For those of you that doubt miracles this blog is for you!
The back story:
Esther had her second Cochlear Implant placed in her ear
three weeks ago. During that long and
complicated surgery the doctor was not confident that Esther would gain any
hearing in her right ear. He was able to
implant only 8 out of 22 electrodes and was unclear as to if those 8 actually made it into a spot in the cochlea that would gain hearing for her.
Fast forward to today:
LOTS of people have been praying for the miracle of hearing
in this right ear for sweet Esther and this morning I received so many texts,
emails and Facebook messages from all around the world that people were praying
for her this morning.
Our day didn’t start out on a great foot and Esther had a
typical two year old attitude this morning.
We went into this praying that she would not only hear sound but would
cooperate with the audiologist and give us clear signs of anything she may
hear. Honestly, our expectations were
pretty low. ( Which totally makes NO sense after all that we have seen God do
through this process- we let the scientific reasoning take over instead of
fully trusting in God’s power). As we began the preliminary testing to set the
levels for the implant to be activated Esther began to respond to the
sound. WHAT? Respond to beeps already?
Yep that was really happening!
Esther is
a smart little cookie – as soon as she began to hear sound she started asking
to go to the potty (which she had just done before going into the room). Her little brain told her that if we went to the
potty the implant had to stay in the room and then just maybe I would forget
and leave! Ha – well I fell for it the first time but then quickly caught onto
her game! Now it was time to activate
the implant. During this process we had
the other side turned off so we could be 100% sure that she was hearing sound
out of that ear. She began immediately
responding to certain sounds and verbalizing sounds herself (which she only
does when she can hear). I have attached
a video for you to see how she responded to some instruments and kept pointing
to her ear that she could hear!
We had to take the processor off to switch out batteries at
the end and she kept pointing to her ear to put it back on! Now it was time to put both processors on and
let her hear from both ears at the same time.
That step was a little overwhelming to her. Her entire demeanor changed. She got very still and little weepy and
needed some hugs and reassurance. Less
than three minutes later she was up and ready to go and using words to
communicate! OH HAPPY DAY!
We are on the road to bi-lateral hearing. The process will take several weeks to get
the levels right. Then she will have a
CT Scan to see exactly where the other electrodes are placed and if there is potential
(will take another miracle) to turn on more than 8 electrodes. Thank you for your prayers and for continuing
to pray for us through this journey!
“He is your
praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you
which your eyes have seen ...” Deut 10:21
Blessings,
Tiffany
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