Adam's New Ears

I have always told myself that if I ever created a blog I would include these two photos as the first photos.  They are among the most chariest photos I have ever taken and they mean the world to me. The first photo is Adam at 3 1/2 years old the moment his cochlear implant was turned on.  

When you have a cochlear implant you are rendered deaf in the ear(s) that has the surgery as they snake the probe into the cochlear (shell shaped organ) in the inner ear. During the surgery they also place a metal disc behind the ear.  This is the spot where the, almost cyborg looking, disc shaped object will make the connection for the processor that you see outside the ear of a person wears an implant. The doctor waits a month before attaching the the processor because they want to allow plenty of time for the surgery site to heal.  Infections this close to the brain carry many risks.  Adam of course could hear for his first 2-3 years but it started going down hill at sometime during that period, we don't know when exactly.  

The first photo shows the exact moment that he first heard sound in his left ear.  It's a moment that even now causes me to get a little emotional.  He, and we, had been through so much leading up to this point and there was a completeness to it.  We were sad that he was completely deaf in that ear but happy that this was going to bring a potentially wonderful life to our little boy.  Everyone in the room was excited.  But nothing could have prepared me for what Adam did next…..

We arrived home from the doctors office and started back to our normal regular life again.  I began preparing dinner and wasn't aware of what Adam was doing on his "Etch-a-Sketch".  He called me over and wanted to show me something.  This is a photo of Adam and "his new ears".  Because he couldn't tell us how long he had been experiencing progressive hearing loss we didn't know how significant the implant would be for his wellbeing until this moment.  He knew.  He knew immediately the improvement it was bringing him.  

And so now I start this blogging journey….thank you Adam for helping me decide the first photos to put here.  My hope is to post photos that I have not posted before, one's that I'm working on and things that make me happy.