Archive for January, 2008

8 HOURS SURGERY - Alhamdulillah It’s Over !

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

First thing I would like to say is - WOW !!

Leaving your 3 years old daughter on top of surgery table, unconscious, vulnerable - there is nothing less to say than - WOW !!

That night at January 7th, I tried so hard to prepare Falisha physically and psychologically for the upcoming surgery ( which I thought gonna last not more than 4 hours). She really swallowed the idea of coming to the hospital the nenext morning and would wake up with a bandage around her head. She did eat enough to prepare for the long fasting time she would have to do just after midnight that day. She is just as cute and active as she always be. She did sleep quite early at 10 o’clock, finished with all the meal and medicine that she had to take.

The nest morning everything going slowly, I wake her up at 7 o’clock and her father pick up a taxi and we arrived at exactly 7.30 in the day surgery receiption as written in our appointment. I have to pay real lot of money to cover for all the surgery cost and we did have the money in our BNI account. I was giving my ATM (which is a MasterCard electronic) to the receiptionist and she swapped it to the EDC machine. It was DECLINED even when we tried over and over again. Suddenly I am panicking because we already set up all the arrangement for Falisha next visit, so if the surgery is not happening today, than all the money spent is going into the garbage. I tried to call BNI Call Centre in Indonesia and got the explanations that the limitation for each swap is only IDR 5 millions and limitation for one day withdrawal is IDR 10 millions which so much far than the amount of money that I have to paid. Then my husband went to the free internet counter at NUH IPLC (National University Hospital Internaional Patient Liason Centre) and got the address of BNI office in Singapore. We hurried get a taxi and went there. It quite far coz it takes 30 min to be there. By the time we got there, the bank is still not open (they open at 9.30 am) and even the manager is still hadn’t arrive yet. The security ask us to wait and told us that the managers are on their way. A little minute afterwards, all the managers had arrived and the security immediately told them our situation. They are all Indonesian citizens and give a really great responds to our problem. One of the manager quickly bring us to his office, ask about all our account detail and went to resolve our problem. Not more than twenty minutes, one of the officer handed us the amount of money that we need in cash and we rushly went back to the hospital where the surgery had been able to put on hold for Falisha. We were so relieved that everything could resolved in time and prepare Falisha for the surgery. I accompany Falisha right until the operating table (it was around 12.30 am) and help her being sedated by gas anesthesi. She immediately fall asleep within less than 3 minutes. I went back to meet my husband in the visitor’s lounge and got lunch with him, Arlene and Chang who accompany us all the way. We were told that the surgery might carried out for about 4 hours so it means we have a lot of time to take care of other things. We did attend to several things on back in the OT (operating theatre) at 4.30 pm and found that Arlene, who supposed to be in the OT is still outside. We then found out that the operation will take a little bit longer due to the previous operations early morning. We then waited until 6.30 and Falisha is still not come out from recovery room. We began to panicking and ask the nurse what really happened while the answer is so nut satisfying and asked us to just wait. We got really worried that somethings might gone wrong to take up so much time to fiinish the surgery. At 8.30 pm finally dr. Lynne Lim comes in to visitor’s lounge where we have waited for so long. She explained that there is something out of the ordinary after all. The position of Falisha cochlea is not where it used to be found inside the head of children like her. So dr. Lynne Lim need to improvised a lot to do the precise insertion of the electrode. That’s why the surgery took up twice the time it usually did, but the good news is everything going fine and the implant was tested and it worked just fine. We were so relieved and quickly took Falisha to her ward room and helped her took some rest. She was really brave and didn’t shed even one drip of tears as the nurse told me. We were hoping that the next step wouldn’t gave us any other surprises. Falisha was hospitalize one night and tonight we already back to the apartment. We will have the next appointment with dr. Lynne Lim on Friday to change Falisha’s bandages. We will be back at home by January 15th and wait for Falisha’s implant switch on on January 29th in Singapore. Alhamdulillah one of the step is completed,hopefully all the rest will be done just as fine.

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At Last - The Decision Had to be Made!

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

On January 3rd we arrived at Changi Airport with a lot of mixed emotions. We feel that we have done maximum effort for Falisha Hearing Loss Recovery, and deep down inside we still pray for miracle to happen soon. She is so exciting of going to Singapore and we are please that she feel the way she does.

We arrive at 1.10 pm at Changi and being picked up by Arlene. She kindly take us to NUH for the audiometry test which soon been found out to be 4 pm appointment. Falisha’s father go straight to NUS Visitor Lodge with all the luggage for check in.

We start the audiometry test around 5 pm and Falisha hasn’t been any nap since morning. We are so worry that the PAT would be failed due to that reason. Fortunately the PAT going quite well and Falisha is be able to finished all the necessary test remarkably well. The result show that she definitely didn’t improve at all. We will have to do MRI and CT Scan the next day. There goes two parts of the solid requirement to do Cochlear Implant (CI) which is therapist and audiologist recommendation whose both concluded that Falisha is a strong candidate for CI. The only last requirement is medical evidence which will soon being found out through MRI and CT Scan. We headed back to the apartment which is quite nice and fortunately enough on affordable price. Arlene is coming along with us to help us with several question on the CI that we thought to get. We finished discussing it at 11 pm that night. Me and my husband even continue discussing it until almost morning to seek out any other things that we haven’t got to satisfy ourselves on the decision making process the nest day.

