Still waiting

We're still waiting for insurance to approve the surgery. I received an email from our case management worker at the insurance yesterday and they have reviewed the material (we gave them an expandable folder full of info on bilaterals) but the request from the doctors office for the surgery did not include a letter of medical necessity which they need. Of course when I contacted the doctors office he was on vacation this week and won't be able to get it to them until next week.
We had a speech therapy session this week. Landon is doing great on everything and meeting all of his developmental milestones - except for sitting. He's doing better then he was - has a lot better head control and is sitting in the tripod position. One of the physical therapist stopped by the room to get something and started playing with him so we asked her about the sitting. When she checked him she said it looks to be all a part of his balance and vestibular system being off because of the hearing loss. The back arching seems to be what is hindering him so hopefully he'll outgrow that soon. She said to just keep watching and make sure he keeps improving and if we decide we want to that she would work with him. His brothers didn't sit until 9 months and that was still with the boppy pillow to help balance and catch them. For right now the consensus is that it is a combination of just late sitters in the family and balance problems from not hearing. We'll see how he is doing in the next couple of months and go from there.

Boys check-ups

We went Monday to the doctor for regular check-ups. Landon had his 9mth visit - time has really flown. He weighs in at 18lbs 5oz and 27 1/2 in long. They started him on vitamins which he gags on every time you give them to him. Garrett had his 3 yr check-up and is 29lbs and 35 1/2 in tall. We went this morning for new ear molds for Landon. He is no longer the quiet baby who used to fall asleep while they did it. Now he fusses because he hates to be held still for any amount of time.

It's a Go

We just got the word from the surgoen that the CT scan looked fine so we have a green light for the surgery. Our next big hurdle will be to get insurance approval for the bilaterals. If they approve it right off then the surgeon will do the bilaterals in one surgery. If they only come back with approval for one and we can't get the appeals done in time then he'll have surgery for one side and once we get approval for the bilaterals he would have the surgery for the other. It would be a lot easier to have them done in one surgery and to be able to start with his therapy on both at the same time. Common sense tells you we have two ears for a reason so hopefully the insurance will get that too :) Everyone keep their fingers crossed!

4th of July

The boys had fun swimming at Aunt Tammy's on the fourth. Landon liked to watch the fireworks. We couldn't tell if he could hear them or not - sometimes he would react after a really loud one but the sound would be gone so fast you couldn't tell for sure. Next year should be really fun for him.

Where we are at

We wanted to let everyone know what we have been doing the last few months in preparation for Landon to get cochlear implants. He had a sedated ABR which tested up to 105db and he showed no response. In everyday terms, sound would have to be louder than an airplane for him to be able to hear it. He had an aided booth test where they tested him for reaction to sounds with his hearing aids on. He seemed to react around 75db so at least we know the auditory nerves are getting some stimulation from wearing the hearing aids. He had a CT scan done to check that everything internally is there for him to receive CIs. We are still waiting on the results from that - hopefully we'll hear back from the surgeon this week with the news. Once we get the okay from him and a surgery date we will be submitting everything to insurance for approval of the bilateral CIs.