So much happens in 48hrs...

My goodness, where to begin...at the beginning, i suppose. Clarification: this appointment was not implant surgery itself, just a post-scan consultation at which we would choose a future date for surgery. Sorry if that was unclear.

Before I get started, I just wanted to day thanks to everyone who reads these posts, and especially to those who comment or send me messages. We really appreciate your support and your company on this journey!

So, 8:15am surgeon's appointment...which turns out to be 8:45am in real life...and it's all systems go for surgery. Now to find a date. We have two choices, one in early Aug or one in early Sept. I then mention that she has some dental work to be done as well (see this post), and ask if there would be a possibility of doing both teeth and implant at the same time. The answer is an emphatic 'NO', for very good health reasons, and in fact he'd really prefer it if her teeth were done first.

Right!

So they're happy to hold both dates for us, get paperwork going and fill in the date later, if we can tell them asap which date we want. This of course is now going to depend on when i can get her teeth done! So we leave that appointment and while walking back to the car i get on the phone to the dental people.

It's been about 3 months since we've seen the dental people, and i've deliberately put them on hold for a bit because of the implant, thinking we could do the teeth afterwards. I also happen to know that the dental surgeon we saw has left the practice, so we're going to have to go with someone else, suddenly! I explain all this to the dental people, who are very good actually, look at the file and decide that the quote from 3 months ago is probably still good and they'll go ahead and book the surgery for us. Now, dates...hmmm, late Aug in Brisbane...not exactly what I had in mind...or very early Aug in Toowoomba.

Toowoomba.

OK, so now this turns into a whole new thing. Do we get the teeth done quickly (in Toowoomba) so that we can get the implant in Aug, which is actually my preferred time because I can more easily take time off work that week than Sept, or do we do teeth in Brisbane and delay the implant til September?

What would you choose?

Of course there is no right or wrong answer, so we've ended up choosing to get her teeth done in Toowoomba and have the implant done earlier rather than later, mainly because it will be easier for me to take time off work then even though it will make it a crazy busy time. It also gets her implant in nearly a month earlier, which is an extra month of rehabilitation before school, which just gives her that extra month's chance of being ready before school begins in 2016. I know, a long way away, but we just don't know how quickly this left ear is going to pick up, if at all. I don't feel like we have no time, but I also don't feel like we have much to waste either.

So, Tuesday 5th August will see Daddy and Jonica checking in to day surgery at a hospital in Toowoomba, and returning with 4 stainless steel crowns on her 2yr-old molars to hold them together. Then the next week, Monday 11th August will see Mummy and Jonica checking in to a Brisbane hospital for an overnight stay, and coming home with an amazing Australian device in her head, ready to bring the world of sound back to her left ear. What a week! And then the follow-ups. And then therapy begins...

Well we thought we had that sorted. Which it is, but then you can just never tell what's around the corner. I picked Jonica up from Kindy yesterday afternoon, and as we got in the car she began crying and saying that her ears weren't working, either of them. I checked both hearing aids, yes they were working quite fine...but every time i put them in she'd scream and cry and insist they weren't working and that she couldn't hear me. What?!? Finally i left them out for a bit, cos there was no convincing her otherwise. We travelled to our next stop in the car, and once she calmed down, she didn't speak. Hmmm. That's quite unlike my little chatterbox, as was the reaction to her hearing aids...

Got to our next destination, attempted to put the hearing aids in again, same reaction. Wow, this was really serious. I began to wonder if that right ear had dropped again. How could i tell? I wish you could get a home hearing test kit. I've got to make it up as i go a little bit, but i'm slowly working out ways of observing how well my kids are hearing in given situations. We got inside to a quiet area and i asked her a few questions. To some she gave rubbish answers, but some she answered correctly. Argh! Hard to tell if she was honest or mucking around. She was clearly quite tired, so responses were going to be unreliable at best anyway.

Checked her again this morning, and I think there's been a change. Pest. Tested the Ling sounds at 1m with both hearing aids and she failed to even detect at least 2, maybe 3 of the sounds (can't remember, brain's a bit full atm!). She normally can hear them all with both hearing aids in. But still she's patchy, seems to hear some things but not other things...how am i gonna nail this one down?!? Emailed Aus Hearing today, just to let them know there may be something afoot. And then, it came to me! There's a retail chain of audiology services here in Australia that park themselves in shopping centres and do free hearing tests. Aha! If I take her to one of those and see if she'll do the test, then compare the result to her latest audiogram from Aus Hearing or Mater (if it's detailed enough), I should be able to see if anything's changed! Then if it has, i can go straight to Aus Hearing, results in hand, and hopefully get something moving if necessary. What a plan!

So guess what I'm doing tomorrow...I'll let you know how it goes...

Next appt: Tues 5th August, Jonica's Dental Surgery in Toowoomba