*sigh* I KNOW

I am not going to make a lot of excuses. My only reason for not being here is overall busyness and distraction. In fact, I have been so busy that I started this post about a month before Thanksgiving....which occurred YESTERDAY.

The thing I want to talk about today has to do with my 3rd son. You know about the microtia. If you don't remember, please do a search in my bar. I have LOTS of stuff on it.

Well, on August 27, my baby went into another surgery. This one was to put magnets into his noggin. He went into the hospital, where they cut a slit above his ear. They inserted, and counter-sunk, some magnets, about the size of hearing aid batteries. Once that was healed up (after about 4 weeks) we went in for the hearing aid.

This thing is amazing. It has a magnet on the back of the hearing aid. He basically just sticks it to his head. There are 5 levels of magnet. He generally wears a 2. They are numbered 1-5 with a 5 being the strongest.

When he first started wearing it, we had to start at 4 hours. Then, we increased by a few minutes each day. The reason is he had to it that way was to toughen up his skin. After about 5 days, we noticed a blister that was oozy. We just treated it with peroxide, let it dry up, then started with low-time each day. Now? He can wear it all day.

The hearing aid brings his hearing up to as good as, if not better than, his other ear. It has changed him. He loves it...as do we. 

I am SO happy for my boy. 

Head shaved and magnets put in. (His ear looks pretty good, huh? Especially considering this wasn't "from the factory.")

That whole section was shaved. You can see the scar at the very top. 

Getting *fitted* for his hearing aid.

Tweaking the hearing aid through the computer.

The actual hearing aid stuck to his head.

My husband is holding the hearing aid. That black, oblong piece is a magnet. It sticks to the magnets in his head. 

SO....we finally got the hearing aid. He was very excited, but as he has perfect hearing in the other ear, we didn't really know what difference it would make.  We went to visit my parents. DS went outside and was sitting on the swing. I went out and asked him what he was doing.

He said, "Just listening."

I said, "Is there anything you can hear that you haven't heard before?"

He said, "The crunching of leaves."

Boy....talk about water-works! That made this momma tear up like crazy.


Well, that is the most exciting thing that has happened to us lately. If you still read, I apologize for my absence. Please check in every now and then. I intend to *pick back up."