Just another update

For the most part, the appointments at Boys Town went well. Dr. L. took one look at Audrena's incision and said it was not infection. As it turns out, what we thought was pus was actually her body spitting out stitches that had not dissolved properly. He also removed the packing from her ears. One of the fat grafts seemed to take, but her ear drum was retracting a bit from negative pressure. He will be keeping an eye on that, and if need be, he will place a tube in there again. The other fat graft did not take, so he will do a cartilage graft at a later date.

The ophthalmology appointment went about as we expected, except for one little hitch. As it turns out, I misunderstood something, and Boys Town does not actually do the ERG test. Omaha Children's Hospital does it. So that was delayed until we can get things scheduled. The doctor did, however, do a thorough exam. He said he didn't see anything that concerned him, but because she is deaf, he wants to ensure that sees the best she can possibly see. So he prescribed glasses to correct some farsightedness, and he hopes to also correct the strabismus with them. He will see her back in 6 months. We did order two tiny pairs of glasses last Friday, and they will be in this weekend. I thought it was important to have a spare pair because you just never know when something will get broken! She will have a blue pair and a light brown pair. Keeping them on should be quite an adventure!

Audrena took a nap before the programming appointment, so she was very cooperative this time. However, she was also congested with a cold, so her booth testing was still not good. We will repeat it at USD again soon to make sure that's all it was since she did test well at USD in between these last two Boys Town programming appointments. It seems strange that congestion would affect hearing with a cochlear implant, but many implant users and Audiologists have told us it does. Audrena continues to say and do things at home that make us think she is hearing just fine. We were excited that J. programmed one of the three slots with Clear Voice! Clear Voice filters out background noise like road noise in the car, fans, the dishwasher, and other things like that. It will help Audrena hear better in certain situations. J. also adjusted the programming so that we can be sure Audrena is hearing the "sss" (/s/) sound, which was the only ling sound she wasn't able to hear.

On Monday, Audrena was fitted for a new ear mold at USD for the hearing aid. She will have red and clear swirls this time. Hopefully it's the last ear mold we will need before the next implant surgery!