Bringing Luka Home: Chaos is a Friend of Mine

The last three weeks have been so crazy with kids' school stuff, pumpkin patch, fall parties and Halloween. Not only all that but Luksasz got his BAHA, we managed to get the surveyor out to our new land to mark out the border between our land and the neighbor, scheduled Lukasz' CT scan and next craniofacial team apt for the end of February and beginning of March, and, not to be underestimated, cleaned out my car--took five hours one Sunday.

An eventful month that kept me so busy that I have not kept up with my email (sacrilege!), running, reading, cleaning (as if I ever do) or cooking. We've eaten a lot of pizza to get by. But it has been a good busy and as history has proven, this is just the beginning of a very hectic three months. The best and most whirlwind time of the year!

So, here is a quick update on all the happenings:

Lukasz' BAHA 4

Finally! He now has bilateral hearing to some degree, they think improved to just a mild loss level on his "no ear side" from zero. The big eye picture is when they turned it on. The bizarre pic is them testing his hearing on that side while trying to plug the good ear as much as possible. Warranteed for single loss or damage replacement for two years, thank goodness.

Which we thought we might have to use the day after we got the BAHA. The next day, I took Lukasz to OU Children's Physicians for an endocrinology appointment. Well, he tried to quickly move out of the way of a mom pushing her twins in a stroller and bumped his head on the elevator door and the BAHA popped off the soft band and down between the door and floor into the shaft. After an initial sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach, all I could do was laugh and call Matt to laugh about how par for the course this was for the Kanes.

Luckily, the nurses and receptionist were sympathetic and called maintenance. They asked if it was really expensive because they would have to call the elevator company to come and go down into the shaft to look for it. Well, $4000 or so (thank goodness for health insurance) qualified as expensive so they called the men out. We only had to wait about an hour after seeing the doctor before they called us with news.

The maintenance lady called the receptionist who told us that the men were downstairs and had found "pieces" of the hearing aid. But it turned out the elevator men were able to find the BAHA and the incredibly small battery that had fallen out (that was above and beyond because I have replacement batteries). Best news, it appears to be working properly. Thanks to two FB groups I am a member of, we learned that the BAHA cane with a special piece that attaches to the BAHA that allows me to plug my ear, press it to my head and hear for the plugged ear just as Lukasz would on his no ear side (thanks, audiologist for not showing or telling me about this) AND, guess what? It comes with a safety line to clip to the shirt and BAHA so it doesn't get lost if it pops off. Again, thanks audiologist for not mentioning this to a mother of a 3 year old.

However, all is well that ends well. And Lukasz is really hearing things like never before. He has stopped in his path when hearing the same train he always hears. His jaw drops and he asks where the train is. He has always noticed the train whistle but it was far more astounding to him. He clearly thought the train must be right upon him. He did the same when hearing the bells from the church. I was afraid he would resist wearing the hearing aid because it requires the head band until he has surgery to put in a permanent post but he must like the result of the aid enough because he doesn't touch the band all day except to get it in a better position.

Pumpkin Patch

There were three trips to three different pumpkin patches this year. I took the kids to Parkhurst Pumpkin Patch, the older two boys went to another with their class and Lukasz, Padraig and I went to a little one with the Oklahoma School for the Deaf Pre-K. Everybody got a smallish pumpkin from Parkhurst, the boys got slightly bigger ones on their field trip and with OSD I bought a 65 pound pumpkin just because I saw it and knew the kids would flip and all the proceeds were for charity.

Then for two and half weeks they begged me everyday to carve the pumpkins.

School Parties

Five school Fall parties for Mommy to go to! Four on one school day, three at the same time! I was running from classroom to classroom to make sure they all knew I cared and came. It's funny that as grown ups we do not really think of these school functions as that big of a deal but I could see how happy they each were when they saw me. Lukasz had his party the Thursday before Halloween and got to co trick-or-treating in the University of Central Oklahoma's administration buildings. All of those kids got a serious haul of goodies.

Only one semi-bad experience from the fall parties. Lukasz went with me to P's school party and out in the hall, a parent from another class parent told Lukasz "I love it! You look great!". Here's what he was wearing (not a costume). I still can't figure out what she thought he was. And maybe it was innocent enough but since last Halloween, I was on heightened alert for well intentioned but negative comments. Last year Lukasz was Yoda with green face paint and a late comer to a Halloween party said to another guest, "What a cute idea, a baby zombie!" My back was to her and I pretended not to hear her but I heard the other guest whisper to her in that 'um, not sure how to tell you this but' voice, that that was just how he was born with face paint for Yoda. She was mortified.