the exciting posts start!!