Evan's Vantage Point of Activation

Kristel has been wanting me to give my vantage point of her CI Activation Day and am finally getting around to it! The entire process has been really interesting. Leading up to the actual surgery I was a wreck and nervous where Kristel was as calm as a nice summer's day. But leading up to and the day of activation Kristel was a wreck and nervous where I was the calm one.

Kristel was so worried that the device wouldn't work and she wouldn't be able to hear anything. I kept a positive attitude and kept reassuring her and telling her things like we didn't come all this way and go through all of the stuff we did for it not to work. It will work, and it will be great! I'd like to think that my positive attitude is what kept her going.

I had really no idea what to expect when they activated the device. It was crazy that it was all done through a laptop connection to the implant and were able to program it and make adjustments...seriously, technology is amazing. So a lot of the technical stuff about it I will bypass because I really don't know where to start.

At first, I guess they turned on individual electrodes at a time and Kristel was supposed to respond when she heard beeps or tones. Going into it, all Kristel wanted was to hear these beeps, which would make it successful. When the audiologist first started sending the beeps through and there was no response from Kristel, I could see in her eyes and by her demeanor that her anxiety level was increasing along with her stress because she knew that there were beeps, but she couldn't hear them. I imagined her screaming inside, "Noooooooooooo!"

Apparently, it was completely normal not to hear anything at first, but when she did hear the first beeps her demeanor completely changed, her face lit up, a smile broadened across her face, and exclaimed joyfully, "I heard it!" From there, the rest of the process was as smooth as a hot knife cutting through butter. (I'm just full of metaphors and similes today!)

Most of my "occupation" was capturing it all on film, which you can see some clips at the end of this post, but it was really exciting to see Kristel start to hear more and more and make out not just beeps, but other sounds, tones, and speech! She was super excited about the results and so happy that it worked. Two of my favorite parts of the activation is where she heard a question from the audiologist - "Do you have children?" Kristel repeated the question and responded, "I do!" See video below:

My other favorite time was when she heard my voice for the first time and gave this big happy sigh, "Ahhhhh...." Later, Kristel said that it sounded like home. That made me really happy. I will have to find that video and put it here too. Check for an update later with more videos.

Overall, it was a great experience and Kristel was super excited and happy about it. We celebrated by going to Olive Garden!