An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Implant Story

Jordan's Presentation
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear
Mon, Jan 30 2012

Wool Socks and a Messy House Kind of Love
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Today I took a walk alone in the center of Grosseto. I people-watched and had an espresso. I breathed in a little of that fresh winter air and for the first time felt a part of the whole Italian thing. Three years ago, I woke up in the middle of the center of Grosseto and thought, "What the hell am I doing here?" And now, I know. For now. The beauty of "for now" is t...
Sat, Jan 07 2012

Chinese Bamboo
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I joined The Emotional Intelligence Network on Linkedin and this was the question asked: Which emotions would motivate a person to overcome obstacles to achieve a challenging goal that is outside their comfort zone? Hmm. An article just came out in the Italian equivalent of the New York Times: Corriere della Sera about the work we've been doing. This is the second a...
Tue, Dec 20 2011

Cochlear Implants and Music Appreciation - Video
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear "Great lecture from Dr. Charles Limb, a cochlear implant surgeon, who spoke at a TED conference." Posted By Prof. Todd Houston Subscribe to An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Implant Story
Fri, Dec 16 2011

The Day the Bully Ate Dirt
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I've been debating about whether or not to blog this, because...well, my mom reads my blog and I'll get the worried Grandma phonecall. But... I'm a big girl, so here it goes.. A bully has been messing with Jordan for two years at the bus stop. When your son is in high school, it becomes a little more difficult to deal with bullies, because: 1. I can't call the bully'...
Thu, Dec 08 2011

The American Way
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I sent Professor Betty Vohr an email after having received her name from Janet Des Georges, and she replied with resources in 8 minutes flat. I'm floored. I don't believe I shared the latest piece of information on this blog, I think I wrote it on the Italian one a month ago. The Italian Society of Neonatology has just formed a Project to Promote Newborn Hearing Scree...
Mon, Nov 21 2011

Florence Nightengale
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I will take care of my children. I will pay the bills, mow the lawn, sweat difficult decisions and fight for my son's rights. I will no longer dedicate my energy to saving victims. So, earn your balls and embrace the sun. Learn that playing the victim is not sexy. I am not your sun. I have my own planet to heat. But should you one day grow and look truth in the mirror...
Mon, Nov 21 2011

40 is Hot
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I think that at age forty, brains meet sexuality and inhibitions leave the table. I know men who are fifty and suddenly act like twenty year olds. I love 40, twenty can kiss my ass. But that just ain't on my mind today, because Jordan came home from school and said, "It's time to change schools. My classmates are violent and they don't understand me." Shit. In...
Thu, Nov 10 2011

40 is beautiful week starts now
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Let the countdown begin. T minus 7 days until I become four-oh. Sofia came home from school with an A+ in Math and an A+ in Italian. Jordan came home with an A in English and a D in Graphic Design. Sofia excels in everything she does and smiles and giggles. Jordan is a homebody and hugs me a lot. I worry about Jordan. He's a boy and I do not have boy experiences, act...
Wed, Nov 09 2011

The Bubble
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Three years ago, I was sweating in front of 900 pediatricians, preparing to tell Jordan's story. I was convinced of the need to share our story, and without a doubt, it was the need to inform that outweighed the panic and cold sweat of the moment as I stared into the swarm. Three years later, I stood before a hall of ninety pediatricians who attended our Pediatric Au...
Mon, Oct 03 2011

Mommy-Do
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Two days ago I had a pediatric course on audiology in a part of Italy I'd never visited. I drove five hours in a car alone with the surgeon who performed Jordan's cochlear implant operation. When I got in the car, he asked me if I liked driving. I said, "No". He said, "Okay" and "Usually when I drive with other people, they drive and I work." I said, "I don't drive di...
Mon, Sep 19 2011

TransParent
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear "Mom, I want to cut my hair off."- Jordan. I looked at the bush on his head. Me: "REALLY??" Hearing aids, cochlear implant processors and long or short hair have never been an issue. For me his hearing aids were his ears, a part of him...never wanted him to have a hardware complex. Jordan's the one who shaved a processor in his hair on the side he doesn't have the p...
Wed, Sep 07 2011

Airplane Drama
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Well, we made it home. The flight was smooth except for two things: there was a one hour thunderstorm just when we boarded at Philadelphia (apparently my bags were left outside in the middle of it because I'm still drying clothes), so we had to sit for an hour and a half without moving..love that. And... At about 2 am USA time, Jordan felt sick. We were sitting in a r...
Tue, Aug 02 2011

