Memories

Elijah

Elijah and I attended a Cochlear event today in the Dallas area. He wears the Cochlear brand cochlear implant and they sometimes have events in our area. We have not been to an even in several years as it always seemed to fall on a day when we had other plans. We were both very excited to go and it was fun.

We walked in and the first table we went to had all of the Nucleus 6 items, so we walked to it first. I heard the Cochlear employee talking and I thought, "I know that voice." We stood at the table and the woman looked over at me and said, "I know you." I said, "I know you too, Jennifer. Do you remember me and Elijah?" Her jaw dropped as she looked at us and said, "THIS IS ELIJAH". I grinned and said "YES!". She then said, "He is so tall. The last time I saw him he was such a little guy." Jennifer was the audiologist who turned Elijah's first cochlear implant on. She was also there when he got his second implant. She had not seen us in nine years! Seeing her brought back so many memories of his activation and all of the things we did to make sure that Elijah would hear!

We spoke for about 10 minutes and then more people came up and she needed to speak to them. Elijah and I visited several more tables and we got to see the wireless accessories that he can use with this cochlear implant processor. I got to ask lots of questions about which accessory might work best for him. He got his face painted and he also got some balloon animals! They served us lunch and we ate with some very nice people who also had cochlear implants. Of course, everyone thought Elijah was too cute as he ate his chocolate chip cookies and then asked for more!

I got a picture of Elijah with Jennifer later and she and I spoke again for a bit. She showed me how the scan technology works on his implant processor and how to use the remote control with it. It was pretty interesting to hear about the different settings that his processor can use to SCAN the room and change his settings for him to have optimal hearing. He got to meet other adults with implants. There were a few kids there, but most of them were younger than him.

Overall, it made for a very fun day! I got to pick up some "freebies"--Cochlear bag, microphone protectors for his processors, some magnets and some pamphlets! I hope we can go to another one if they have it near us!

Elijah and Jennifer