We wish YOU a Happy New Year!

What a year it has been! That Lola sure has taken us on an adventure! Thanks to all our friends and family and all our blog readers for their support over the year. Thanks to the amazing scientists for creating the cochlear implant. Thanks to Dr. Severtson, the surgeon, for being a perfectionist. Thanks to Dr. Windmill, our audiologist, for always making us feel like we're her only appointment for the day - very rare in doctors these days! Thanks to Paula, our teacher from LDOS - we will miss you when Lola starts playgroup! Thanks to everyone we've worked with through First Steps; it is such an amazing program and we are so grateful that it exists. Lola continues to amaze us constantly, and I am confident that the upcoming year we will see incredible strides. Stay tuned! Bonne année et bonne santé!

Derrick, Susan & Lola

Shhh and Sounds

We've been playing a game lately where we put our finger to our lips and make the shhh sound. Last week we were driving in the car, and I was sitting directly in front of Lola and our friend Lisa was sitting beside her in the back. I read a sign that said "Shhhhh" and Lisa reported that Lola immediately did the "sign" for it; that means that she heard the sound and knew what it meant without seeing me!

She's been making lots of sounds too. She does a "mama" and we've even heard a meow. She does make approximations of up, hi, hot, quack and arf. Over Thanksgiving weekend, she started doing "ba ba ba" sounds. She's also really imitating the sounds of speech. It's just amazing how fast she is picking things up, and even our teachers agree with us that she probably did hear for awhile before she somehow lost her hearing.

Daddy's Girl

Lola loves a good scary book! We've been reading Dinosaur Day by Liza Donnelly for weeks, and her favorite part is when the dinosaur (we call it a monster because it is a "monstersaurus" in the book) jumps out of the snow and chases the little boy and his dog. This book is how she knows the signs for "monster" and "scared." The first 10 or so times we read it, she really jumped at this part and grabbed onto our arms. As soon as the book was over, she would grab your hand and have you read it again. Anytime someone new was around at bedtime, they also had to read it. Aunt Dole read it to her, and Uncle Jeff did an inspired version with many many new sounds. We do read it less now, but she still loves the scary part!

She also loves pickles! Derrick says that she had a mouthful of cheese the other day at lunch and she spit it all out as soon as he brought out the jar of pickles. When they bought pickles at the store, she hugged the jar and didn't want to let it go.

But what about me? Well it does seem mother and daughter both have a sensitive scalp, as we make the same face when the Christmas Tingler approaches!

Lola's Signs

1. cheese
   
2. more
   
3. milk
   
4. Lola
   
5. duck
   
6. bird
   
7. dog
   
8. cat
   
9. where
   
10. shoe
    
11. toast
    
12. hear
    
13. fan
14. thank you
    
15. rabbit
    
16. eat
17. noodle
    
18. hi
    
19. water
    
20. bath
    
21. book
    
22. hot
    
23. train
    
24. pig
    
25. sheep
    
26. light
    
27. Daddy
    
28. Mommy
    
29. Wilson
    
30. cracker
    
31. cow
    
32. witch
    
33. tomato
    
34. want
    
35. ball
    
36. mouse
    
37. monster
    
38. fish
    
39. pear
    
40. up
    
41. smart
    
42. all done/finished
    
43. cold
    
44. Knuffle Puppy
    
45. cookie
46. airplane
47. scared
48. brush teeth
49. water
50. banana
51. apple
    
52. light
53. stars
54. bed
55. lion
56. spider
57. hungry
58. snow
59. airplane
60. pickle
61. monkey
62. ice cream
63. on
64. balloon
65. phone
66. bear
    

Vacation, Signs & (Almost) Walking

We went on a vacation at the beginning of the month, traveling to Athens GA, Atlanta, and Asheville NC. We had a lovely trip and Lola was able to add 4 new states to her map!*

*Fun activity for all ages! Color the states that you have visited. You can print out a map here. We color the states we've lived in one color and the states we've visted another color.