Modern Roman Warriors
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear When I started blogging on Deafread, I was permitted to enter through a crack in the window, despite hesitation on behalf of the Deaf Community. I only wanted to share our story, and learn through your stories. I could understand the reluctance of a community to let an outsider in, especially an outsider who was hearing. Just like you read my story, I read yours. Sinc...
Mon, Jun 20 2011

Sophomore
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Jordan had an assignment to complete. He chose not to complete the assignment. His support teacher got angry, considering she's been helping him the entire year. He let her down. They called me from school yesterday, three times. I spoke to Jordan, and he told me he didn't care, he wasn't going to do it. I had two meeting yesterday that I had to attend, so I called Lu...
Sat, Jun 11 2011

What Tammy Said...
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Click and read Tammy's Post "Just Sayin'..." here. ... most of the time it's fine. In fact, more than most of the time you don't think twice about it. Second nature like. Kids storm the house. He has friends coming in and out 24 hours a day.Jordan hasn't hit the "I want to go to the Center of Town and hang out with my friends" phase, we're still in the land of X-...
Wed, Jun 01 2011

The Dove
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I am terrified to make a wrong move. My character has been perceived as aggressive. Hitting the send button is oftentimes a traumatic experience for me. I think we have a politician willing to help in the Region of Lazio- home to Rome. He is my facebook friend, clicked in from I have no idea where. But once we talked about a dove- I had thought it was a pigeon, but i...
Tue, May 31 2011

Controversy in Italy: LIS vs LMG....Bad Situation
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Hi. I have ten minutes to blog, then I have to leave. But, I've received many emails from the American Deaf Community asking me what is going on in Italy!? Here's the situation: The bill to pass LIS (Lingua Italiana dei Segni) as a language, passed the Senate and is now in the House. The ENS which believes to represent all of the Deaf people of Italy would like LIS to...
Thu, May 26 2011

Jordan and Sofia
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Yesterday on the Italian forum a Mom left this comment: Hi Everyone........my nine year old son already has one cochlear implant and now, by himself, he decided he wants to go for the second one....crossing fingers! Then, her son, who had requested to join the forum replied: Here I am! Yes, it's true, I've decided I want another one! I have read a lot of posts before...
Tue, May 24 2011

Hats Off to the Italian CI Surgeons...
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear The mom of a newly diagnosed baby asked the Italian forum: "Where does one go for cochlear implant surgery?" And teh Italian forum responded with 103 comments, each and every comment praising the work of their surgeon, different surgeons, throughout Italy. I actually, accidentally posted an Italian blog on this blog, but I'm translating it in English, to share it w...
Mon, May 09 2011

The Silver Lining
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Two days ago a mom contacted the Italian forum. Her five month old son had just had his second ABR that indicated profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss. She was looking for information on the cochlear implant. I responded to her, and she wrote, "Jodi, we know each other! I was the woman who worked with the Italian publishing company that published Rally Caps. ...
Wed, May 04 2011

Glamour Magazine and...ME? (;-))
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Glamour Magazine contacted me asking me for an interview for an article not related to Deaf or Cochlear Implants. I responded to their email and said, "Ok." I explained to them that I am not Glamour-ous. They didn't believe me. Then.. I started thinking. I remember flipping through Glamour Magazine as a little girl and dreaming of becoming like those models all dress...
Mon, Apr 04 2011

Just Thinkin'
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear In the past four months since our last Tuscan Pediatric Course on Audiology where we invited regional representatives to participate in the hope that they would take what they'd learned to their regions and create a course to train pediatricians in Audiology, two regions have already begun and concluded training courses from Screening to Diagnosis and Habilitation.. A...
Wed, Mar 30 2011

Driving While Deaf
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I am completely in the -I have no idea- when it comes to Deafness and Driving. A blog article was just posted in Italy discussing the fact that an 82 year old Deaf man had a car accident, and they proposed adding an Audiometric Exam to the Driving Test. Personally, I am not convinced the accident occurred due to deafness. And they could just as well prohibit radio use...
Mon, Mar 28 2011

Stolen Identity
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear He's fourteen years old and deaf. He wears a cochlear implant. He's from Tuscany but speaks Italian with a Roman accent and speaks English to my family. He's really tall and lanky with long, curly brown hair and mischievous brown eyes. When I ask him about girls, he's shy and says he can't seem to speak when he finds a good-looking one standing before him. I encourage...
Sat, Mar 26 2011

