Wow, things have just been crazy lately. The trip to MI went well. Kinnick's eye is still irritated and is really watering, a lot. It seems to be pretty sensitive. I called the doctor today and they said this is normal - just part of the healing process. Carver's eye is still getting nasty junk in it. The new med that we're using is helping, but the eye is still irritated. Since the membrane was removed that was blocking Carver's pupil, he has really started showing an interest in lights. He's starting to put lights up to his good eye.
This is our last month with Rainbows (EI - Birth to 3). Today we met with the Audiologist. She brought an audiometer to test Carver's response to certain frequencies. If you remember, I wasn't satisfied with the "no change" that we received in the booth test. I know that it was a very subjective test and the Audiologist wasn't familiar with Carver. I'm not faulting anyone. I just had a gut feel that Carver could hear better then the results indicated. The audiometer produces sounds like you would hear in a sound booth. She presented several sound frequencies to Carver in his home environment. He responded very nicely to all of the sound frequencies presented - indicating that he probably does hear better then the sound booth indicated. The difference was that we were able to share things that we've learned, with the Audiologist, about Carver's responses or behaviors to sound. For example, asking Carver to listen before a sound is presented. Once the sound was presented, and Carver showed a response (typically a big smile), he was rewarded with his favorite chew toy. We are hoping to develop a consistent way for Carver to tell us that he hears. It's important to get good feedback from him in order to tweak his CI programs. The more we can tweak them, the better he will hear. Right now, his map is set at somewhat of a "generic" setting. It could be better and it could be worse. His newest thing is to do this little wine whenever he drops a toy. It's almost like he is saying "Oh, man!" No words, just a wine. He did this all of the way to/from MI in the car. Anytime he dropped his toy, you would hear the little wine and see a 1/2 smile. He knew that Nurse Marci would climb over the seat to retrieve his toy. So cute!
Kat will be back on Monday to work more with Carver. We're always excited to see her. She has the best ideas and she is so good to work with. She has an amazing way of connecting with Carver.
We seen Carver's ENT on Tuesday. Carver continues to have fluid behind the eardrum. He is scheduled to get tubes in his ears 3/18/10. I hate having another surgery, but what do you do? The fluid isn't coming out. The Dr. believes that it is possible that the seroma and fluid behind the eardrum are related. The hope is that the seroma will also drain with the tubes.
Kinnick also needs a sedation scheduled. She needs to have the pressure checked in her eyes. We want to make sure that the surgery brought the pressure down to a reasonable level.
We are preparing for K&C's IEP (Individual Education Plan) meeting on 3/12/10. K&C's Dr. does not want them to attend school at this time due to all of the illnesses going around. He has sent a letter requesting home bound services. I think it will be good for the team to get to know K&C in their home environment, so not all is lost.
Our Yukon XL lease ended, so we had to get another vehicle. We thought long and hard about what to get with 2 handicapped kids and 5 others. While I loved my Yukon XL, it was so big and used a LOT of gas. When gas prices go up to $3/gal, it costs around $120 to fill the tank. A tank lasts about a week. So, with that in mind and the fact that leasing an American vehicle is the pits right now - $1,000/month to lease the same vehicle (currently we only pay $600/month - big increase), we decided to go with something a little smaller, but with quite a bit of cargo space. We are now the owners of an Acadia. It's quite an adjustment. It's like going from a house to an Apt. I think it will work out fine, it's just taking some time to adjust.
Ok, enough for now.
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