"Houston, We Have a Problem!"

Elijah's cousin, Tabbie, is over today for a few hours so they can play. They played some Wii games and now they each sit on the couch with an electronic device. They are chatting and comparing games. I just heard Elijah laugh and say to Tabbie, "Houston, we have a problem!" I now sit here wondering where HE heard that phrase and amazed that he then used it himself and most likely appropriately.

I have written several times about my amazement of hearing Elijah speak and use the vocabulary and grammar structures that he does. I work with hearing impaired kids every day don't hear them use the vocabulary that Elijah does. Just the other day, Elijah was in the bath when he YELLS for me. It sounds like he is in terrible danger! I go in and he says to me, while pointing to some blisters on his heels...."MY SKIN IS DISSOLVING!" He has no processors on so I motion/gesture to him to finish his bath and BLAH basically, don't worry about it. I then turn around and GRIN from ear to ear thinking..."DISSOLVING!" WOW, what a word for him to use!

DEAF children can learn and pick up language incidentally. Even children who rely on sign language can IF their parents sign with them and use language around them all the time. I don't dumb down the language for Elijah. I speak to him like he is a 13 year old, and if I see he doesn't understand I change the way I say it and then say it the original way I said it again. I have done this since he was a baby. THIS IS WORK and it is a LOT OF WORK, but it has paid off!

I look  and listen to Elijah in amazement sometimes, and wonder HOW did we get here, but I know it was all the work we did in the past. We still have work ahead of us, but it is worth it when I hear...."Houston, we have a problem."

I Can Never Forget

Elijah is a deaf pre-teen. I know this deep down in my heart, but the majority of the time I can forget that he is. He wears his cochlear implants and he HEARS and HEARS very well. He can be playing the Wii in the den and hear the beep from the refrigerator door(it beeps when you leave the door open too long). He hears me when I call him from the back of the house and he is in the front of the house.

I live with a deaf-hearing pre-teen. There are times however, that I am reminded that he truly is deaf. When he takes a shower, I have to open the door, FLICK the lights to get his attention and sign for him to GET OUT! He loves to take VERY long showers and he sometimes makes a pretty good mess in there with water on the floor. Other times, he is just making a LOT of noise by banging things in the tub and I sign for him to be quiet!! This isn't too inconvenient and since I have been signing for 22 years, it isn't too big a deal. Other times, he is in bed with his CI processors OFF and he is YELLING for me. There is no great emergency, he just wants me to come back so he can tell me something or show me the cat that has jumped in his bed. Tonight, I had tucked him in and had made it all the way to the den when I hear my name being called. Now, you have to realize, I can't yell, "I'll be there in a minute," because he can't hear me. Sometimes, I do what I need to do and then walk back, but that results in him continuing to yell my name over and over again. Again, I don't really mind, but some days I am just TIRED and want to go and sit! Tonight, it was just me and him home alone. Jacob is off with a friend and my partner is working late. So, he calls me to his room and he asks me when Jacob will be home and I sign to him that he will be home soon. He voices back to me, "Jacob will be home soon" and I sign back YES! He then asks where my partner it and I tell him she is working and coming home. He confirms this by saying, "She will be home soon." I sign back YES. Well, I thought this was very sweet of him. He was worried about his family. I sign to him to go to sleep and that I love him. He told me he loved me. I guess I shouldn't mind having to walk back to talk to him and at least he knows enough sign that we can communicate without having to stop and put his ears(CI processors) on.

Most people don't realize that even a child with cochlear implants is still DEAF when their ears are off. I know my family forgets sometimes, because when we go for a swim without his ears on they just keep talking to him and most of the time he can't see their lips. I sometimes forget that Elijah is deaf, but not for long. I always have my mommy sensors on to keep an eye on him and keep him out of harms way when his ears are off!

Mansions Have Ghosts!

Elijah and I have the house to ourselves this weekend. Jacob is away for two nights on an ROTC field trip and my honey is out of town until Monday! I had a dinner mystery shop, so Elijah and I set off for a 20 minute drive to eat dinner! We had a pretty interesting conversation driving there and then driving back!

Most of the drive is on a two lane road that has a lot of nice homes on it. You can even see a large lake! We discussed some of the homes and other things we saw as we drove there. We had a nice dinner and much of the conversation on the way home was on what we saw. We had seen a three story house and Elijah was looking for it again, because he had never seen a three story house. We saw it again and then we came upon a LARGE house up on a hill. There is even a gated entrance to this house. I pointed it out to Elijah and he said, "that's a mansion!" I was quite impressed he knew that word! I wouldn't say this was a HUGE mansion, but just calling it a house was not appropriate. Plus it sits on top of a hill and has a gated entrance. I told him he was correct, that was a mansion! He then said, "mansions have ghosts!" He laughed as he said it. I asked him why mansions have ghosts and he said, "because they are OLD!" I started laughing at that one! He told me the house was one thousand years old, so then I told him how old I thought the house was and we talked more about houses! I wondered where he might have heard the word mansion and realized it was probably from "Scooby Doo" cartoons and of course, in that cartoon mansions usually did have ghosts!

