Surgery #2 Update and Elli Pre-School Visit

I will post pictures tomorrow. I forget my camera!
Surgery #2 was not a success. I was SO much more emotional before this surgery and realized that for me, not knowing what to expect, is better than, knowing what to expect. Briggs was great!! He was so smiley and went away with the anesthesiologist with no problem and he recovered SO much better than the first surgery (they started feeding him in the recovery room, which made a world of difference). He had his first smile only a few hours after surgery this time around. The hard part is when they take him away and I have no control. I feel like I'm going to throw up the entire time he is gone and I just want him back, in my arms, knowing he is safe.
Dr. Lusk was 95% done with the operation and was drilling the hole in the mastoid when he found fluid. Briggs has never had an ear infection. He had no symptoms of one either, no fever, no tugging at his ears, sleeping through the night, no problems eating. Dr. Lusk always looks in the ear before starting the operation and he saw no fluid (although he doesn't have the high tech equipment to see really, really deep in the O.R.). Dr. Lusk has done over 500 implants and this is only the 2nd time this has happened to him. He called a doctor in Florida to consult and the doctor in Florida agreed that it was not wise to place the implant. You never want to put an implant in when there is fluid present. If the fluid is in fact an infection then that infection would never go away with all the antibiotics, it would take over his implant and we'd eventually have to remove it, get rid of the infection and re-implant about 6 months later. Although I'm DREADING another surgery, this was the best for Briggs. Dr. Lusk did place a tube to drain that fluid and we have him on an ear drop and antibiotic.
So Briggs basically went through a 4 hour operation for nothing. Briggs did have a bad cold a few weeks ago but it had definitely subsided a good week before his operation.
So we go back Tuesday, May 19th for surgery #3 to place the left implant. The good news, Dr. Lusk has most of the operation completed so it won't the full 4 hours. It should be more like 2 hours. We see him next week for his post-op and then we'll go back the week before surgery to check the fluid.
Please pray the fluid goes away and Briggs can have the implant and we can be done with surgery once and for all!!
Dr. Lusk does surgery every Monday and he has a C.I. surgery scheduled every Monday until July!! That blew my mind.

Now on to Elli... Elli is turning 4 in May and she will be starting pre-school this fall. Elli is going to be a hearing peer model for the hearing impaired pre-school kids at Prescott Elementary. Prescott has a hearing impaired pre-school program which starts at age 3 and that is where Briggs will go when he is 3 and 4 and he should be with his normal hearing peers by age 5 and ready to start main stream kindergarten at the elematery school in our neighborhood. So yesterday we took Elli there, and Nick and I observed a class. The school is on the other side of town for us so we wanted to be sure it would be the right fit for Elli. We think it's the perfect scenerio b/c she will be in a class with all kids who have C.I.'s or hearing aids which will give her exposure to other kids with hearing impairment. It will give Nick and I a feel of what the program Briggs will be in when he turns 3. Elli did AWESOME!! She LOVED it and she fit right in and played with all the kids. It was so neat to see other kids with C.I.'s and watch them talk the ears off of the teachers. Literally the teacher had to keep telling them it was not their turn to talk. One little boy was being pretty onery and he purposely slide off his chair and was looking at the floor and the teacher said, Isaac, you need to sit in your chair and pay attention. He said, I know I'm trying. Other than seeing the C.I.'s and hearing aids, you would have no idea any of these kids had hearing impairment! I was very amazed at how organized the class and the kids were and Elli couldn't wait to go back. We're so fortunate to have a program like this available to us!

We go back next Wednesday for Briggs post-op and they'll do more sound booth testing on his implanted ear. It's also his 1st birthday next Wednesday!! I cannot believe he is almost 1!!

