I thought I wanted to write in detail about the stay in the hospital but now it is over and we are home , I don’t see the point. We are only looking forward to the “switch on” date when Harry will hear sound through the CI for the first time.
For other parents going through this, I was given some sound advice by another mother at Taralye (Victoria’s leading oral language centre, providing services to deaf and hearing impaired children and their families). Her own daughter was 2 years old with bilateral implants ( on both ears). However she was unable to have both placed on her daughter in the one operation due to fluid in the inner ear found on the day of surgery. This is extremely common in young babies due to the immaturity of the ear channel which is not as proficient at draining fluid caused by teething and other common occurrences in kids under 2. So this mum was fully expecting to have her daughter come out with 2 implants and was advised at the end of surgery that only 1 was completed.
She said to me wisely make sure you manage your expectations. If they can only do one on the day don’t worry , the other one will get done 6 months later and they will place grommets in to assist with drainage in the meantime.
The photo above is Harry straight after surgery. Within 24hrs he was at home with a band-aid on each side. It is absolutely incredible.
Video footage of Prof. Briggs taking off the bandgages and replace with a band aid strip…
http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=38400399&server=vimeo.com&show_title=0&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=00adef&fullscreen=1&autoplay=0&loop=0
Bandages off 29th Feb 2012 from Hollie Feller on Vimeo.
Harry has his bandages removed the morning after his Cochlear Implant surgery by Prof. Rob Briggs and replaced with a band-aid on each side.
Harry's Ears 