I still marvel at my son and how well he has done with learning language and using his cochlear implants. Today was a day that I realized how lucky I am that there is this technology out there and good therapists to work with us! I wish parents would realize that implants do work, but there is a LOT of time and effort that must be put in. It is not an easy fix. I look back at all of the therapy sessions we attended when he was first "turned on " and wonder how we did it all. How we drove back and forth to Dallas once a week for me and then David too him once a week. Jacob went with me when I took Elijah and we were after 6:30 getting home most days, after sitting in traffic for at least 90 minutes. All of those sacrifices were worth it though and as I watch Elijah today, I am thankful that we did put all of that time in with him. He is a joy to me, as is Jacob.

Things are not as hard these days. Tourettes, OCD and ADHD seem to get in the way some days, but for the most part things are going well there. He has had good days at school, with some minor issues, but nothing serious. I am glad he and I have had this time and still have time until Jacob comes home tomorrow afternoon/evening!

Visit to the Audiologist last week!

So I took Elijah in to see his audiologist last week, because his right ear processor has been bugging him. I had called Cochlear and they suggested putting it through the dry and store and also changing the mic covers. Did both of those and then changed out his coil. It was still bugging him so Cochlear sent a new refurbished processor and I made an appointment with the audiologist. I also switched him to his back up Freedom processor, his other is a Freedom too, and this one bugged him.

Well, the new one arrived, but it took two days for me to get it from FedEx. Someone at the house has to sign for it, can't go to a neighbor, OR someone with the same last name can pick it up from the distribution center. Well, I asked them to hold it so I could pick it up the next day. I show up and it was on the truck still. UGH! So they called Cochlear and got permission for a family friend to pick it up the next day. We got it on the 16th and after just a day it was bugging him too. Now this is for his right ear which he totally prefers over his left ear. I mean he likes his left ear, but he lets it DANGLE, as I have blogged about before. Well, now it is his right ear dangling or bugging him.

We went to the audiologist on the 22nd and she listened to his right ear with the headphones. Well, it sounded awful she said so we switched to his backup, which I had remembered to bring too, and she said it sounded good. She checked things internally and said it looked like everything was working good. We also checked his left ear and did a hearing test. I have to say he was consistent at 10 dB on all frequencies and even heard at 0 dB for one frequency. It was one of his best hearing test and he really worked hard and paid attention.

I called Cochlear around 9:00 that morning and they said they would send us a new one, but it might be next week before we get it. Yesterday morning, the 23rd, he told me his back up was bugging him AGAIN! We then got his new refurbished processor in the mail and after putting the Skin Its on, I gave it to him. OH and I did listen to it before hand and it sounded good. After just a few hours he told me it was bugging him again! AGHHHHH! What is going on?

I emailed his audiologist last night and explained what has happened since we left. Then this morning I see his right ear blink with coil attached and blink just ONCE and then all was fine. When all this started I saw his original bugging him processor blink a few times and got him some batteries. Coil was on and so I figured it was batteries. I returned to find it not blinking and he said it was on, but bugging him. Hmmmmm! What does that mean? Could it be something intermittent and when we went in, all was fine and everything was working.

I asked his audiologist if someone from Cochlear could come in and test the internal part of his implant. I also emailed an audiologist I know from Cochlear to see what she thinks. She used to be Elijah's audiologist before she went to work at Cochlear and we have known her a long time. I know I won't hear anything until later next week, but I feel better just sending the email.

Have any of y'all heard of someone else having this issue? I'll keep you all posted and hope we can get to the bottom of this.

Merry Christmas!

Learning to Listen

I am not talking about Elijah and his "ears" today. The person who has had to learn to listen in the last few months has been me. One thing I have had to learn about myself is that sometimes I am so busy trying to say what I need to say that I don't listen well enough. Sometimes LESS is MORE when you are trying to get your point across. This is somethings I have known for a long time and something I have really had to work on in the last few months. I have OCD myself and I don't know if it is that or just my personality, but sometimes I just NEED to shut my mouth and listen.

I also think I have become more aware of it now that I am the director of the deaf ed. program that I work in. I am the boss now, and I have to set the example of how to listen and how to jump in and help out. Sometimes even if you are right about something, you can lose the battle because of how you present your case.

I think this is something about myself that I will always need to be aware of and continue to work on. It has gotten easier to tell myself to "be quiet", but there are times when I think my OCD kicks in and I just can't shut up no matter how hard I try. Those are the times I really have got to see myself and just shut up. I guess I am on the right track....acknowledging the problem is the first step, right?