The night before surgery, Jacob, Elijah's older brother spent the night with my mom. We got up very early on the morning of the 22nd and arrived at the hospital right no time, 7:30 AM. It was a cold dreary morning and we had some sleet on the drive in. My mom arrived later and brought Jacob with her. They took Elijah off to surgery around 8:45. We went out to see my mom. David and I then went to get some breakfast with Jacob in the hospital. When we got a good look out the windows we noticed it was SNOWING. It was coming down so heavily. David's mom didn't make it in due to the weather.

Elijah came out around 10:30 that morning. He was fast asleep. We stayed with him for a bit, then my mom told us we should go get some lunch while we could. David, Jacob and I went to get some lunch in the hospital. I ate quickly, I wanted to get back to Elijah. David stayed out with Jacob while I went back.

I got back to recovery and he was still sleeping. I went to change his pull up and he sat straight up quite upset. I got him changed and gave him a drink. He kept saying "take it off, take it off" and was quite upset. The nurse came around and asked if we thought he might need some morphine, I said "YES!". Once we got the meds in him he went back to sleep. David came back with Jacob, and my mom decided to take him home. She didn't like seeing Elijah that way.

Elijah kept down his juice and tried a Popsicle. He was discharged around 2:00pm and we drove home in the snow. He slept all the way home. We picked Jacob up on the way home. Once home we let Elijah sleep on the couch. David went back to catch a nap. He had just started a new job and was working a late shift. Jacob was outside in the snow. Elijah woke up about an hour later and ate four bowls of cereal. He saw the snow outside and wanted to go out to play. He couldn't of course. He laid around the rest of the night and later went to bed with me. I was very pleased with how the day had gone. He was a little OFF the next day so I kept him on his pain medication. He had no balance problems though. He slept with me that night also. We had a great Christmas! Elijah got a new bike, but didn't really get to ride it much for a few weeks!!

We went in for post op on Dec.29th. The surgeon was pleased with how he was healing. We also picked up Elijah's new processor and all of the accessories that go with it. The audiologist suggested we let him wear his new processor, turned off of course, for the next month before we came in for activation. We were scheduled to go back on Jan. 20th for turn on.

We did let Elijah wear it off and on for the next few weeks and he never had any problems with it. In fact one day he looked at me, pointed to his new ear and said "batteries momma batteries". Now I have kept a journal of what has happened since he was turned on and that is what follows.

JOURNAL



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