Showing posts with label cochlear implant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cochlear implant. Show all posts

Friday, May 17, 2013

Waiting to Hear

I haven't blogged in so long because there hasn't been any news...... : (
Still waiting to hear about the pre-certification for the cochlear implant.  It has been a much more trying time this go round than two years ago.  I'm trying to understand why except to say we will appreciate it all the more when it does happen.  More on that after the cochlear.  For those of you who have gone down this road of getting a cochlear and have been older what were your expectations?  Those expectations of your doctor?


I'm trying to deep clean the house in the midst of waiting.  I seem to remember my college professor quoting someone as saying "each possession you own takes a portion of your time", I want my time back so I'm getting rid of stuff we don't use.  I'm also bugging the surgery coordinator for updates mostly because I'm getting conflicting reports from both her and the insurance company.  Who is dropping the ball on
pre-certification?  I have no idea.  Doctor says they have sent all the paperwork, insurance company says they don't have all the paperwork.  Surgery coordinator says she has talked to the insurance company and they tell her they have everything but I hear the opposite.  I find it ironic that my husband would like to be able to hear to communicate better and we can't seem to communicate clearly ourselves.


In the mean time....we keep drinking coffee, taking walks, watching geese grow up.  I've been gardening in buckets!  Oh how I love bucket gardening.  So does Chris because that means I leave his yard alone.  My dad found $4.00 buckets at Walmart in green.  They are nothing short of awesome, thank you Dad.  I'm only growing tomatoes and beans this year so succotash everyone, my treat!

Every night when there is crying and whining before bed Chris tells me how he can't wait to understand that look of frustration on my face when they. won't. stop. talking.  Maybe we will understand each other's frustrations a little bit better as parents.  He is mostly patient but every other week or so I see him get a look on his face that say's "I'm through waiting."  I'm waiting for him to hear himself talk, take him to a concert maybe, let him hear the kids and our cat.  I'm sure we will still sign.  After all I have things to tell him about my day, our kids, and those parent only conversations that I have been saying in sign so long.  Like "Hurry up I want to eat the ice cream we've been hiding from the kids."  You just can't whisper that children have radar ears for words like 'ice cream.'

But I will be grateful for his deafness too because we have always been so acutely aware of our communication.  Especially when we don't.  For each of you who have been married I always say those little old women should have warned me instead of those notes like "Don't go to bed angry....forget that....if we try and communicate anymore the house will explode."  But I saw a pinterest quote that said "I don't want a perfect marriage, I want a worth it marriage."  Yeah he's worth it. Definitely.
One of my many moments on the phone between insurance company, doctors office, and getting someone some milk.
Off we go!
Don't forget to bring them treats! They are the celebrities of the lake!

Did I also mention we've been playing with the split-pic app?  Hours of hilarious entertainment I'm telling you.

More to come!
Kim and Family :)








Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Cowl Love

Anything that makes me look less than the exhausted mother I am is great in my book.  I have always been envious of my husband who can put on clothes and look ready for the day.  I instead must go through a daily beauty routine before I'm presentable.

So here comes my cowls, I ADORE them.  They make me look elegant and well but together, no matter if I'm wearing coat or T-shirt.  That's a big help for all women.  I've been happily making some infinity cowl because I love the way they curl over the top of a coat but are also tucked underneath~~~ hence NO drafts of cold air!

I especially love to make the trim on my cowls.  I try to make it a something a little different.
Thanks for stopping by and leave some feed back!

Kim & Family =)







Thursday, December 15, 2011

Thank you!

I will keep saying thank you to many people for many things for as long as I live. But today a special thank you to my cousin who helped me come up with this idea....

An Internal Cochlear Implant Brooch / Pin...ta da.
It's a little bit funky and different, educational too! (just study the picture!)

And most importantly it will bring us closer to the ACTUAL cochlear implant.
So pick up yours today. Click on the picture to take you to the store. My personal favorite is wearing it on your hat!

