So today marked a new notch in Drake's sweet life . The photo above is from when he was about a year old (5 1/2 years ago), you can read more about it here. It's a picture of him with his Baha for Children (Bone Anchored Hearing Aid) which is connected to the headband, not his skull. Drake has microtia (meaning small ear and/or deformity) and aural atresia (meaning absence of ear canals) of his ears.
Even though I took this cute picture, it doesn't show how is dislikes the tight headband. The company calls it a "softband", but to Drake it seemed to not be very "soft". He could easily knock it off, left red marks were left where it has to be taught enough to conduct sound, and not knowing if the sound bothered him on top of it all.
Here are photos from Baha of the titanium screw & what it does that Drake had implanted yesterday. We had to FIGHT the insurance, make multiple calls, get an extra ABR test to prove he needed the chance to hear. Which by the way, the insurance considers it a "luxury" to be able to hear...WTF?!?!?!
Below is a photo of the implant post-surgerical. It completely stunned us that you can be put to sleep, have a titanium screw drilled in your skull, stitched/glued back up and go home a few hours later. We were even able to schedule a teeth cleaning while he was sedated (not as simple as it sounds, but done none the less)! He came home with slight nausea, possible sore throat from the intubation (another NOT simple process with Drake), but HAPPY to be home!
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