Hearing Test

Brennan had a hearing test this week. The hearing test involves B sitting in a small booth with hearing devices placed in each ear. When the right ear is tested, a static noise is used on the left side to make sure only the right side picks up the noise. Same goes for the left side. He is tested with "play audiometry" which is when B hears a noise, he places an object in something. For example, for one of these tests he placed a game piece into the connect four game each time he heard a noise. This way the audiologist knows he hears the sound and it becomes a fun game for the child being tested. B did so good during this test. He has had so many hearing tests that he finally has the system down! He is so quiet and concentrates so well and right when he hears a noise he places the object in right away!

The chart below shows his progress!!! The chart on the left is his right ear hearing (frequency in Hz). He has normal hearing on his right. The chart on the right has some dots and X's. The dots on the chart represent his hearing on his left side before the surgery he had in October. The X's above the dots represent his hearing this week in his left ear!!! Look at how much it has improved!!! Yippee!!! This makes me feel so good about going through with the surgery! It has helped him!!! Part of the test is listening to words and repeating them. He had an excellent word recognition score on his left side!!! This is all so very exciting! His new ear drum is still healing so we will find out if there is more improvement with his next hearing test in June.

B doing so well with wires coming out of his ears

Concentrating on the sounds

He puts the game piece up by his ear and listens so intently. When he hears the noise, he places it in the game.


Other things...

My good friend Dawn gave us this swing set!!! Her girls were getting too big for it and she asked us if we wanted it... uh...of course!!! It came at a perfect time too. Starting Friday B is going to be staying home for 1 1/2 weeks to prevent getting sick before his next surgery. So that means being cooped up inside our house. Now we have this fun swing set to use... weather permitting! Thank you so very much Dawn!


Joel is still recuperating from his broken leg. He has been off work since it happened in the beginning of November. He is still doing physical therapy and getting stronger everyday. He still walks with a slight limp and can't put full pressure on his leg. We are thankful he is not on his crutches anymore! It will probably be a couple more months until he returns back to work. We are thankful this gives him more time with the kids and especially his parents. Living life with ALS has been anything but easy for Joel's dad and we appreciate your continuous prayers for him. Joel left today back to Arizona to help out his parents. They are coming out here next Wednesday and Joel will be driving them down.

Waiting for daddy to take the train

Here comes the train!

Kissing B goodbye

Bye Bye daddy, we love you!!! See you in a week!

Welcome To Holland

This has been around for a long time, but this is the first time I have seen it. It hit home to me when I read it and I just had to share.
Before you read it, just understand that I know there are all types of disabilities and birth defects. I am not comparing our journey with B to the major things that many families are going through with their precious children. I can just relate to this short story on so many levels. I get emotional reading it and hope that everyone can understand a little more about what families go through when their "flight changes" with no preparation.

Enjoy!...

"WELCOME TO HOLLAND"
by
Emily Perl Kingsley.
c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

"I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland."

Pre-Op

Today was Brennan's pre-op appt! My good friend Becky took Faith for the day which was a huge help for us. We left around 10am and went to lunch down in West LA at a pizza place. We then went to Diddy Riese across the street! Diddy Riese is a very popular 'hole in the wall' ice cream place that specializes in ice cream cookie sandwiches and always has a long line. It was B's first time, which of course he LOVED! It was a good way to start out the day!


B with his M&M cookie ice cream sandwich



Yummy!


At the pre-op appt. we were given our surgery packet to look over and paperwork to fill out. Next, B had his picture taken at every angle. These pictures will be used to compare with pictures that will be taken after surgery.

His picture on the computer screen on the left

Side view

Looking up view


Now this is AMAZING and such a blessing! His buddy August, from my previous blog post, had a 6 month post-op appt today right after our appt. We were able to hang out with his mom and the boys were able to play together! It was great to see him and his new ear again! His ear is healing so well and it's amazing to see how good it looks. Once again it made me feel really good about our decision to go through with the surgery!

