Maybe you don't know who you're talking to...

We just returned from our psychological evaluation at Hopkins where we were told no less than 10 times in 10 different ways that our child should be at River School next year. Yes, River School is an amazing place, but frankly the hard sell was off- putting and unwanted. We owe both my sanity (supportive staff) and insanity (hellish commute) to River. Tommy has benefited from parent/infant, speech with Meredith Ouelette, audiological services from Jen Mertes, generous scholarship support from Nancy Mellon, and amazing teachers along the way. If we weren't talking about being in the car next year for 3 1/2 hours per day, and/or Tommy wasn't significantly behind in language skills we would be there next year. The bottom line is that we want to capture some of his areas of weakness now before the academic pressures of kindergarten set in. Oh, and the DHOH preschool is five minutes from our house. We've had a rocky road with County services, but last week at our IEP meeting we couldn't have asked for anything more. I have great confidence in Tommy's "staff" and whether or not we believe in every detail of the model of his new preschool is almost a mute point...pun intended. We know our kid, I know the system, We know what we're doing....telling us to "Expect the best, but prepare for the worst" is not helpful. I'm only happy that we're at a place where we're comfortable with our decision because if we weren't- we would have left Baltimore in tears.

We also have another young son with a schedule and a life of his own that we need to support. It's easy to say from the comfort of a medical office what is best for a child, but put the mother's shoes on for A DAY.

June 3rd sounds lovely

We were firmly wed to the 18th, but received a call that June 3rd would be our date instead. In the grand scheme of things not a big deal, but in the immediate term of getting all our ducks (ie. appointments) in a row - just a little stressful.

On a side note, Tommy is happy he's getting a cochlear implant like his friend Christian. I can actually picture the two of them as teenage boys picking up chicks together...their CI's will be their calling card. They look like little linebackers now and hope they will grow up together as "buds."

June 18th...

Well, one day makes a difference. We received the call - June 18th is surgery day. We need to report to the hospital by 6:45 a.m.. Tommy loved hanging out at the Admiral Fell in Fells Point the night before his CT scan so, we'll just do it again. What can I say, he has good taste in pizza...he was a huge fan of BOP. If you're somewhat of a local you may remember some foggy late night dining there.

I assumed I'd have a great sense of relief, but instead I just feel like I need a Xanax and a Zantac. Hopefully zoning out to some reality TV will do the trick instead.

waiting...and more waiting

When I first had the idea of doing a blog for Tommy I assumed the information would be fast and furious as we quickly marched toward surgery. Ummm, yeah - not quite the case. After two more appointments at Hopkins that included a mini-quarantine for "suspicious travel to Mexico" we are no closer to surgery than we were a month ago. I do well with a plan, not so well with the entire Summer in flux. I was hoping to have the surgery in time for Tommy to participate in ESY (summer school of sorts) at his new DHOH preschool to help ease the transition before activation and the start of the school year. As each day goes by without a phone call I'm realizing that my plan quite probably is a pipe dream. My biggest fear is activation close to the start of school. The stress of the new sounds and adjusting to natural hearing with electrical hearing is the big mystery....How well will he adjust? Will he reject the cochlear implant? Will he be terrified? Watching him struggle with the simplest of tasks it's clear that he NEEDS a CI and am grateful that the "deaf enough" card has been granted. Let's get on with the show already....