Changing processors

[Guest guest]

Okay, it is finally going to happen. On Thursday Annika is going back to the

audiologist and we are going to switch her from the BWP to the BTE. We had made

the decision to do this a few months ago but AB had the recall on the battery

packs at the time and I was really afraid that her ears would be too small to

wear the BTE with the powercell attached. Sometime in August I was talking with

other families and I was told that not too worry about that. There are many

ways to help keep the units on her ears. So I made the call to the audi and we

have had to wait a month just to get in with her. But on the plus side the

recall is off and we received the battery packs just a few days after I

scheduled the appointment. We tried one of them on yesterday and she was just so

excited. I don't know if she really understood what I told her but she liked

the covers and the headpieces as she has the kindercolors which are kind of neat

looking.

Now for my question, I want to be prepared with anything that we may need to

use to help keep it on. I plan to use the toupee tape and her audiologist

suggested we try her old earmolds to help hold it on. I would like to stay away

from the earmolds as Annika had many problems with ear infections when she had

aids and I would rather keep her ears open. The BTE does fit her ear really

well and we may not have a problem. The other concern we have is that if it

would fall off and Annika would not notice it. I know that sounds funny but I

have noticed that sometimes she will notice when one of her implants is not

working or off but sometimes not. I think it has to do with the fact that she

still hears. If she is too busy to really pay attention that the volume has

gone down it may take her a little while. She is getting better but the school

has asked that we have it attached to her somehow because they did have one

little girl there in the past that would lose hers on the playground and they

would have to go search the playground for the implant. I know with the battery

pack clipped to her back this should prevent it from getting too far from her.

Any thoughts?

We really believe that we need to do this because Annika still struggles with

her balance and we believe that removing the " packs " from her sides will help

with this. Anytime that she will be moving quickly the packs can sway and this

can throw her off balance. Anyway we are excited about Thursday and then also I

worry because she is doing so well with her BWP and we don't want to lose any

ground with her having to adjust to the new processor. Most people have told me

that the kids usually do just fine as long as you make sure that once you switch

you stay with the BTE and not switch back and forth between the two processors.

Mom of 4

Marcus 15

13

Jon 11

Annika 3

Bilaterally implant 3/1/04

Hookup 3/25/04

spastic diaplegic CP