Two Weeks to Go!

Two weeks from today we will be heading to Omaha and losing sleep in anticipation of Audrena's first CI surgery! We're already nervous, scared, and yet very excited. It's hard to describe this feeling, but I'm sure those of you out there who have been through it know exactly what I'm talking about.

We've been doing what we can to prepare. I had no luck shopping around here for button-up clothing. This is a must since it won't be possible to pull clothing over top of the bandage. So my sister went shopping over the weekend and found some outfits that will work. She is mailing them to us. I also bought some pillowcases and ribbon. I will be making pillowcase dresses, since they tie at the shoulders and can be pulled up from the feet instead of over the head. We have some sleepers that zip or snap, so Audrena should be all set in that department.

I got a phone call last week from the CI Team Manager with our activation schedule. It includes an appointment with the surgeon and an x-ray. If he clears her for activation, then we go to our audiology appointment for the activation. We have listening therapy following the activation. Then the next morning we have another audiology appointment.

I also spoke with our Boys Town Speech-Language Pathologist last week. I am so glad we will work with the same lady we had for our CI evaluation appointment. She seems like such a perfect fit for us. We discussed speech therapy options and tossed around some scheduling ideas. Maybe things won't be quite as hectic as we had anticipated with this new plan, and yet Audrena should still get the amount of therapy we had hoped for.

So for now, we continue to count down the days!