New hearing aids

 Cicily just upgraded to the latest hearing aid model - the Baha 5.  Can you tell she likes it!?!  In the previous post we had the pic of her holding my phone up to her hearing aid to listen to music.  With the Baha 5 she can stream it straight into her hearing aid!!!  It's bluetooth compatible and I have an app to control it on my phone.  She's been LOVING music and now she can listen to it with great sound quality anytime!  I even turned on some kids hymns while she was in church on Sunday and she got a good laugh out of it.

There's also a microphone feature.  I can push a link on my phone and speak into it and it streams straight to her hearing aids.  Cicily and her sisters have been playing around with this one!  Maya or Sophie will go into another room and say a secret word into the phone and then come back in and ask Cicily what the secret word is.  At church I stood outside her class and talked to her.  Lots of fun times being had with these new hearing aids!

Microtia Conference

Now to discuss the whole reason we were in California - the Microtia/Atresia Conference!
Saturday Chris and I went to Palo Alto to hear presentations by the very best doctors specializing in microtia and atresia. Dr. Roberson talked about creating ear canals (atresia repair), which we found out Cicily is NOT a candidate for and we are not too sad about. Drs Reinisch and Lewin talked about Medpor ear reconstruction. Dr. Brent presented on rib graft ear reconstruction. It was all amazingly informative and impressive to hear and see what they can do! The major thing Chris and I both determined was that all of these procedures are very complex and we only want one of these doctors who do these procedures weekly to be working on Cicily.
Sunday we had patient appointments with each doctor where Cicily was able to come and we could ask specific questions. We saw all the doctors and were impressed with them all professionally and personally. After it was all over, we've decided either the Medpor ear reconstruction or prosthetic ears (not presented at this conference) would be our choice.
Medpor - For medpor ears, the surgeon takes a porous polyethylene implant shaped like an ear and places a membrane and skin grafts from the patients' head on top of the implant. The result is an ear that is shaped like an average ear and sticks out from the head like an average ear. The medpor ear can move when pulled on and the live skin can be moved around on the implant just like a typical ear. This surgical method requires one surgery for the right side, one for the left and possibly a third revision surgery to touch up any little areas. What's the downside then you wonder? While the medpor ears look amazingly good, they still do not have the exact appearance of a natural ear with all it's intricate folds and curves. I have pictures of some of these ears in a powerpoint format, I guess you can let me know if you'd like to see it and I can email you.
Prosthetic - For prosthetic ears, you have an anaplastologist take an ear mold (of Mom's or Maya's ear in this case) and create a latex ear using that mold. This ear can be painted to perfectly match the person's head. It is attached to the head using glue, implanted magnets or clips. This ear looks absolutely perfectly like a natural ear. The downside you ask? The ears last 3-5 years and then a new one must be made, the color doesn't "tan", and you have to take them off and put them on each day. This site has excellent pictures http://www.prosthesis.com/ear_base.htm

We would probably have either of these options done when Cicily is around 4-5. Both methods are rather costly and insurance typically does not pay for much, if any of the cost. I'd love to hear what all of you reading would prefer if it were your little ears in question, so please vote in the poll on the sidebar! Thanks