Zem's switch on

Today has been a really big day for our family. This afternoon Zem had his processors turned on. It is a long process where they beep test each electrode in the cochlear through the speech processor until Zem makes a reaction. At first Zem's teacher, Daniel or I would get Zem's attention by playing with him. Then the audiologist would commence the beep testing and all of us would watch for a reaction while continuing to distract Zem. Zem's reactions were quite obvious - he looked towards the audiologist and sometimes clapped or stilled when the processor reached a sound he could hear. The audiologist would then continue increasing the stimulus so they could find the range of comfortable hearing for that electrode. The process for both ears took a little over 2 hours - which is why we are all soooo tired.
We go back tomorrow to get his processors 'tweeked' to give Zem a good range of hearing. This process of adjusting will take place about every 3 weeks for the next 12 months. Its still amazing to see Zem react to sounds around him. He doesn't react to everything yet - it must be really weird for him - but you can tell his brain is trying to figure things out.
To be continued.....