We still read Knuffle Bunny every night, and she has taken a liking to a little stuffed puppy that's name is now Knuffle Puppy. She can even do his sign name - very cute! We also read Piggies every night, and she does many of the hand gestures along with the book, including the signs for hot and cold. She does do the cutest "cold" sign that you will ever see. She loves for us to sing Itsy Bitsy Spider and sometimes does the motions with us, especially "wash the spider out." She is fascinated that other people know this song, and on our vacation was very impressed with our waitress Halloween night in Asheville - not only was she dressed as a fairy and let Lola play with her wand, but she knew the Itsy Bitsy Spider! When she walked past our table, Lola looked at her and did "spider." Cute.

We had another appointment with Dr. Windmill last week to get turned up again. This visit started with a stop in the testing booth. This was our third time in the booth. They play sounds out of different speakers, and she is expected to turn her head towards the sound. This was the first hearing test we had when she was 14 months old, and of course she didn't turn her head at all. They tested her again with her hearing aids, and again she didn't turn her heard at all, not even once. So this time, even though she was a bit cranky from a cold, she did so great! It was wonderful to see her turn her head to the sound almost everytime. Her new audiogram is very impressive for being turned on for under 2 months. It's all so amazingly promising.

She is making a lot more sounds now too. We were told that it would take awhile before she would start speaking - just think of a new baby, they have to have a lot of sound come in before they ever make words. But she is making more sounds and more word-like sounds. She does a close "quack, quack, quack" and an "up, up, up" - mainly the vowel sound, but she's definitely getting there. We still sign, but we try to say the words first to emphasize her oral development. She is picking up signs so fast right now! She is up to 40 signs with new ones all the time -- here is a list of her current signs.

Her balance is also getting much better too. It won't be long now!

Thanks for keeping up on Lola! I know we'll continue to have lots more news to share!

Microphone Lollipops

Lola is now on her third microphone. She thinks it's so funny to put it in her mouth to get our attention and unfortunately it doesn't take much for the moisture to make it not work. This happened on Monday, and our doctor was out of the office, so we weren't able to get a new microphone until Tuesday. It was amazing to see what a difference it is making to her - that day without being able to hear, she seemed more lethargic and less engaged with us and her surroundings. Derrick brought her to our Halloween party at the library, and she just kind of sat back and watched it all happen. Maybe she didn't feel so good that day either, but we did see a difference, and we missed her being hooked up. We are going on vacation next week, so we really really hope she doesn't have any microphone lollipops while we're gone!

WARNING: Simulation. Not an actual microphone. Do not attempt at home.

Knuffle Bunny!

Lola has favorite books now! She's always loved books, but now she picks them up and sits on our laps with them. She demands them when we get to bed, and sometimes she even points for them when we get up in the morning. This week we've read Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems every night!

She is also making all kinds of sounds! Every day it seems that she is making more and more sounds. We say her name to her a lot, and Derrick said the other day it sounded like she said OOOO aaaaa, so she's on her way!

The Train

A very cool thing happened this week. Lola and Derrick were walking down Frankfort Avenue when a train approached from behind us. Lola immediately started looking around for it and signed the word "train." Now this may not sound like much, but it means three things: (a) she knew the sign for "train," a sign we had only shown her once, (b) she heard the train before she saw it, and (c) most importantly, she knew what the sound was before she saw the train! This was a very momentous occasion for us!

On another note, NPR had a very informative two-hour segment on deaf culture and cochlear implants. You can listen to it here.

Too Much Information

LOLA'S SCAB FELL OFF!

AudioLola®

What's new with Lola now that she's turned on? She enjoys books on a whole new level now. We could tell a difference the day after she was turned on. She's completely rapt. It's fun! Her newest sign is for "monster," which she learned when her daddy was reading her a dinosaur book. We go to Dr. Windmill again tomorrow to get turned up!

New Developments

No pictures this time, just updates.

