Nathan's hearing out of both ears!

On January 2nd Nathan's other Cochlear Implant processor was placed on his left ear.  He is now hearing out of both ears.  He did a wonderful job during his first mapping.  He has learned to turn his head when he hears a sound.  I believe the mapping of this implant will go much more quickly than the first implant.  We are going for mapping sessions (programming) once a week for the next four weeks.  By that time he should have a pretty accurate mapping.  We will then return every three months, just as we have been since he received his first implant, for the next several years.  We just tweak the mapping for the implants at these sessions.  Nathan already seems more vocal.  He has given us several really long / loud vocalizations (this is really good) and has said a few words, though haphazardly.

When choosing our cochlear implant company last year we went with the one that was most focused on  research and continually improving their product over the popular, more flashy brand.  We are only one of a few families in Birmingham with the Med-el brand implant.  This is a picture of Nathan's current implant. 

This spring Med-el is introducing a new cochlear implant configuration.  They are the only one of the three companies offering this new implant processor.  We are extremely excited about it and can't wait until it comes out.

 This disk will attach to the magnet in his head, just as the old one does, but there will be nothing over the ear.  This will pretty much eliminate Nathan's ability to pull it off.