War Wounds

So as not to alarm you, I'm letting you know that there are pictures below of Max's incision. I didn't want you to just open this up and be surprised by a semi-icky photo.
















Here is what Max is looking like these days...

And a side view...

And a close-up of the side view...

You can see that the incision went up the back of his ear and into his hair. The bulge that you see is swelling surrounding the device that they implanted. It looks like this:

The round, flat part lies just beneath his skin. The long wire parts were slipped through a small hole in his skull. The wire with the spiral was inserted into his cochlea. The straight wire is to ground it, I believe.

This will be allowed to heal for 4 weeks. Max's "activation" is scheduled for September 18th. We are so excited. On the 18th we will go to the audiologist and he will receive his processor. It looks like this:

The processor attaches to the head by a magnet in the implanted device. Here's a diagram of how they fit together:

Because it attaches by magnet, it is very important that the incision be completely healed and the device to be held in place and not able to move.

To the best of my understanding, the processor will take in sounds from Max's world and transfer them by radio waves to part lying just beneath his skin. The sound will then travel down the wire and into his cochlea. There is one electrode with 22 channels that will stimulate the auditory nerve directly. The implant completely by-passes the damaged part of the ears and gets right to work inside the brain. In a sense, Max will not "hear" with his ears. The sound will be inside his head. All of this blows my mind! I cannot believe that someone figured this out.

There is lots more to write about. People have asked what the results of this surgery will be. How "successful" will this be? Will Max learn to talk? Will he understand words, hear music, talk on the phone? I'll do my best to answer these questions soon. To be honest, NO ONE knows the answer. No one. Not the doctor, not us, not even people who have been through this exact process. There is no way to tell. We are so excited to see what awaits Max as he travels down this path.