Activation the second time around was much different than the first. The first time Culley seemed to enjoy the input immediately. This time, he put his head down when the audiologist introduced the tones. He played the conditioned response game reluctantly and seemed very uncomfortable about the new sensation. Fortunately, he does replace the magnetic coil himself every time it falls off so he does want the input, just not without his "good ear" also being turned on. We're supposed to give him at least one hour a day of practice listening with just his new ear but it's been tough because after about 15 minutes, he starts asking (or finds it himself) for his other processor. So we're doing it in several small increments a day. He can't understand speech from it yet but that's not unusual since it's only been 3 days since activation.
Today is Culley's second day of full-day preschool. For his first day, his entire entourage was there - his SLP, his itinerant teacher of the deaf, school audiologist, and the assistant teacher whom he loves and all of these folks he knows from last year's half-day program. Yesterday he cheerfully said good-bye to us and my husband and I left feeling all was well. Today, he was anxious from the get-go and I see that none of his support staff is there, not even his beloved assistant. His preschool teacher (who is new this year) puts the FM mic around her neck, plugs in his adapter, then walks away. If she even turned it on, she definitely wasn't close enough for him to get the signal properly. I wanted to explain to her how to do it and tell her that she needs to ask Culley if he heard a beep but she started morning circle right away. I hung around waiting for a time to tell her but I was politely requested, via song, to make my exit. Ugh! I left Culley sitting there looking like a deer in the headlights. I was able to give the FM message to the substitute assistant who also had the deer in the headlights look. I keep telling myself that he'll make it through the day and be that much stronger for having to fend for himself. I'm going to try to enjoy my second day of freedom as much as I did yesterday by going for a mountain bike ride on this gorgeous late summer day.
As is the case too often, I forgot to mention that Finn had a wonderful first day of kindergarten. He told me that kindergarten is even better than preschool! He's so brave and self-sufficient. It's so nice that I don't have to worry about him.
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