Long day for miss Fiona today. We started off witnessing the baptism of Andrew Cassidy, the son of our good friends Samantha and Brandon (congrats guys!). Andrew was born just weeks before Fiona, so its fun to watch the two of them grow up together.

Fiona had a ball at church and thoroughly enjoyed chewing on the various handouts in our pew. (We kept her away from the bibles, i’m sure there’s a place in hell for those babies ;->).

Hey I know that guy!

Afterwards we stopped by Chez Cassidy to grab a great lunch and a few most excellent beers. Fiona got into the spirit of things, practicing with an empty cup….

I’m a big girl now!

Or was it???

From there we drove on to a seminar in Norcross hosted by Advanced Bionics, one of the “big 3” cochlear implant manufactures I’ve talked about in earlier posts. Eliza and I have all but decided to go forward with Advanced Bionics as the implant manufacturer for Fiona’s surgery on March 7th, so today was a fact finding mission to learn more about their latest processor, the Naida CI Q70 and what options we should select.

AB Seminar…with Free Chocolate Bars!

And oh my the options! Different colors, different batteries, remote controls, cables and even Bluetooth! It felt like car shopping – should we get the rust coating?

Naida Processors and Accessories

While we’ve seen the new model before, this was our first “hands on” experience. It was great to play around with the implants – feeling the weight, swapping out the batteries, and plugging in the various cables. It helped a lot in our decision making process.

The biggest value of these seminars, though, is talking with other parents who’ve been through before. It’s always uplifting and educational to hear their stories first hand.

Some tidbits I picked up:

• Fiona is very lucky to get her surgery at 10 months old. In the past, insurance companies would not authorize until 2 years or even older. Without fail, every parent we’ve talked to has confirmed the earlier the better for her speech development. Kids who have received implants at a young age “mainstream” into classes with hearing children much quicker.
• Several kids at the seminar had graduated from the Atlanta Auditory Verbal Center, the same center we use for Fiona. Nothing but positive mojo about the center and the results on the children. One adorable little girl said she graduated so young she barely remembered even going to therapy. (Her speech was excellent by the way). Remarkable.
• Interesting tip on CI colors: one parent recommended we NOT get skin or hair color, but rather something bright and noticeable – at least for infants. Why? Because you will constantly lose the implant around the house, outside, etc. and its much harder to locate the skin colored implants. Interesting perspective – we’re still making up our mind on that one.
• One parent highly recommended getting the product replacement plan with the implant. I almost never get those (can you say “profit center” ?), but he brought up a good point – you don’t want your child to live “in bubble wrap”. If you’re constantly stressing about losing or breaking the implant, you’re going to stunt your child’s exploration of the world. You want them to explore, roll in the dirt and be a kid. I couldn’t agree more.

Anyway, long day for miss Fiona today, but she did great. She just went down to bed, an hour late courtesy of daylight savings. Sleep well!

Now time to watch some Zombies on Walking Dead tonight. Brainnnnssss!

Don’t wake the baby!

Chicks Dig Firetrucks

Early this morning we packed into the car for a 30 minute drive south to Clayton Country Fire Station 4, just south of Hartsfield Jackson airport. What a beautiful day for a drive: 65 degrees, zero humidity and not a cloud in the sky. Good weather always feels better on a Saturday.

Advanced Bionics was hosting an event to meet Kelli Duncan, a Cochlear Implant recipient who works at the fire station and graduated at the top of her class. It was also a great opportunity to meet other parents with CI children and to see the new Naida Cochlear Implant.

Kelli was truly inspiring, a very capable and respected member of the force. Her parents and sister were also in attendance, and you could see nothing but pride in their eyes. Truly inspiring and you couldn’t help but get caught up in the emotion.

Kelli Duncan

And of course fire stations are like candy crack to kids. They couldn’t enough of it. Fire trucks, coloring books, fire hats, hot dogs, sunny weather, more fire trucks. Kid heaven.

Fiona was by far the youngest there, so much of this was lost on her. Still, she was a crowd favorite and we did our part to embarrass her properly.

Oh a fire station…yawn…

Who Can Resist a Picture with a Fireman?

Of course the little boy in me couldn’t resist some of the fun. In this short video one of the fire fighters demonstrated how fast they get dressed when the alarm sounds. (look for Kelli as the firefighter on the right side in the foreground).

Eliza and I really enjoyed talking with the other parents and children with Cochlear Implants. Many of the children already had an implant and were doing fantastic in such a noisy environment. This was by far the largest concentration of implant wearers we had ever seen in one place.

The tone around the room was optimism and excitement. CI’s are really a game changing invention, and you could hear nothing but pride and excitement about the possibilities this device has made for everyone in the room. We made several new friends, and shared contact info with many that we hope to keep in touch with.

Of course, being part owner of a small technology startup, the business man in me also had to marvel at the flawless marketing prowess of Advanced Bionics in hosting this event. Provide real value to the parents, make it a fun time for the children, give out cool freebies with the AB logo, and showcase off your new technology to anyone interested. Well played Advanced Bionics!

Of course I ate it all up, and was glad to have a chance to check out the new processor. There was definite excitement in the room for the new technology: the new processor is smaller then anything on the market, and more powerful (more clarity, more features, better quality, etc.). AB has invested a lot of R&D integrating the new CI to the digital world: BlueTooth, FM receivers, seamless integration with cell phones, you name it. This is a completely different level of excitement then waiting for the next iPhone or xBox version, these advances are real game changers to the hearing loss community. Great stuff.

All in all it was a fun event. We learned something, met new friends, and enjoyed a few laughs. Not a bad way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning.

Now if only Fiona would wake up…

Yawn…What Fire Station?