WWII survivor

Grace had surgery last month.  She got a 2nd cochlear implant and we are very excited for it.  After many many issues with our insurance we finally were approved to have it done...the insurance company is such a JOKE and they aren't paying for the whole thing but we are glad that she finally has 2 good ears!  These pictures are of her when we just got home from the hospital.  I forgot to take the camera to the hospital with me but that whole experience was so long and miserable that I feel okay not having any pictures to remember it by.  Buck joked after her first surgery nearly 4 years ago that she looked like a WWII victim because of the huge pressure bandage on her head.  She looked just the same this time.  She just kept looking at me like, "what have you done to me?"  I purposely didn't tell her what surgery entailed exactly because it was going to hurt no matter what so why scare her by telling her that she was going to get hurt (or feel sore or whatever)?  Then she would have just freaked out that it was happening at all. 

These were the sleeping arrangements in our room that first night after surgery.  I was worried she would wake up in the middle of the night (as she often still does, much to my annoyance that my deaf 5 year old is the worse sleeper of my 2 kids. how does that even make sense??) and fall off her bunk bed trying to climb down to come get me or something.  So we dragged her mattress in to our room, then of course had to bring in Luke's because he felt left out.  It was a big slumber party.  She did not come out of the anesthesia well at all (much like me...I always barf).  She threw up several times and so the whole night would not let that pink bin leave her side because she heaved for a long time after the barfing was over.  She kept saying, "I need my bucket."

She kept saying she wanted her bandage off when we came home from the hospital but the next day when we actually could take it off, she didn't want to let me take it off.  The dumb thing kept falling in her eyes and I was finally able to get her to let me take it off. 

This was what lay underneath and it needed to come off too but it was crusted to her head with dried blood and I couldn't get it off!  I cut off as much of the excess that wasn't stuck but had to call for reinforcements...

Thankfully my brother and his wife were coming in to town that very day and she agreed to come by and help me get it off.  She was a trauma nurse in the ER at Primary Children's for a long time and much more qualified and capable of dealing with bloody things than myself!  After the bandage was off, Grace wanted a picture of her holding her cute cousin, Baby Ben, who she just adores even though she has only actually seen him a handful of times.  He is so very cute though!

Now that the month has passed, Grace saw the surgeon to check on how her head has healed and since everything was great, she got the okay to get switched on.  The videos below are her reactions to hearing for the first time with her left ear.  You can see that she isn't quite sure if she is really hearing something because it is so new to that ear. The second video is kind of long but in the first part, you can see her reaction when she hears speech for the first time.