Her first phone call!!

Miss Kat got her first phone call from a friend today! She was in the bathtub and I picked up my cell phone and it was one of her friends from school. She asked if she could talk to Miss Kat. I was stunned. I said ok and grabbed Miss Kat's Harmony (because the Neptune has the mic on the headpiece, which is unsuitable for the phone) and gave her the phone. Her friend then asked "When am I going to come to your house and play?" Miss Kat was surprised and said "What?" Her friend said "Can I come on Saturday?" Miss Kat looked at me, and I nodded, so she said yes.

Wow! A friend from school getting her phone number and calling her up! She is getting so big!

***Turns out that the friend did not have authority to set up a playdate, and they are going out of town for the week-end, but still! A friend who likes her so much that they call her at home (and actually, turns out that she left a voicemail on my phone yesterday too!) and is that excited to hang out with her! I'm so happy for her!

Neptune Time

So, we have been having nothing but problems with the Neptune! Miss Kat reported that she could hear nothing with it. Through several phone conversations with AB, we tried drying the headpiece, switching the headpiece, changing programs, switching to the universal headpiece, changing the cord, trying different kinds of batteries, and finally trying a whole new processor. All to no avail. The Neptune would power on, flash 4 orange light (showing full battery), one green (for program one) and then flash red until connected to her head...that was all perfect. Then, when we connected it to Miss Kat, no sound, and the processor wouldn't flicker green in reaction to any sounds. We weren't getting any faulty lights, Miss Kat just couldn't hear. At first we assumed maybe it was a bad mic, which would make sense (since the processor is showing all the right lights, it thinks it is working, the sound just isn't getting through.) Well, we switched headpieces and that didn't fix it. So we switched out every possible piece, and still no sound. Oh, and did I mention that Miss Kat is in Utah, and her Nana is having to do all this troubleshooting, over the phone with us, having never touched a Neptune before! She had no idea what to do!!

Finally, I get ahold of an angel of an audiologist at AB. I am VERY frustrated (and probably rude) at this point. We have been dealing with it for 5 days, and AB had sent out every part imaginable. So, I repeat our problem and list all the things we had tried. She says "I think the program is set to aux. only." Ummm, what? She asked what the microphone settings were on her Harmony. I replied that last I checked, they were 50/50. She explained that if her MAP was set to t-mic only (aux), and then just loaded into the Neptune, she wouldn't be able to hear. The processor would be working perfectly, except that the mic wouldn't be turned on! Well, duh. Where was she 5 days ago??

So, Miss Kat headed back up to Cache (who profusely apologized) and switched it over. She now hears just fine and can finally start getting wet!

Goings on

We received the Neptune yesterday. It is awesome! It came will a full suitcase of parts, including 3 different color options. We are so excited. We mailed it off to Miss Kat (who is in Utah visiting family), who should get it in less than an hour!

Yesterday, Miss Kat also had a MAPing appointment with her old audiologist from Utah. I wanted another set of eyes to check out her hearing. I love Cache. He is really invested in making sure his patients hear well, and we have the same approach to testing and MAPing. He is extremely aggressive and willing to push Miss Kat in order to ensure that she has the best access to sound. He tinkered around and made some changes, and did some discrimination testing. He says Miss Kat is doing amazing. He thinks her scores are great (I think there is plenty of room for improvement!) He hasn't seen her sent we moved for Miss Kat's oral school and he is DUMBFOUNDED by her growth! He says that he is so proud of her and that he wants to show her off. He just kept saying he couldn't believe how far she has come, and said "We did a good thing" (about deciding to implant her.)

We totally agree!