Second hook-up appointment

We had our second activation appointment today. Miss Kat had made it all the way to full volume on program 6. She was doing very well, and the audiologist said today's appointment was about "fine tuning".

First, we set the T-levels on all the electrodes. Miss Kat had very consistent results across all the frequencies. She was always at 45 or 50 (standard units of measurement...whatever that means!) Then he did the NRI testing. He did most of the electrodes, but not all. He said the results were very good and consistent, exactly what he wanted.

It was a very short appointment. We were done in just over an hour. We set Miss Kat's "optimum MAP". It is on our P-3. She is now using the HiRes Fidelity 120. We are very excited. She seems to really like it. Her reactions are much better than yesterday.

We also dealt with the problem of it being too loud first thing in the morning. The audiologist set the dial to be a bigger variation. Now when it is turned all the way down, the volume will be at 50% instead of only 20% quieter. We hope this will help with the transition to sound.

The last thing we did was try to figure out why Miss Kat was getting the red light blinking. We thought that it was the connection problem because of her super thick hair. So, the audiologist brought in a big magnet and put it on the headpiece and we watched. It still continued to happen. Next we tried switching out the headpiece. It continued. The audiologist decided that it must be the processor! He said that he had never had a Harmony come out of the box bad, we get to be the first! He is sending it back to Advanced Bionics and they are sending us a brand new one (not a refurbished).

After the appointment we headed to Miss Kat's school to (show off and) explain to her teacher about the equipment. She was so excited and she kept wanting to sit next to M, who also has a CI. She kept saying that the two of them have the same (implant) and that they are friends. It is so sweet! She decided that she wanted to stay at school rather than go home with boring old Mom and Dad.

After school Miss Kat rides the bus home with 4 other Deaf students. The driver knows no ASL and the kids are often out of their seats and horsing around when he pulls up to our house. Today when Miss Kat got off the bus her processor was off her ear and the headpiece was off her head. I have no idea how long she was without sound! Also, the headpiece cap was missing. I'm so pissed. I feel like this guy can not be responsible for Miss Kat's equipment. If he can't even keep the kids in seat belts, how is he going to make sure that she keeps almost $10,000 on her ear? Ugh. Is there anything I can do about this??