So Lola has had her implant turned on for a week now and she has already accomplished so much! She is making many word-like sounds now -- much more than she ever did before. Her magnet is constantly falling off, and one time she signed "where" and "sound" when it fell. So she has already made the connection between the implant and hearing -- remarkable! That usually takes months, the therapist told us. She now turns when called from behind -- something she has never done before.

Stay tuned for more updates!

Activation Day! (or, Lola Gets Turned On)

Today was the big day! We caravaned to the doctor's office for Lola's implant activation. Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Justin and Uncle John were in attendance.

Our audiologist Dr. Windmill attached the magnet to test the electrodes for the first time:


Why, whatever could this be? Lola wondered:


A series of beeps sounded while Dr. Windmill adjusted the levels. Lola seemed very interested:


The doctor adjusted four of the sixteen electrodes today. This is what Lola's face looked like most of the time:

Then she decided it would be more fun to play and wave:


The audiologist then officially "switched her on." Lola was hearing live sound for the first time! She didn't react strongly, but seemed to be concentrating very hard on everything. She was very interested when Uncle John clapped his hands:

After a while of playing and banging on everything in sight, they fitted Lola with a not-so-stylish harness to hold her processor while she's still little:

After that, we went home and crammed lots of sound into that little girl! We go back to the audiologist every couple weeks so she can fine-tune the program. Every couple days until then we turn the volume up a little so as to not scare her.

Stay tuned for more -- possibly a video, if I can figure out how to put it up.

The Gash

So we've given everybody two weeks for it to heal, but it's time for a closeup of the incision:

It looks much better than it did last week and we go to the surgeon's today to see if it's healed enough to turn her on! The activation session is scheduled for next Wednesday, the 20th. We also received the bill from the hospital -- Lola's new robot ear is officially worth more than our house! Our favorite part is the last line.

The Reveal

On Sunday, we took off Lola's bandage per doctor's orders and were quite surprised at the size of the incision. We'll spare you the gory close-ups:

Lola's New Hat

Lola is back to her old photogenic self today, two days after surgery:

The Big Day (Birth of a Cyborg)

Today was Lola's surgery for her cochlear implant! We arrived at the hospital at 7:15 a.m. and commenced waiting . . .



Lola prepared herself by reading the pamphlet on her procedure . . .



They finally called us back, took Lola's vital signs and fitted her with a stylish O.R. gown . . .




We then had to amuse ourselves for an hour or two while the surgery before ours finished up . . .





They finally came to dope up our child . . . Valium was administered to reduce separation anxiety; alas, they wouldn't give us any. They took her to the operating room . . .




Lola's on drugs!!!



The nurses then put Lola to sleep and threaded a breathing tube down her throat. Surgery began at 10:15.





WARNING: Blood! These are images from Dr. Severtson's microscope. The first is the implant in her skull and the second is the electrode being threaded into her cochlea.




The bright light is the surgeon's light shining off the implant!



Our audiologist Dr. Windmill prepares to test the electrode.



Luckily for Susan, Project Runway was on cable in the waiting room.



We then met with our audiologist who had some good news and some bad news. The good news was that they tested the implant and her brain's response to it, and the results were perfect! The bad news was that the surgeon decided that he didn't like the position of the implant, so he had to go back in and move it. A couple hours later, they brought her to us. She was still asleep and extremely puffy from all the fluids they had pumped into her. Her cheek was bruised from the pins they had inserted to mark her facial nerve.





They gave us the hair they shaved off, because technically it was Lola's first haircut!



Susan took this opportunity to trim Lola's fingernails . . .



While our daughter recovered from surgery, we ate Slushees . . .



After about an hour, Lola began to wake up. And boy, was she unhappy!





We went home shortly after they took her IVs out and she nursed for awhile. Altogether, we spent almost ten hours at the hospital! That night was pretty rough, with Lola waking often and crying alot. But the next morning, she was back to her old self! We wait for about 3-4 weeks for the incision to heal and then our audiologist will attach the external equipment and turn it on. What a day that will be! Check back often for further updates.