Fragile
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Jordan and Sofia, October 2007...three years ago when I first began blogging. And this is Jordan today... The high school years are a combination of hormones, insecurity and determination. We fight the three on a daily basis and judge the outcome day by day, grade by grade. Jordan is in a stay-at-home X-Box warrior phase. He plays the X-Box, uses his earphones on the...
Sun, Feb 20 2011

Does this Happen in Real Life?
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Lindsey gave the heads up on facebook: Deaf Discrimination: RIT/NTID Students Appear on ABC’s “What Would You Do?” Program What happened when deaf students recently applying for a job at a coffee shop were met with these comments: * “We don’t hire deaf people here.” * “I’m sure you can do lots of things. But this is not the job for you.” * “The next time you come in...
Wed, Feb 02 2011

Solar-Powered Hearing...
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Low Cost Hearing Aids: Solar Ear Helping Developing CountriesMonday, December 13th 2010 The holiday season is a great time for heartwarming stories, the kind that spotlight positive and meaningful impact caring people make on the lives of others. One such story is the one about Solar Ear, a project that brings hope to hundreds of thousands of hearing impa...
Fri, Jan 07 2011

Show and Tell
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Tomorrow I leave for the last of the ten pediatric audiology courses. Ten courses, 500 pediatricians of Tuscany, all of whom are now aware of the process of an Early Hearing Detection Intervention Program. 500 pediatricians are responsible for 500,000 children. There will be Italian regional representatives present at this course for training purposes so that they ma...
Sat, Dec 11 2010

LahDeeDah
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Today, class outing to see Tangled with Sofia and her posse. New job working on a European Community project on Educational/Environmental Sustainable Development. I cut my hair and I cut my nails. New look, new life. Last year at this time, I was desperate, stressed, aggressive and clawing. Now, bring on the holiday cheer. I had a meeting with Jordan's teachers on...
Sat, Dec 04 2010

Choked Up
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear A fifteen year old girl considering the cochlear implant asks a 60 year old grandfather who chose the cochlear implant because he wanted to hear his granddaughter: -Hi Corrado, I don't know if you remember me, but I wanted to ask you this question: What was it like to hear the horse's hooves hitting the ground again? -Hi Clelia, of course I remember you....
Tue, Nov 30 2010

Man-Made
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear One year ago a mother contacted me and informed me that her son had the model of the first Clarion recall. Three times. Her son was implanted and explanted three times with the same recalled model. So, when I read about the Voluntary Recall announced by Advanced Bionics, I placed the information on both the Italian blog and the American blog. No one wins in this situ...
Wed, Nov 24 2010

Letter from Advanced Bionics re: Voluntary Recall
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Advanced Bionics website - November 23, 2010 ---------------**** Recall Notification**** Advanced Bionics HiRes 90K Cochlear Implant Dear Cochlear Implant Recipient or Parent, Our mission at Advanced Bionics is to improve the lives of the hearing impaired, and the safety and well-being of our recipients is our first priority. Because we are committed to ensuring ...
Wed, Nov 24 2010

The Sound of Music
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Kim wrote: "Seems like you have become deeply philosophical in your Jack Benny year. 39. It's a great year. Life is good eternally, even in sadness. Sometimes that is when it's at its best-- looking back. Weird to say that I think, and some people will wonder what I mean but I think you know". And Debbie wrote: "...Perspective really is everything. Sometimes when I h...
Sat, Nov 20 2010

Angles
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Today... there was a story about an 11 year old boy who commited suicide; my friend received word that she would be operated on for the second time in a month and a half the day after Christmas, I was sitting next to her when she received the phone call; Luca called to tell me that the first audiologist who ever visited Jordan died of a brain tumor... As we sat in th...
Thu, Nov 18 2010

Sur-reality
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Last Thursday I took the bus from Grosseto to Florence and the train from Florence to Bologna to speak at 4:00 pm at the Lions International Europe Forum. I escaped from Grosseto to live another Italian town, share the work I love and learn from others' perspectives. The Lions Club is internationally active in providing assistance to families- and families needing he...
Tue, Nov 09 2010

Politically (In)Correct?
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Two people left comments on the last post in reference to the term "Hearing Impaired". 1. Hearing impaired community...huh? One thing I know is that my deaf child is not "impaired" at all. I wish people would start to realize how offending that term is. Deaf or hard of hearing is way more politically correct. 2. There is a groundswell against the words "hearing impa...
Mon, Oct 25 2010

