A new beginning

Luca finally got his external component of the implant which was activated yesterday. It was an emotional and hard day for all of us and at the same time exciting and great. Luca can hear now. Not much, because we don't want to rush him into normal hearing, but he can have that new feeling and get used to it. His reaction yesterday was as expected. He cried and looked scared when he went live. He jerked his implant off and we had to give him 10 pieces of chocolate to try to put it on again. We had to quit after an hour of trying because he was upset and exasperated. But at least that shows that he can hear, he is not used to it, be he can hear. I had to manage to put it back on during the couple of hours remaining of the day and today before he headed back to the audiologist again. I went home thinking how in the world am I going to do that. My parents were concerned that he could be in pain but the audiologist assured us that this wasn't the case. He was just confused and scared of the new feeling. She described it as being in the dark and all of a sudden having the lights turned on. I guess that should be scary if you've never experienced that before.

Luca por fin recibio la parte externa de su implante que fue activado ayer. Fue un momento emotivo y un dia duro para todos nosotros a la vez que emocionate e increible. Luca por fin puede oir. No mucho, porque no queremos apresurarle con un volumen normal, pero puede experimentar esa nueva sensacion y acostumbrarse a ella. Su reaccion ayer fue la esperada. Lloro y parecia asustado cuando le pusieron "en vivo". Se quito el implante de un tiron y tuvimos que darle 10 chocolatitos para intentar ponerselo de nuevo. Tuvimos que parar despues de una hora de intentarlo porque estaba enfadado y desesperado. Pero por lo menos eso demuestra que puede oir, no esta acostumbrado, pero puede oir. Tuve que apanharmelas para volverselo a poner durante las horas restantes del dia y hoy antes de volver a ver a la audiologa. Me fui a casa pensando como narices lo iba a conseguir. Mis padres tenian miedo de que podia tener dolor pero la audiologa nos aseguro que no era el caso. Solo que estaba confundido y con miedo de este nuevo sentimiento. Ella lo describio como si estas en la oscuridad y de repente se encienden las luces. Creo que debe dar miedo si nunca lo has experimentado antes.

We did it. He finally wore it after his mother's persistent tries and forgot about it. I even increased the volume up to the highest level that the audiologist had set, which wasn't too much, but he didn't seem to care once I had accomplished the task of putting it on again for the day. Today, he even clapped when I put it on after our second activation session. It is getting better and he is happy now with his implant. I know it's going to be a lot of work for all of us, but soon things will be better and Luca will be experiencing so many new things he has never experienced or maybe only when he was little. Thanks to all of you who have been thinking of us in such special days! We will keep reporting the new steps in Luca's implant world.

Lo conseguimos. Por fin se lo puso despues de la insistencia de su madre y se olvido de que lo llevaba. Incluso subi el volumen al maximo que la audiologa habia puesto, que no era mucho, pero no parecio importarle una vez que consgui que se lo dejara puesto. Hoy, incluso aplaudio cuando se lo puse despues de la segunda sesion de activacion. Esta mejorando y esta mejor ahora con el puesto. Se que va a ser mucho trabajo para todos nosotros, pero pronto las cosas iran mejor y Luca experimentara tantas cosas nuevas que nunca ha sentido o quizas solo cuando era pequenho. Gracias a todos los que habeis pensado en nosotros en unos dias tan especiales! Seguiremos informando de los nuevos pasos en el mundo de Luca con su implante.