Well things are moving right along with Maya. We took her to visit MOOG School for the Deaf the other day. It was a nice facility and the staff was super fantastic. The children were amazing to watch. Most of them had cochlear implants. I was shocked to hear that sign language is not used or taught at MOOG. At MOOG deaf children are taught to speak. We liked the school, but still have 2 others to visit before making a decision (Central Institute for the Deaf and St. Josephs's Institute) If anyone is familiar with any of them and can offer a recommendation please email me.
Next week she will have a MRI and CT scan to check the structure of the inner ear and cochlea. We're hoping we can get approved for MO First Steps quickly and we can get her fitted for hearing aids very soon. The sooner we can get them on her, the sooner we will know if they will benefit her at all. If not, then we will be moving forward with getting her approved for cochlear implants.
As far as diagnosing a cause of the hearing loss, we are not concentrating on that at this point. Right now we are just interested in helping her overcome the impairment. There is some speculation as to the cause being related to an antibiotic she was given in the hospital. This is likely the cause, but we will have to discuss it further with her surgeons. We will know more after her tests.
We saw her urologist, Dr. Cheval last week. He is not overly concerned with her horseshoe kidney. He recommended an ultrasound to check for anomalies with the tissue. She hasn't had any problems with infections, so we're hoping all is well. We will always have to watch her for falls and blows to the abdomen as this could damage the kidney.
She had her 18 month check up yesterday. Dr. Gerst was very impressed with her progress. She has come a long way since her 12 month check up.
-takes about 6-10 steps at a time unassisted!!
-stands up by herself from a sitting position!!
-feeds herself with a spoon/fork!!
-drinks from a sippy cup!!
-rocks in her rocking chair!!
On the other hand, the bottle and the ugly green binky are still here and Maya thinks she's keeping them for life!
She has become quite the little dare devil, climbing and standing on everything. Her favorite place is the middle of the kitchen table.
Everyone else is doing fine. We are all looking forward to the leaves changing and the weather cooling off a bit.
Will update soon,
Gina & Brian
