ACTIVATION DAY!

Oh my! What a day yesterday was! Aiden did an awesome job at activation and had some truly fabulous responses! All in all it was, as my daughter always says, THE BEST DAY EVER!

When I posted the other day about being "slapped back into reality" of Aiden's deafness, well, yesterday was so exciting that him being deaf was the last thing on my mind ... because all I could think about was what a fantastic listening journey we have ahead of us! This is all so surreal ... all day I couldn't believe we were finally at this point! We have so much fun and exciting times ahead of us!

Aiden is just such a happy-go-lucky kid. We truly are blessed. When our audiologist first started the sounds, Aiden didn't do too much, but then started pointing to his ear a bit (he used to do the same thing in the soundbooth with his hearing aids). After the first couple of tones were played, everytime he heard a sound he'd try to rip the coil off his head. We went through many listening activities, starting with tones, then onto voice, then onto instrument noises. I captured a little bit of each in the video.

Keep in mind as you watch that the Nat. Geo. photographers were there shooting pictures for the article Aiden's being featured in (coming out late this year). Aiden really took to one of the photographers last time he was here, and it was amazing how Aiden remembered "the man with the camera" and was instantly drawn to him again! What can I say ... my boy loves the camera!

At the end of the video I posted a bit of Aiden just crawling around with his new "ear" while our audiologist explained the HUGE suitcase of goodies and information with us. All the while I thought this "suitcase" included merchandise for both ears ... NOPE ... we'll get a whole other one during Aiden's second CI activation! I need to find the time tonight to just sit down and go through it all. Wow there's so much to learn still! But I am SOOOO ready to get this show on the road!

At the end, our simply amazing surgeon, Dr. Niparko, came by to see how everything went and take a peek into Aiden's ears. He said the left side is still a bit swollen, but it should be gone within the week and that everything looked great! We snapped some pictures with our team and then headed home. As soon as Aiden hit his carseat, he was out cold! He was so wiped from all that hearing!

When Aiden's big brother and sister got home they both ran up to him to check out all his new equipment. He didn't have it on at the time, but they couldn't wait for me to put on his new magic ears so they could talk to him and see his reactions! They both talked sweet nothings into his ear and gave him lots of lovin'! I loved seeing their enthusiasm for their little brother ... another favorite moment from today!

Remember, this was Aiden's first programming session (mapping). So right now, the sounds he hears are pretty soft still. Our audiologist said that they may sound like Donald Duck or Mickey Mouse to him at this point, but over time, he will start to put meaning to each sound he hears and things will become clearer; this is why therapy is so important. We go back this Wednesday and then again a week from Wednesday to "turn him up".

I had a nice conversation with our audiologist yesterday too about activating his left ear. After talking to her, I really do understand her reasoning on wanting to get a good stable map on the right ear before activating the left. So we're going to take it step by step over the next week and see how Aiden does and then plan the second activation. I feel good with this and like I told her ... it's Aiden ... our little superstar ... and he's going to do absolutely fantastic! *SMILE*

(Make sure you turn off the music on the right before playing the video. This video is not captioned yet).