Finally on May 16, she had stage one of her BAHA surgery. A titanium reciever was drilled into her skull, just behind her ear. (Actually there were two of them put in - a spare). This receptor will intergrate with her skull over the next 6-9 months. At that point, she will have stage two done, which allows for a small "post" to be installed which allows the near digital hearing aid to connect to. The aid then will oscillate her temproal bone directly, and stimulate the cochlea, which in turn lets her hear. Its cool stuff, and we are so happy that she has made it so far. We are lucky to have a surgeon who is pushing the edge with doing this surgery on young kids. We suspect she is possibly the youngest yet to have this done on.

This photo was taken about 1 hour after she woke up from surgery. After this photo, she had a 2 hour nap, and woke up..ready to go...completely back to normal self. It is quite amazing how quickly she bounced back...seeming completely unaware of the surgery, and no pain whatsoever.