Miracles...

I can't believe in all of my craziness I totally forgot to write anything about my brother's cochlear implant. The experiences that my family went through to get Derek his implant were the most miraculous and life changing experiences I think any of us have ever had. As most of you know my younger brother Derek was born profoundly deaf. For years my parents had fought to try to get him a cochlear implant (the newest technology to help deaf people hear). My parents insurance would not pay for the device, even after years of appeals, they denied any financial help. Since cochlear implants range from $60,000 and up my parents had no way to pay for this on their own. They filled out many applications and did a lot of research on what they could do to get Derek an implant. They found out about a institute that grants families with need a cochlear implant device. Amazingly Derek was awarded the device. However, although we had the implant, my parents still had to pay for surgical, mapping, and therapy fees that totaled approximately $20,000. We had a family meeting and decided to try to raise the money ourselves. We decided on doing a fundraiser yardsale. It was absolutely amazing. The word got out about what we were doing and everyone helped. It was truly incredible. The yardsale consisted of individuals donating enough stuff to fill 6 yards. People brought handmade quilts as well as a lot of other items to auction off (movie tickets, restaurant tickets, etc.). Other people brought food to sell and different services to offer. When I woke up in the morning to start loading stuff onto the lawn at six in the morning it was pitch dark and freezing outside. When I opened our front door there were already like 30 people there working. The whole street was filled and people stayed from six in the morning until 6 at night. People helped sell things and helped clean things up and helped deliver items. It was amazing (do I keep saying that). Other than the time and stuff that people donated, other people donated their money - much more than we ever expected. We thought we may get a small percentage of the total money we needed and have to find other ways to come up with the rest. But when the sale was over we began counting the money. We were all in shock at the amount of money we earned. Most of us couldn't stop crying - it was truly a miracle. The way that everyone came together to help us was something we never expected. We learned more about faith and hope and service that we probably will for the rest of our lives.

During my schooling I have been able to study a lot about cochlear implants and therapy for these devices. I have worked with multiple children with implants, teaching them how to learn to use their devices to their maximum capacities. This whole experience hit so close to home for me and was a very emotional experience.

So what is a cochlear implant??? (I get asked this a lot)

A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted electronic device that provides a sense of sound to a person who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing. The cochlear implant is often referred to as a bionic ear. Unlike hearing aids, the cochlear implant does not amplify sound, but works by directly stimulating any functioning auditory nerves inside the cochlea with electric field stimulated through an electric impulse.

This is a confusing way of saying it is a device that takes the acoustic waves of sound in the air and converts them into an electrical signal that is sent to the brain and interpreted as sound.

The device is implanted directly into the cochlea. The following pictures are of a cochlear implant surgery. I think they are interesting - however, (WARNING) if you don't like blood you probably shouldn't continue looking.