How Do You Sign "Sad"?
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Hey Jodi, I'm sending you this link because of your involvement in the hearing impaired community. This is a crazy story. The author of the book lived in my community. She had twin sons that were turning 9. A Jewish family that belonged to my congregation. On the morning of their sons' 9th birthday party the father, Neil Jacobson methodically shot and killed th...
Sun, Oct 24 2010

From Helen Keller to Jordan
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear On my train ride to teaching the parental support part of pediatric course number 8, a grandma sat across from me. She had smiling eyes. She kept staring at me as I was going over my powerpoints, so we began conversing. She asked me what I did. Hmmm just happened to have the newspaper article in my purse; I whipped it out, smiled and handed it to her proudly. Sh...
Wed, Oct 13 2010

The Article...NYT-Italianized=Corriere della Sera
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Ok. Here it is. I woke up at 6 am and called my friend Francesca who's up at 5 to open the coffee bar two blocks from my house. She sells newspapers. She was busy. She called me back fifteen minutes later and read me the article in the Italian National Newspaper equivalent of the New York Times. I couldn't go back to sleep. I jumped out of bed, threw my coat over my p...
Sun, Oct 10 2010

Tick Tick Tick...
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I think I'm having a moment. I believe it's called self-doubt. It ain't pretty. Maybe because everything is pretty. Jordan and Sofia are growing and both are involved in activities. Jordan's swimming and now studying piano. Sofia's about to start theatre. It was interesting in the pool yesterday. At a certain point, Jordan was swimming a lap like a missile, but his fo...
Sat, Oct 09 2010

Three Nights...Four Days in Florence!
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear 1. Thong update: The mom called me and the night was a tremendous success. Not only that, but, she went to her employer determined and secure and got that part-time position! She told me they didn't even hesitate. She had that glow:-) 2. The Italian Pediatric Federation Congress is the next four days in Florence. We prepared a poster that I went to print yesterday to ...
Wed, Sep 29 2010

Mother May I
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear My kids are amazing.My nails are done. I have the Pediatric Congress- 3 nights in Florence!!!next week and I'm busy with preparations because we just added a poster presentation. There are bills to pay, mouths to feed, a house to clean, families to help and a million things to fix- all of the lights seem to be blowing out at once, but...It's okay. I've been thinking a...
Fri, Sep 24 2010

I'd Like One, Please...Aussies - Captions in the Classroom
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Click here to read article.Subscribe to An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Implant Story
Wed, Sep 22 2010

Give it Up to the Universe...
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I have to share this especially because it's Yom Kippur, at least it was, here in Italy all have broken fast. Months ago I wrote about how the Italian Pediatric Federation had reached an agreement with the Israeli Ambulatory Pediatric Associations and how I would like to go to the 2011 Congress in Jerusalem with our audiology network project in hand.I don't know wheth...
Sat, Sep 18 2010

'Bout Damn Time: Josh Swiller Appears
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Two nights ago as I was sitting here typing, I heard Jordan talking to his x-box live --- and he said, "Hey! Don't call me Deaf! I am Deaf! And if you call me Deaf, that's an insult, because you mean it as an insult."Whoa!I ran into the room and asked who he was talking to and he said, "Go back to the computer, Mamma, it's under control."Sometimes, Jordan surpr...
Wed, Sep 15 2010

Unilateral Hearing Loss, Tinnitus and...a Cochlear Implant?
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear I asked a question during the conference I attended this past weekend, because a gentleman on the Italian forum asked whether or not the Cochlear Implant provoked tinnitus or could worsen tinnitus. My surgeon responded that in 70% of the cases, the tinnitus improved, and that there are ongoing trials where adults with really bad tinnitus and unilateral hearing loss ar...
Mon, Sep 13 2010

Apples and Honey
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear In the past week, I've been in contact with a variety of people of a variety of ages with a variety of lifestyles...one thing in common- Deaf.One father is traveling throughout Italy to try to find the best care for his 17 month old daughter- you should see the pictures of the two of them together. He lost another child to leukemia. And now he is determined to help hi...
Thu, Sep 09 2010

Mattia Hears for the First Time
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear After a ten month hearing aid trial period that did not produce results, two year old Mattia was awakened from his nap...by sound.Subscribe to An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear Implant Story
Fri, Aug 27 2010

The Promised Land
An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan's Cochlear We took the MARC train from Baltimore to Union Station and hopped the Gallaudet shuttle. The shuttle was Jordan's first introduction to ASL. He saw everyone on the shuttle signing, and there was silence.He looked at me and said, "Does everyone talk like this?" He made some gesture.I said, "Yes, but the signs are words and that's communication. They're deaf just ...
Thu, Aug 12 2010