Then we headed back to the surgery prep room and she started to get hungry after many hours of no eating. The sweet nurses tried to distract her with a ride around the halls.
One last pic with mom before heading back to surgery.
Emmalyn did OK during surgery, but there were some unexpected complications. The surgeon discovered that her cochlea had ossified, which basically means it was becoming solid bone growth. This made it difficult to place the internal portion of the implant. Until her activation date, we won't really know how many electrodes we will be able to activate. We are hoping for at least 8. Ossification is something that is normally seen in children after they have experienced hearing loss caused by meningitis. Emmalyn has never had meningitis, so the ossification was very unusual and unexpected. After surgery they kept her in recovery for a while and then we were finally released to go home. Sweet baby did not feel very well and was still very drowsy from anesthesia and pain medication.
Once we got home, we settled in on the couch and stayed there for pretty much the next 24 hours.
But by the next afternoon, Emmalyn was definitely feeling like herself again but was about tired of that silly hat.
Wow! How true is that statement? There are so many things we do each day as parents. We make sure to feed and bathe our children. We provide them with shelter and love. We help them with their homework and encourage them when they are having a bad day. We clean the house, do the dishes and the laundry, take care of the pets, pay the bills, get the oil changed in the car, and the list goes on and on.
