HE CAN HEAR!

My God! He can hear! What excitement, what joy, I do not have the words to describe how wondrous this moment is. What had been taken from my precious little child has now been given back thanks to Dr. Gresham Richter. He will always hold a special place in my heart for the gift he has given my son. It is too overwhelming to fight back the tears.
My child can hear. These words are words I never thought I would ever say. These words are words that to most parents have little or no significance. But to me, they are a beautiful symphony that goes on forever.
Grayson's face lit up as his Audiologist Jordan King fed him his first post-op sounds through his implant. He immediately look to me with a huge grin as if to say " Mommy, I can hear." To think, what he must have been thinking as his now silent world, the world he had now become accustom, had been magically transformed once again. Only this time for the better.
I had been prepared for tears, for the possibility of his rejecting this change, but it never happened. Instead, because of his once having hearing he had embraced the gift of sound. My fear, my dread, had all disappeared in an instant.

First Surgery

Here we go. Jumping in head first, holding our breath. January 2nd, 2009 my son has just had his first of two cochlear implant surgeries today. I am overwhelmed with emotion. What was supposed to take 2 hours turned into almost a 4 hour surgery, but Grayson has made it! His right ear has been implanted and now we will have three weeks before we know if it is going to work. He has his first doctor appt. in two weeks for a "post-op" check to make sure the stitches are healing properly. The following week Grayson will have his implant turned on. It is a gradual process. We will go back to Arkansas Children's Hospital every week for 6 to 8 weeks so his implant can be turned up more and more. (Did I mention it is almost a 3 hour trip to the hospital each way?) But all the driving is well worth it! The surgeon says he was able to get all 22 electrodes into Grayson's cochlea and that things could not have gone better. All there is to do now is pray for a speedy recovery. We will stay overnight here at the hospital and if all goes well, we will be sent home tomorrow. Thank you Heavenly Father.