That's My Name!

Logan loves to share things with his younger brother, Chase. Every time he sees Chase in the morning he says, "Chase, wake up, yeah." Every time he gets out of the car to go to school, he says to his brother, "Chase, Bye." Every time we pick him up from school, he says, "Chase, Hi. How are you?" and shows him what he colored at school by saying, "Chase, look." This goes on all day, however, Chase never responds to Logan or even acknowledges that Logan is talking to him, mainly because Logan still hasn't mastered Chase's name yet--Chase doesn't know he is being addressed. I usually repeat Chase's name to him, so that he will look up at Logan-I want Logan to know that his words have meaning, that we are understanding, so that he doesn't get discouraged.

Anyway, today in the car, Logan was sitting in the backseat, behind Chase. Logan found a batman toy in the car that he wanted to show Chase and said, "Chase, Chase!" (with the 'ch' and the 'a' sound sounding very clear). I was getting ready to repeat Chase's name for him, when Chase looked back at Logan and said, "What." He recognized his name! Logan said it good enough for Chase to understand. I grinned from ear to ear!

I feel like this is a start for "normal" brotherly playtime!

Prayers Answered!

The only thing that has been standing in our way of the second CI (as far as we know), was getting insurance to pay for it. My husband is a (non-paid) resident at Univ. of Florida and I am a stay at home mom--therefore, the kids and I are on Medicaid with a second type of insurance, CMS (children's medical services, a insurance for disabled children).

Medicaid does not pay for a second CI and we were told by doctors and audiologists that they had never heard of CMS paying for a second one and to not get my hopes up. Also, our chances were lower than normal especially with the economy being in such bad shape. My husband did not want that to stop us from doing this for our little boy and said that we would take (more) loans out if needed.

We are a family who live our lives based around our faith. All of our major decisions that we have had to make regarding Logan have not come with out much prayer and faith. This decision was no different. When my husband graduated UCLA dental school, we had a choice to make about where he would do his two year endodontic residency. We could stay at UCLA, which was financially a better decision, or go to Florida, which would put a real strain on us financially. Neither of us had been to Florida, we didn't have any family or friends near there and didn't know much about the city. We tried to ignore the feeling that we should make the move to Florida, it was a scary, unknown adventure. After much thought and prayer, we felt that there was something in the small town of Gainesville that was drawing us there, possibly getting Logan's second ear done, since UCLA was denying us one there.

On Sunday, my husband and I decided to fast for the purpose of hoping that CMS would cover the $80,000-ish upcoming surgery.

I was surprised to hear from CMS so quickly today, I wasn't expecting a call for another week or so. Well, the answer brought me to tears...in a good way. They were going to cover the surgery! I was shocked and had to ask again if they were aware that this was CI # 2, because I heard that they don't cover that normally. The woman chucked and assured me that CMS knew what they were approving! I am still a bit skeptical since this has all happened so quickly and easily, we'll keep our fingers crossed!

I know that my Heavenly Father is mindful of us and am grateful that prayers are answered!

No CT Scan needed!

The ENT's office got a hold of Logan's CT scan from last year (which I have been trying to get my hands on for weeks) so a new one isn't needed! Yeah!

2 "ears"?

So as many of you know, we have been eager to get Logan a second CI, although this decision was tough--it was easier than deciding on getting the first one. When we lived in LA, UCLA denied us a second one because "he was doing so well with just one". We have been pursuing it again since moving to Florida. We finally got an appointment with the ENT doc and the day went like this...


-I signed Logan in as a new patient and filled out required paperwork.

-We were called back by a nurse and met with the doctor's assistant for about 25 minutes for a routine "getting to know you" appointment. After we were done I briefly mentioned that we were interested in getting the second implant done but was interrupted in by a knock on the door.

-Dr. Antonelli came in and gave Logan a high five, looked in his ears and listened as the assistant gave him cliff notes on our 25 minute conversation. She ended her speech by saying, "Oh, and they would like to look into getting Logan a second CI on his left ear."

-The doctor then said, "Sounds good to me, nice to meet you." and they both left the room after giving me discharge papers.


What just happened??? Was he saying "sounds good to me" to the implant, or was just that his normal good-bye/see-you-later speech.

...Later that night I got a call from his office giving me the date and time for Logan's CT scan--October 30th! I was confused and asked the nurse why he was getting a CT done. She said, "It says here in his file that he is having the cochlear implant surgery done and this needs to be done prior to the surgery."

YIPPEE!! That was what I was hoping she'd say. But wait, was it really that easy? I say, "We want a second CI" and the doctor says, "OK"? I am not getting my hopes up, but it sounds like its a go. I'm sure the Audiology and CI team have to meet to agree on this and insurance has to approve (which seems to be near impossible to get a second one approved), but so far it sounds like we are on the right track.

click here and here

New experience book...

Holidays seem to be awesome ways of introducing new vocabulary to Logan, so I made a Halloween experience book of all of the "Scary" things that are involved with Halloween. I used pictures from the items that are around the house so that he can also identify them to me as he walks by them...

Skeletons...spider webs

Leaves...candy

witch...candy corn

black cat...scary house

Jack-o-lantern...monster

pumpkins...ghost

costumes..."Trick-or-Treating"

Great Language Games from Cranium...

"Hullabaloo" helps with animal recognition and sounds. Also with colors and shapes and names of motor skills. Logan has to listen to the DVD for instruction on what to do next. Ex: "Hop to a purple mat..."




"Cariboo" teaches numbers (1-4), colors and letters (A-D).

My Halloween Ears...

Logan's Spider Man stickers were getting old, so we decided to change them out. We have been talking so much about Halloween lately and learning all of the "scary" words, that Logan wanted "scary" stickers on his ears. We thought pirates would suffice. He loves them and shows them off to everyone. Before, getting him to wear the hearing aid was a struggle, but now, he wants to wear the aid as much as the CI!