We found out just about a year ago that Savannah is profoundly deaf. The official diagnosis is Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) and it occurs when there is damage to the inner ear (cochlea), or to the nerve pathways from the inner ear to the brain. About a month or so later we had an MRI done to see if the anatomy of her inner ear was intact to see if she was a candidate for cochlea implants. We found out the the anatomy was perfect and she was in fact a candidate. In order to get the implants covered by insurance, we had to do a trial with hearing aids, and we had to wait until she was one. Then the waiting game started. We got her hearing aids and then we just waited. We periodically had Audiology appointments but overall we just waited.
Then it was time. We started to prepare. Which was basically making a bunch of phone calls. We decided to leave Lincoln back in Cedar to make it easier for us to give Savy all the attention she needed.
Thursday morning came and we headed up North for Savy's pre-op appointment. We met with the surgeon and were giving directions for the next day and we went home. Overall it was really uneventful but really exciting because we've been waiting so long for this. We stayed and Daniel's parents house so we went there. We were told to be at the hospital at 5:45 so we tried to get to bed early but instead it was after 11 when we finally made it to bed. Not that we got much sleep anyway because of the excitement and nerves.
So we got up the next morning and made it to the hospital. We were checked in really quickly and Savy was angry that she couldn't have any milk. She doesn't know very many signs but milk is one she knows very well and gets really upset when we don't respond to it. The estimated surgery time was 7:30 so we had to wait a while. Eventually we saw the surgeon again and we met with her anesthesiologist and then it was time. This is where it got tough. The anesthesiologist took her from us and started walking down the hall. We followed him as long as we could and then he turned to us and said "I'm not going to have you hug her because I don't want her to cry." Then he turned around and walked away. He just left! and we just stood there and watched him walk away. I cried. I mean I ugly cried. That was hard.
So then more waiting happened. We went and tried to eat some breakfast but it was hard to eat considering everything that was going on so we just sat in the waiting room with a bunch of other anxious parents with the same looks on their faces that we had. Daniel tried to do homework and I tried to read but our minds were just on Sav and what was going on with her. About two hours after they took Sav we got an update that they were half-way down and they had flipped her to do the other side. It was a relief to hear an update but there was another side to do. The second side went a lot quicker and about an hour and half later the surgeon came to talk to us and he said that they were finished and Savy did great! We expected nothing less from here but it was still great to hear. There was one unexpected complication. She had a boney overgrowth over the round window on the cochlea. The round window is the point where they insert the electrode into the cochlea. Usually it's just a small incision but they had to drill the bone off so they could insert it.
So here you can see basically where the electrode sits in Sav's ear and where the implants will meet on her head. The surgeon told us that Sav's cochlea is about the size of a brass BB so the precision needed to string the electrode is really intense.
After we met with the surgeon we had to wait for Sav to wake up and that was the longest hour and a half of this entire procedure because I no longer knew where she was or who she was with. When we finally got back to see her she looked so annoyed with us. All she wanted was her bottle and to lay down. They then took us to her room and we hung out with her the rest of the day. She had a really hard time holding her head up and sitting but once we were released from the hospital and back at grandma and grandpa's house it was like nothing had happened.
Our Savannah is a champion and through this experience so far I've learned much more than I ever thought I would at 24 years old. Sav has made me rethink everything that I think is important in my life and I'm grateful I get to go on this journey with her.
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