Surgery #2

Surgery #2 (left ear implant) is scheduled for this Monday, April 27th. We have his pre-op with his pediatrician today and hopefully she gives him the okay. He's been battling a cold and it's gone but he has this random, lingering cough. It should be fine but that is the only concern at this time. I just want this surgery over with!! Then surgery will be completely behind us and Briggs will be bilateral and we won't have this surgery stress anymore!! We would greatly appreciate the prayers during this time!! Pray the surgeon will have steady hands and Briggs will stay healthy. Pray surgery will go as perfect as the 1st one!! Pray he'll be protected and pray he'll have a very fast recovery! We've been so busy with his first activation that this surgery has sort-of slipped my mind. But now we're here and we have to face it. Like I said, I just want it over with!!! Thank you SO much for your prayers!

3 weeks Post Activation Update

Briggs has been activated for 3 weeks already! The time has gone quickly.

Things Briggs is doing...

* He is definitely hearing and responding to sounds in many different ways.

* He is babbling A LOT more than he ever used to.

* We are working on "verbalizing" the action and seeing if he does it w/out "seeing" the action. Yesterday our speech pathologist was leaving after his teaching visit and I was telling him to wave "bye-bye" (w/out showing him how we wave). I kept saying it and he started waving to her! That was exciting.
* I posted that he did this in a previous post but again yesterday Beth heard him say "uh oh" when the pillow fell off the couch. It wasn't completely crisp like when we say it but it definitely sounded like uh oh.

My Sisters!

Raynah, Maria, Melissa and I

Myself and Melissa (Bride-to-Be)

This past weekend we had a bachelorette party for my friend Melissa. It was SO great and relaxing!! We stayed in a nice hotel in the Old Market. We went out to dinner and had some drinks and talked for hours. Melissa, Raynah, Maria and I have been friends for over 15 years. As a group we have been through a lot and are SO fortunate to have each other. Raynah, Maria and I are all married with a total of 9 kiddos between the 3 of us. Melissa will be adding to that number sometime in the future. Maria will be celebrating her 10th wedding anniversary this summer and Raynah will be celebrating her 9th!

I LOVE these girls! They are my best friends... they are my sisters!!

1st Pre-Op for Surgery #2 and Sound Booth Testing

We had Briggs pre-op for his left ear C.I. surgery yesterday. It was a very fast appt. b/c we just went through this so it was pretty cut and dry. Briggs ears look fantastic with no fluid and as long as he stays healthy we're right on track for his surgery to occur April 27th. I just want it over with!!! Please pray that Briggs will stay healthy!!!! I had the "put Briggs in a bubble for the next 2 weeks" talk with our daycare provider this morning. :-) She is probably so tired of me giving her that speech but I don't want to have to reschedule this surgery and he's been getting all these minor, random viruses lately. So he and I had a talk the other day and he agreed to stay healthy from here on until after his surgery.
After his pre-op we headed to the C.I. building for more testing. They moved his 3rd map (which was technically the 5th they've given him) to the 1st and set him up with 2 new ones. They feel very confident that we are very close to where we need to be so that was reassuring. Yesterday in the sound booth he consistently responded up to 40 decibels, which is a very soft speaking level (whispering is 20 decibels). It was truly amazing to see him consistently respond to sound! We're still trying to find the right "map" or volume for him so we'll probably move to the 2nd map in the next couple days to try it out and see if he's comfortable. We go back on his birthday (May 6th) for his left ear activation and at that time they'll do sound booth testing on his right ear again to make sure we're on track with his maps.
Then we headed back to Lincoln for his teaching visit. We learned some great new activities to do with him and we're excited to start those. Usually he's all about playing and has a very good attention span but yesterday he was not to into it. He had too many appts.

Happy Easter! and other misc.

Easter Morning
Easter Morning
Easter Morning

Easter Morning

Saturday at Grandpa and Grandma's House

Saturday at Grandpa and Grandma's House

Easter Egg Hunt w/ my cousins Kaylei and Shawn

Easter Egg Hunt at Grandpa and Grandma's

Trying to get ahold of the Easter Bunny

The Easter Bunny came!

Easter Egg Hunt and Grandpa and Grandma's

Briggs Easter Basket

Decorating Easter Cookies the weekend before Easter

This is what I was doing while my sister and mommy were dying eggs!

