A Little Cochlear Panic Attack

I haven't done an update in a while reporting how far along SJ is with new words and hearing milestones. It's been a bit discouraging lately. I have had a hard time getting her to keep her CI's on. She does fine at church and school, but anywhere else it is an everyday battle. Then add to that the set back of her having the pain on the right side (which is gone now, praise God) and then on Sunday one of her processors looked like it was broken and then there are the times that they are lost and it's always stressful! Those little flashing magnetic "earrings"are by far those valuable things we own monetarily.

 In fact even if you added up all of our assets it still wouldn't be close to the worth of her processors.

Imagine how I felt yesterday when the kids were playing on the balcony and SJ had her headband off. Then I saw her looking through the cracks of wood down to the balcony below us.

There are some spaces between the planks and she thought it would be fun to drop her barrette, headband, and each processor individually through the cracks. AND it appeared that one of them landed in a bowl of water, which meant I had 30 minutes before that thing became worthless. To say I freaked out is probably an understatement. I don't remember exactly how I reacted because that whole moment felt like it happened in another dimension.

The first thing I needed to do was just simply ask our downstairs neighbors if I could retrieve it. So I bolted down the stairs and started knocking and then banging on the door. No answer. So I went back upstairs and tried to think like Tom Cruise's character in Mission Impossible. Could I climb down, not without dying. Would a broom reach, not even close, I tried. Think, think, think! Call the landlords's? I felt uneasy about our downstairs neighbors. I think I can safely explain without them finding out because the chances of them reading a mom blog, especially mine, are slim to none. Anyway, the downstairs neighbors have a Pit Bull, his name is Ozzie and if the dog could talk he would probably curse like Ozzie just like his owners do. None the less I had no time to loose. I scribbled out a note along with my phone number and I went back downstairs to tape it to the door. The door has a fuzzy black wreath hanging on it along with an eyeball welcome mat. 
I know that some people decorate early for Halloween, but this might be year round decor for them. I snapped a pic with my phone because after my relentless knocking I knew I wasn't bothering anybody.

Finally when I returned up to my apartment I had a stroke of genius and I remembered a giant paper clip that I could probably make a hook out of and we had some string from the recent pinata festivities so I had to basically make a fishing line. Because the processors are magnetic I was able to lower the metal hook down through the crack and it stuck right to the first one which was in the water.

Getting it back through the crack without knocking it off was the most nerve wrecking, but it worked. That was the biggest relief. Getting the second one was harder because it wasn't a straight shot, but eventually after jerking the string up and down to cause the clip to land in different spaces I got it and at that point I was on a roll so I went for the hairband too. The kids were crowded around me watching as if it were a scene from the Sandlot (remember "I've got get that ball back. You don't understand"). Except instead of a ball signed by Babe Ruth it was some cochlear Implants and instead of The Beast it was Ozzie (who luckily was not on the porch).

I told J the day that I have less than 3 major crisis/emergencies will be a good day and for the past week or so I've had some really bad days. All is well that end well.