Take a look =)
And the actual implant from {http://www.bcm.edu/cms_web/407//Implanted-device.gif}


More to come!

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Motivation

Little known fact....
I only completed one (yes 1) crochet project (a small pillow..tiny tiny like 2 x 2 inches) when I first learned at eight years old.

If I began anything else I ended up unhappy with it and ripped it out, balled up the yarn, and started over with something else, ripped it out......

So you could say I just needed the right motivation to complete something. =)

Here is M. modeling the new purple/gray scarf. She's just so darn cute to me I can't stand it. And it seems she LOVES to let mommy take pictures of her.

You can find this scarf by clicking here to go to the Etsy store.

This scarf took me about 4 days. Stripes are ohhhh so fun but they leave a lot to fix. Also B, her friend and myself had to take time out to do some bike riding.Before a great scarf comes the work in progress....

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Informing the Family and Friends


Hello everyone enjoy this bit of news.....
Almost a year ago Chris said he wanted a cochlear. It's possible at the time he was just trying to say sorry for our fight. I didn't take him seriously. Then a few months later he told me again he wanted a cochlear and I replied that's great do you really want that? He said yes but again I let more time pass.

Almost a year passed and he was still saying he wanted a cochlear so we went for testing and confirmed he was an excellent candidate for surgery. Then we got a quote on how much surgery would cost. Not impossible but it would require more patience and saving on our part. (It's around 3500 to 4000 out of pocket). I checked out scholarship opportunities but nothing really exists for a 30ish father of three. So I decided Chris wasn't getting any younger and neither were our kids. If he wanted to hear then I wanted him to hear all the great, weird, funny bits that come out of our kids mouths (the screaming parts too).

So here is my attempt at fund raising. It will be a long journey. If you are not familiar with a cochlear basically they enable hearing for the deaf by inserting a long skinny tube into the snail like part of your ear called the "cochlear." It changes sound into electronic stimuli for your auditory nerve to transmit to your brain. It is an outpatient procedure.

We will raise the amount little by little. I have started a blog so you can sign up to follow and see our progress. and an etsy store where all the saving happens!

blog: http://dirtcomesclean.blogspot.com/

store: www.dirtcomesclean.etsy.com

Please visit both and share this journey with us. Say prayers!!! Leave comments, suggestions, words of support. Our journey will not end with surgery as this will be a whole new experience for Chris. The cochlear device we are looking at is the cochlear 5 (which comes with a remote I might add...evil grin...just kidding....but Chris wants to hide it from me anyways).

More to come!
Kim =)

Video Save

It will take some time to get a cochlear. In the mean time I think I should save some video for Chris to watch after he gets the cochlear. So I archived some D sounds while he is still little.

Please ignore the annoying woman (yes that would be me) obviously trying to get the little man to say something. =)


Special Delivery

Designing packaging for my scarves has been exceptionally fun! As fun as making the scarves. I am using recycled materials. Can you guess what this blue one is made out of?

I have just started selling them so we have a longgggg way to go to raise our portion of the surgery. All in all we can expect to pay around 3500.00 to 4000. That includes paying for the surgeon and the hospital portion. It will be an outpatient procedure but must be performed in the hospital. Not to worry I'm all for that!!

I mailed out 3 scarves today. In total we have sold 5 (thank you very much). Our journey continues with each crochet stitch.
For those of you who can't read my chicken scratch (grin). Here is what the note says:

This is just a simple scarf
But it has so much work to do.
Keeping your neck warm
And making you look great too!

Yours was just a simple purchase
But your gift has so much to do
It will give the gift of hearing to a man,
a father, a husband too!

Thank you for your purchases and I hope you enjoy these scarves for many years to come.




Please leave comments on what colors you would like to see or what kind of scarves (long,skinny, short, chunky) below, at www.dirtcomesclean.etsy.com,
or email me at dirt_comes_clean@yahoo.com

As always thank you from Kim =)