Jake's Activation

On January 21st at 10 am we went over to Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego to get Jake's "Ears" turned on. He had his surgery on December 30th and now everything was healed up enough that they could hook up the external part of the implant. They went with the Advanced Bionics® (www.advancedbionics.com) for Jake. You can check out the web page for more information on the equipment. It is very interesting.

We were in the middle of a major rain storm although the rain wasn't bad when we drove over. It had knocked out the elevators so we had to walk up 4 flights of stairs with all Jake's stuff, all the cameras and misc junk. (We had a lot more going down too!!)

Jake played in the waiting room until they called us back. You can see where they had to shave his hair to do the surgery. I couldn't believe how much his hair had grown in the three weeks!

They took us back into the room and as the audiologists were programing the computers and setting everything up Jake played with all the great toys they have there.

After they finished with that they "hooked" him up to the computer. You can see the cord hanging down. They were playing noises into the implant from the computer to find out at what level he could hear the noises they were making. After they got the base line they turned on the implant so he could hear what was happening in the room.

That was a very emotional time for everyone. Jake started turning around trying to figure out what was happening and then he started crying. Of course everyone else started crying too!!
You can see the the headpiece that attaches to the implant in his head with magnets. They come off fairly easily and I know it will be a learning curve for keeping them on.

After a few minutes he calmed down and played but he wanted to stay on either Mommy or Daddy's lap! Here he is wiping his tears and then wiping Mommy's. He was sooooo cute!

Here he is after he has both the headpieces on. The blue vest has pockets on either side in the back. These hold the processors that run the equipment. In a few years when he gets older he will be able to have them go behind the ears like a hearing aid.

After we left the hospital we headed over to a restaurant for lunch. On the way he was very unhappy with all the noise he could hear! He didn't even want to play with his "favorite toy" the toilet paper! He had held on to it on the way to the hospital and thought it was great fun.

We went over to one of Jake's favorite restaurants for Dim Sum.

Here Jake's Pou-Pou (Grandmother) is helping him eat something or other. I don't remember what Lisa said his favorite thing was.
What ever it is he really likes it a lot. When we first went in Steve turned off the processors so he would eat. After he started eating and was happy he turned on one. At first Jake started to cry but stopped fairly quickly as the food was soooo good. Then Steve tried to turn the second one on and Jake had too much trouble with that so they went back to just one for the rest of the meal. It will be a long learning process. (for everyone!)

No, the restaurant isn't on fire and no one is smoking, just hot steam. You can see his headpiece again.

Goofy Daddy!

All in all a very exciting morning. A lot more work to be done but at least it is started now.

After lunch Lisa had a ultrasound and her mom and I got to go with her. It was so exciting to see the newest little grandson!! He is beautiful, or should I say, Handsome!!

I will post a of picture of him as soon as Steve scans one for me. How I wish I had been able to have an ultrasound to see my babies! It is so fun. Thanks Lisa for letting me come and thanks Steve for giving up your spot and babysitting so the grandmas could go!!

More to come. ....... ...... ........

Dogs, Dogs, Dogs

(I have been trying to post a video of the dogs fighting but for some reason it won't work. You will have to do with the pictures until I figure out what I am doing wrong.)

After Jake's surgery on December 30Th I brought Bailey back home with me. I was going to bring both the dogs back but Guinness just had surgery himself so he had to stay and have all his post op check ups and get his stitches out.

So for the past three weeks we have had two dogs to love and take care of. It has been a lot of work at times but it has been sooo much fun also. I have enjoyed it so much. Bailey is a very good puppy. Puppy being the key word! She brings back memories of what Mr. B was like when he was a puppy. All the redwood bark from outside in the house, the torn pieces of paper. Never letting them get too far out of sight. If she is quiet too long I know I have to check on her!!

"Oh look at the great piece of plant I found! I think I'll take it inside and tear it up and then leave it all over the floor!"

Resting for a second or two before she is back to running around and checking everything out.

This how the two of them have spent the last three weeks. Play fighting. They have had so much fun together. Mr. B is going to be one very, very lonely dog after tomorrow morning.

Wild eyed dog!!

Break time to check out the window to see who they can bark at. There is always someone going up or down the street that can make them interested. Working together to tear a toy apart. That's what we like, team work. They really didn't tear it apart. Bailey does that all by herself! I picked up some of Beardsley's more favorite toys and put them out of her reach. She has taken the squeakers and stuffing out of about 6 of his old toys. Keeps her busy anyway. She just went into my bedroom and brought Paul's slippers out. No, I don't think you need to chew on those!!

All in all it has be a great time with her. She thinks that Paul is just great and runs to meet him when he comes home. He likes her a lot but doesn't like that fact that she loves to french kiss him! I told him he always has something great in his mouth so she wants to share! The shedding on the other hand is something both of us could do without. We knew we did the right thing getting a dog that didn't shed but this really reminded us how good it is! There is white fur everywhere! It will take me a month to get it all cleaned up!

Tomorrow morning I am going to be taking her back home so we will be back to just the three of us. I know we are all going to miss her but I'm sure that Mr. B is going to miss her most of all. I am going to have to take him over to the dog park a lot so he gets to play with other dogs. He just thinks she is the cat's meow!

Jake's Cochlear Implant Surgery

This post is sooooo late! I am going to get it up before I head back down to San Diego tomorrow for the next step of Jake's magical mystery ride.
On December 29Th I drove down to San Diego so I could babysit the dogs while Jake had his Cochlear Implant surgery. Because Guinness has just gone through surgery just a couple days before to get a seed out of his intestines he wasn't feeling very well.

Jake was so happy the day before we wished we didn't have to put him though all this but know it is for the best. Bailey looks content doesn't she.

Mattie & Jake

Bailey.


Poor Guinness with his halo on. Paul wanted to know if Jake was going to have to wear a halo also!!

'I'm trying to be brave!" He was very good for just having major surgery. I would have complained a lot more!!

Wednesday morning started early with Jake and parents getting to the hospital at 6 am. Jake couldn't have anything to eat before the surgery but it wasn't quite as bad and they were thinking it would be. He went back for the surgery at 7:30ish and was in all day. I think he got out of surgery around 3 p.m.

Here he is right after he got home that evening. It was a out patient surgery believe it or not!

Still kind of "out of it" . Getting his pj's on.

Sleeping with a worried daddy.

Thursday morning he woke up with a smile on his face! I guess it didn't last all day but it was great to see.

Happy little boy playing with his toy food that he loves!

Staying pretty close to mom and dad in the morning.

Well, this is all old news to everyone but I thought I would share the pictures anyway.

In two days he goes in for his Activation. That should be very exciting. If you wonder what it will be like do a search on Youtube under cochlear implant activation. There you will see several and how the kids react when they first "hear" something.

I will try and post more about that Soon.