Today was CI consult day. It went very well. Today they did a quick booth test to see how Eric responded. The older he gets, the better he is at the testing. They did not give us specific numbers of where he was hearing, but they were happy with the consistent results that Eric gave them. They only said that they were basically the same as the levels as the test Eric had in December and still well above where he would need to be hearing in order to not be eligible for the CI.
After the booth test, I think we spent over an hour discussing the manufacturer options. The Children's Hospital only works with two of the three manufacturers. Cochlear and Advanced Bionics. Now comes the hard part, choosing! Obviously, they are both amazing companies. And where one may have an advantage, the other may have a disadvantage, but the next feature you look at, it's the other way around! And a lot of the things we have discussed are simply personal preference. It is going to be a challenge for sure. We are making a decision that Eric will live with for the rest of his life!
We also expressed to the team that we are very ready to get this process started. The HAs are not giving any benefit that we can see. We do not want to wait until Eric is a year old if we do not have to. So they will prepare the case for approval from our insurance, and hopefully we will have good news to share soon!