The two crazy boys :)

My favorite picture!!! The boys with Dr. Lewin!
It was great to meet with her again. We feel so blessed to be able to put our son in the care of such an amazing doctor. She is so caring and understanding. The next time we see her will be on March 1st as she works on our son for over 8 hours...yikes. Reality is starting to really set in... in a good way though, I'm excited. I'm excited to help out our little guy and finish his hearing journey with a new ear!!!

After our appt. we were able to hang out a bit with Rochelle, August, and his little sister Lotus(4 months old). Where else to celebrate being together than B's favorite place... Jamba Juice!

The boys waiting for their smoothies!

Yummy!

Great buds!

We met August's parents at a Microtia/Atresia conference up north over 2 years ago. We met as we were all researching the best surgeons and procedures for our boys. 2 years later here we are with our boys going through the process together. It's such a blessing!

August's Birthday

I wrote a post last September about a boy, August, who had the surgeries that B was getting. August had atresia repair surgery (new ear canal) last May (the one that B just had in October) and the Medpor surgery (ear) last August. He is 5 months post-op from the one that Brennan is having in 3 1/2 weeks. They met last September and I've been keeping in contact with his family through email. August had his 4th birthday party today and B and I were able to go! It was so fun to see August and his family! August had his ear surgery 5 months ago and look how awesome his ear looks! (Can't tell which one huh?!... it's his right one)
It made me excited for B's upcoming surgery.

Close up of August's ear, it still has lots of healing to go but it looks so good!

Because B had surgery 3 months ago, I was a little worried about him being in the bounce house with so many kids. The kids at the party were doing a scavenger hunt around the yard so it was a perfect time for B to enjoy the bounce house all by himself! He hadn't been in a bounce house in a long time. He LOVED it!

Time to hit the pinata!

Yummy cake and ice cream!

Keeping busy

Joel went to Arizona for a few days to spend time with his parents. I'm so glad he is able to be there and be with his dad! So, it's just me and the kiddos for a while. It's been 3 months since Joel broke his leg and hasn't been able to work so I've gotten used to him being home. It's kind of weird to be alone again. I've been keeping busy with the kiddos, here are some picts...


I worked in the church nursery with Faith on Thursday while B was in pre-school. It was so fun to be with her and see how she interacted with the other kids. She loved the rocking horse!



Of course we had to take a trip to our favorite smoothie place!

Park date with the kiddos!

And of course we just had to spend the day today in Santa Monica! The weather was just so nice and we had the whole day free, so we spent our day here! I took the kiddos on a run as they ate snacks in the stroller and got excited about every plane and helicopter that passed over us. We then spent a lot of time on the pier. We ended the day with some playtime on the sand. It was such a fun day! It's always one of my favorite places to take them.

1/2 way through the run picture!

Time on the merry-go-round on the Pier

Kiddie rides of course!

End of the Pier picture!

Big pelican bird in the shot

Sand time!

Making a sand castle

Turning to prayer

It's exactly 1 month until B's Big surgery day. Exactly 4 weeks from today our little guy will have a huge procedure done to help him in so many ways. And yes, I'm starting to think about it more and more. Thoughts just creep in my head as the day goes by. What happened around this time before his last surgery is that I found myself grabbing something to eat every time I thought about his surgery. I'd go on throughout my day eating handfuls of this and handfuls of that just to put my thoughts aside... emotional eating? I think so. It didn't help me in any way. It just made me feel worse about myself as my clothes got tighter and my insides felt so unhealthy. I struggled with it so much and now I feel it happening again. Well, this time, I vow to turn those thoughts to prayer, and not food. I vow to commit this next month to prayer for my son, my family and other families going through these same procedures. I know I feel so much closer to God when I read His word and spend time in prayer. It is helping me to jot this down on the blog so now it is a commitment to God, to use my worried thoughts and turn them to prayer!!!

I just LOVE em