And Life Goes On

Boy, time flies whether you are having fun or not. In our case, the tragedy that was Alyson's hearing loss diagnosis has become part of our everyday lives. Aly had little to no discomfort after the surgery, other than the head bandages which were removed within a few hours of getting home. After a week of bedhead (not getting the surgical site wet), her life returned to normal until the beginning of September, when her implant was activated. We know she is "hearing" sound (although we don't know how much) because she turns her head when we speak to her and is much more verbal. When the processor's program is not working for her, she lets us know with a scruchy face cry. The fine tuning of the implant will take about a year. Our biggest problem now is keeping her external equipment all in one piece. Aly likes to pull it apart and leave it in different places, and we are talking about expensive pieces.

Aly continues with physical therapy and has begun to take a few steps on her own; well make that steps and a dive. This is a very big deal because her balance was negatively impacted by the ear malformations. She has also started early intervention (with a focus on speech and physical therapy) with our local ESD. We hope that Aly is in a mainstream classroom by the first grade.

We may find ourselves in LA for three weeks this summer at the John Tracy Clinic, where we will all (K-sister included) attend deaf-related classes. K-mom is taking an ASL class, and Aly is starting to use them. She doesn't like the signs for "if you throw it, it goes away."

R-dad has been amazing in getting Aly and K-sister to all of the places they need to go. K-sister is in a new Mandarin program and is really blosoming. K-mom enjoys her new job (most of the time, which is to be expected.) And life goes on.

More pictures are on their way. We hope you and your family are doing well. Give us a call or send us an email when you have a chance.