The Penny

Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.

[Wednesday, April 22, 2009]

Stereo Sound?


Yesterday, Laynie had a visit with her cochlear implant surgeon, Dr. Della Santina, and I went along to interpret. She's looking to get a second implant.

Before the appointment with Dr. Della Santina, I was thinking that bilateral implants would certainly be great, but I doubted it would happen. The insurance companies tend to put up a fight with putting bilateral implants in kids, and I figured it would be worse with adults.

Dr. Della Santina was surprisingly encouraging. He really is such a nice guy. He checked Laynie's vestibular (balance) function, asked her which device she's like to use (Med-El again, of course), asked when she'd like to have surgery (third week in August), and told her to remind him on the day of surgery to mark where her current coil goes so that the two coils will be even. He also asked her what she uses her current implant for and how it's going. She told him that she uses it for everything, that she keeps it on morning until night. In fact, she wishes she could sleep with it on and is sad to take it off at night. She is learning to recognize many sounds and understood her first word in conversation, which was "OK." Laynie asked him about insurance and the likelihood of actually getting a second implant. He was phlegmatic about it. "Oh, it will happen. We might have to write some things for them and go back and forth with paperwork for a while. It can be frustrating when they wait until the day before surgery to request that sort of thing, because then we have to cancel surgery. So we try to avoid that by giving them plenty of time to review the information." I was surprised that he was so confident that it would work out.

I hope so, because Laynie feels like her hearing is pretty uneven right now. Hm, the left ear hears at around 30 dB (she can hear a whisper) and the right ear hears nothing. Yup, pretty uneven.

2 comments:

Unknown | April 24, 2009 at 11:53 AM

Love your blog! Love the look- and the layout is so cool, and different!! I love it! I hope it all works out for Laynie and the insurance comes through, it truly doesn't make sense to not pay for it, hello!! I think it is crazy that she can hear a whisper! You guys are so cool!

Annie | May 5, 2009 at 5:51 PM

Thanks, Nancy. You are a sweetheart. :D

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