Morning has come and we headed to NUH, being driven by Chang, we could come ontime for the MRI and CT Scan. Falisha is smart enough to hold her stomach to fast and sedated quite quick after taken oral sedation. She finished the MRI and CT Scan procedure at 2 pm but still deeply asleep. She woken up with a cheer on her face by 3.30 pm. We directly went up to consult dr. Lynne Lim for the final and round up results. We discuss for almost an hour on the evidence and pros&cons of taking CI. Dr. Lynne had given us two alternatives time for surgery which are January 8th or 15th, since we at first want to do the CI on left ear which is now has infection and needed to be treated first for at least 1 week. Me and my husband then have our own private discussion and finally agreed on same conclusion to have right ear CI on January 8th.

Our main consideraton for  come up with that decision are :

1. We know that the time is not on our side, Falisha speech ability WILL deteriorating and that is surely not our goal

2. All medical evidence had pointed the fact that there is no significant difference on the cochlea condition between left and right ear, while the left ear is currently under quite bad infection so it is not a candidate for CI. Postponed it until Jan 15th won’t do much since it’s only a week away. If we have to postponed more than that, all the MRI and CT Scan had to be repeated due to unupdated condition.

3. The more sensitive hearing would be required in right ear since if she had to drive, the closest ear to the traffic sounds is the right ear. Also while she was walking on the street, the right ear is the one which exposed to any sounds of cars or motorcycle.

4. Medical history had pointed out that Falisha’s left ear always took the most hit in relation to infection, and the condition might persist in the future and jeopardize the function of CI.

5. We feel quite comfort with our decision and honestly already quite prepared for all the consequences, financially and psychologically. Even so many clues had been picked up as a hint from Allah SWT to go on with the operation. Hopefully we get it right.

So now we are very cautiously taking care of Falisha with great hope that the surgery and all the followups will be going well and results on best outcome possible. We really appreciated all the supports from family and friends whose helped us made it so far. May Allah always look upon us and give the consent to all the things that Falisha is going to face in her life. Amin.

So we then finally agreed on having the CI procedures on January 8th, 2008 for right ear by Pulsar CI from MedEl, as what dr. Lynne Lim and her team recommendation.

Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore

Friday, January 4th 2008

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COUNTING DAYS – PRAY & HOPE FOR THE BEST

Tuesday, January 15th, 2008

Today is Friday, which is minus 5 to the day of our departure to

Singapore

. I can not believe that almost 6 weeks have already passed since our first visit to

National

University

Hospital

–

Singapore

. Me and my husband have tried all means that could possibly the answer to Falisha recovery. We’ve tried from Auditory Verbal Therapy, Gamat Extract Supplement, Cow Colostrums Milk, Holistic Therapy and even Prayed Mineral Water from an Ustad known by Falisha’s Grand Parents. All attempts with great hope that it will boost Falisha’s Hearing Recovery.

The auditory Verbal Therapy (AVT) have undergo 7 sessions (5 with

Mrs.

Rinny and 2 with Ms. Fitrie). Falisha has been very much discipline on wearing her hearing aid. Thanks to Mrs. Ined with her unused HA, given to Falisha to be worn temporarily so that Falisha can have HA on both ears. The accomplishments achieved are quite significant that the HA could boost Falisha’s hearing ability up to 50 dB in 500 Hz, but other frequency could only being boosted up to 95 dB. Falisha also achieved quite good improvement on daily hearing by already response many times on her name calling and able to hear the presence on pure tone sound or noise, which is very much helpful in contact with daily environment. The most amazing thing is that she still as happy as she can be and become more chatter box than ever. She keeps talking from the moment she wakes up to the time she turn to bed. She always singing to kill her time during the trip to the therapist in the car or when bathing and always speaks her mind on anything she holds or witness. These have been the source of energy for me and my husband to stay positive and always hope for the best.

Yesterday Mrs. Rinny suggest that we took our preliminary audiometry just as an anticipation of what might happen in Singapore for our Play Audiometry Test (PAT) Appointment. We agree to take it in Melawai Hearing Aid Centre at Blok M last Wednesday. I was very excited and also nervous to find out the results. The preliminary audiometry shows us that there are no significant changes on hearing ability of unaided test (which means without hearing aid) for both ears. The capability of hearing are still above 110 dB and even above 120 dB for Falisha’s left ear. This could means that we would have to do Cochlear Implant on Falisha so that she could catch up with the normal hearing before her speech capabilities began to decrease. The holistic therapy also give a promising chance that Falisha’s hearing could be healed up to 60% of her previous capabilities. This is what we hope can be achieved by the other ear that’s not being Cochlear Implanted.

Off course the decision would not need to be made this right moment. We still hoping that the PAT will give different result from the preliminary audiometry test that we have in Melawai. The final decision will also depend on dr. Lynne Lim recommendation and all the information needed during our consultation. Miracle can still be happening during this last week and we pray hard that the miracle do emerge and happen to Falisha.

The support we get from family and friends is overwhelming and very much raised up our spirits. Many of them even handing financial support that we could only thank as much and pray that Allah SWT will repaid them with all the bless in the world. We really are thankful from the deepest of our hearts for all the help and support given to us during our turbulence life ride.

These counting days have been really scary but also exciting for me. A lot of decisions had to be made next week and all of them will influence our family life for the rest of our life. All the decisions will made all the difference for Falisha’s future and her course in her life. The only left thing to do is hope and pray that we will be granted the wisdom, the courage and the strength to deal with all of that and ripe the best outcome for everybody and especially for Falisha.

Falisha is a wonderful wonderful girl and remarkably smart and active child. Hopefully all these wouldn’t change her and only make her stronger. Please Allah SWT helps us all and bismillahirrahmanirrahim, may all of these bring all of us closer to you, amin ya rabbal alamin.

BSD, December 28, 2007

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