Elli dying Easter Eggs when she was sick with Influenza

Elli and her eggs while she was sick

We had a great Easter!! Friday morning Briggs had the stomach flu but it was a very mild case and it only lasted 24 hours. Saturday was the family trip to the Omaha Zoo. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time. However, I left my camera in the car! Luckily, my mom had her's but we didn't realize it until half way through. I have no pictures to post on the zoo outing. After the zoo we went back to my parents and grilled hamburgers and the kids did an Easter egg hunt. We just relaxed and enjoyed the nice weather.

Sunday morning Elli woke up and went to the living room to see what the Easter Bunny left and did her Easter egg hunt at home before we went to church. She was SO excited and it's always priceless to see the look on your kids' faces during times like these. Elli colored a Cinderella picture for the Easter bunny and she made me write him a note that said,

"Dear Easter Bunny- Please do not take my picture home. Please don't touch it and just leave it on the living room rug. Please just look at it. Happy Easter!"

It was addorable!!

We were so rushed that I was able to get pictures of the kids separately but not together. I may have to dress them up again so I have a picture of their 1st Easter together. After church we went out to breakfast. The rest of the day I did stuff around the house and went over to my brother and sister-in-laws with the kids to hang out. It was a good day!

Briggs woke up this morning at 1:45 and I made him a bottle and when I went to get him out of his crib he was on fire. GREAT!! I hoped that it was just from him being all snuggled up but no such luck. He was pretty much up all night. He is home with dad and has an appt. today at 1:30. Hopefully it's a virus and I'm pretty confident it is but please pray it is just a virus b/c if he has to be put on an antibiotic then surgery will be postponed and we don't want that! I'm just SO ready for my kids to be healthy! Luckily, they are both rarely sick and when they are it's always a very mild case but it still is no fun for any of us and it just seems like they both have had these little bugs lately! I have missed SO much work between all of Briggs ear appts. and surgery and them being sick. I'll be happy when the illnesses clear and his surgery is over with!

Tomorrow we have a pre-op with Briggs surgeon. His 2nd surgery is only 2 weeks away and hopefully he can stay healthy! We also have more C.I. testing done so I'm excited for that. Then we come home and have a teaching visit. Tomorrow will be a busy day!

1st Post-Activation Teaching Visit

We had Briggs 1st post-activation teaching visit on Tuesday. It was exciting to start learning what we need to do with him. We learned a fun game with homemade shakers and he loved that game. He's definitely showing responses to certain things but I don't feel they're super consistent. With that being said, we don't know if his response is actually to the sound or just because. We think it's a combination of both. Briggs is a pretty vocal little guy so he's going to be harder to read. We're only a week into it though and all of this takes A LOT of patience. Plus he's on his 6th map already. The good news with that... we knew after 24 hours that the 1st three they set him up with (which were at the quietest levels) weren't loud enough for him so they moved his 3rd (which is the one he showed response to during his 2nd activation appt. ) to the 1st and set him up with 2 more. Now he's on that 3rd one. He's shown response to the last 4 maps but we keep moving up to test the waters and he isn't uncomfortable with any of them. We go back on Tues. to report what we've observed. I have a lot of questions because this whole map thing is SO confusing to me! I get it, I just don't get it... I know that makes no sense to those reading this but it makes sense to me. :-) I'm also interested to see what he's responding to and get the "professionals" opinion. At this point and always we have to trust the professionals and they are happy with where he is 1 week post activation. We will essentially have 3 to 4 teaching visits every week for Briggs. Two at our house and one to two at daycare. It's going to be a very busy couple years. :-)
Next week is also his pre-op for his 2nd surgery. I'm not looking forward to surgery but also excited to get it over with!
I haven't posted anything on Elli for quite some time. I HOPE to remember my camera tomorrow to put her Easter cookie decorating and Easter egg dying pictures up. She is the best little girl!! She's SO good to Briggs and such a mature, good girl! We are so lucky to have such great kids.