Back to Max

Like I said a couple of posts ago, the news about Max's hearing cut me to the core. I have never been so devastated. Our family was however, blessed to be living in Atlanta when Max came in to the world. This was no coincidence and had to be providence. I am by no means an expert on the subject, but I do consider myself to be somewhat educated when it comes to hearing loss and cochlear implants. Believe me when I tell you this, there is no better place in the world than Atlanta, Georgia to deal with the news that your newly born child is deaf. Our initial audiologist, Edie Gibson (now with Advanced Bionics) was an angel. Max's post implant audiologist, Jolie Fainberg is second to none. Dr. Wendell Todd, Max's surgeon, is world renown and last but by no means least his Auditory Verbal therapist, MaryAnne Costin, stands heads and tails above her peers. (side-note....I know when my mom reads this, she is going to grimace at my punctuation, but I amexperiencing severe brain cramps. Sorry Mom!!!!)

Anyway, I tell you all of that in order to begin a transition in to the miracle of Max's current life. The time leading up to Max's surgery was tense. In order for the doctor to perform a cochlear implant surgery, the patient's ears must be free from fluid. Fluid is a sign of an ear infection and an ear infection mixed with ear surgery can lead to meningitis. This was a problem, because Max always seemed to have fluid in his ears. To solve this problem, Dr. Todd decided to put tubes in to Max's ears. So when he was around nine months old, Max got tubes in his ears. This seemed to help and kept Max infection free up until the time of his cochlear implant surgery.

Let me apologize. This post just isn't flowing and I really want to do a good job with the time leading up to and the day of Max's surgery. I will pick this back up when my head is a little more clear.

Thanks.