As an individual, we rarely get an opportunity to see a miracle take place. By its very definition, miracles don’t happen every day. From dictionary.com “mir·a·cle -- an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause.” Yet, despite this seemingly impossible happenstance, miracles do happen.
Most people would not consider the fact that I am still here a miracle. I beg to differ. Several things had to fall into place for me to be living the normal life that I am. If I had just put off my physical, I might have died of a heart attack or at a very minimum lost the use of my kidneys. Without the intervention of chemotherapy, who knows how badly damaged my bones would have been.
The real miracle would be the transplant itself. If you think about the process, you cannot help but be amazed. Within a two week period, I was given injections to stimulate the growth of stem cells. They were then extracted from my body and frozen. I was then given a massive amount of chemotherapy that virtually destroyed my immune system, my red and white blood cells and my platelets. My stem cells were then given back and nine months later, I am as good as new (give or take a few wrinkles and sags.)
The original chemo helped, but it was obvious it was not the answer. Just 6 weeks off of it and I was almost back to the same level of cancer I had when it all began. Somehow, the transplant not only reduced the cancer but weakened it to the point where my body can now fight it without any medication. To me this is a miracle.
However, this weekend, I witnessed an even more special miracle. Julia’s brother John, his wife Angie and their two children, Ryan (4 ½) and Elena (2 ½) visited us. It had been almost a year since I had seen them and in that time the world had changed for little Elena. When she was born, Elena was deaf in one ear and soon to be deaf in the other. Hearing is a sense that we can often take for granted even to the point that some buy $400 headphones to completely wipe out sound. Hearing will never be taken for granted by Elena.
Soon after the discovery of Elena’s hearing loss, John and Angie began searching for alternatives to her future situation. After a good deal of study, the answer was clear. A bilateral cochlear implant was warranted. As described below by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, a cochlear implant does not cure hearing loss but offers an alternative.©1997-2010 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
“A cochlear implant is a device that provides direct electrical stimulation to the auditory nerve. In sensorineural hearing loss where there is damage to the tiny hair cells in the cochlea, sound cannot reach the auditory nerve. With a cochlear implant, the damaged hair cells are bypassed and the auditory nerve is stimulated directly. The cochlear implant does not result in "restored" or "cured" hearing. It does, however, allow for the perception of sound ‘sensation.;’”
It was not an easy decision as there are potential complications from the surgery, but in John and Angie’s minds it was the one that had to be made. The real question was should only one or two implants take place. John and Angie felt that two would be more beneficial than one and began to battle with the insurance company to get both approved.
It was a battle that seemed to make little sense to those of us who understood the difference between this little girl living a world of silence and a world of near-normal sound, but the insurance company was only following the instruction of Angie’s employer. Not only did they not standardly approve implants for children under the age of one, they refused to cover a bilateral solution. Children of this age rarely get two implants but their doctor at Children’s Hospital in Columbus was seeing great success in getting the children “hearing” at younger ages to help establish improved speech. Elena would be a special case and with the cost of the procedure at $40,000 per ear it was going to catch everyone’s eye. They finally had to seek outside assistance from a State of Ohio fund in order to accomplish both implants. Elena became one of the youngest children to receive the double implant in Ohio.
The follow-up was not easy. Elena suffered from several infections in one of the implants and eventually it had to be removed. After time was given to heal, the implant was again implanted. This time, all was well.
When Julia visited Columbus in January she was amazed at the progress that Elena had made. With a significant amount of training and constant attention from her parents and caregiver, Elena was talking as well as any two year old. She could even carry a tune to songs like “Rock-a-Bye Baby” and “Jesus Loves Me.” When I saw Elena last week, I could not believe how easy she was to understand. Don’t get me wrong, she is like all two year olds. Sometimes you have to look to their parents for translation, but this was no more than I had experienced with other children in the past.
Elena is a bright little girl with eyes that will keep the boys hanging around the house when the time comes. She is as sweet as the day is long and gravitated to both Justin and Jason like they were her best friends. She was introduced to some friends of ours who later admitted that they had no idea that Elena was deaf.
There has been a good deal of controversy in the deaf community about this procedure. Some feel that it should be the individual that makes the decision to reject deafness and have the implants and not the parents of an infant. I can certainly understand their feelings but after seeing Elena and how happy she is, there is no doubt in my mind that John and Angie made the right decision.
We have entered a period in medicine that in the past was reserved for the Bible. Short of a miracle directly from the hand of God, I am certain that both Elena and I are examples of miracles facilitated by man with the help of God. One can only wonder about what the future will bring.
Most people would not consider the fact that I am still here a miracle. I beg to differ. Several things had to fall into place for me to be living the normal life that I am. If I had just put off my physical, I might have died of a heart attack or at a very minimum lost the use of my kidneys. Without the intervention of chemotherapy, who knows how badly damaged my bones would have been.
The real miracle would be the transplant itself. If you think about the process, you cannot help but be amazed. Within a two week period, I was given injections to stimulate the growth of stem cells. They were then extracted from my body and frozen. I was then given a massive amount of chemotherapy that virtually destroyed my immune system, my red and white blood cells and my platelets. My stem cells were then given back and nine months later, I am as good as new (give or take a few wrinkles and sags.)
The original chemo helped, but it was obvious it was not the answer. Just 6 weeks off of it and I was almost back to the same level of cancer I had when it all began. Somehow, the transplant not only reduced the cancer but weakened it to the point where my body can now fight it without any medication. To me this is a miracle.
However, this weekend, I witnessed an even more special miracle. Julia’s brother John, his wife Angie and their two children, Ryan (4 ½) and Elena (2 ½) visited us. It had been almost a year since I had seen them and in that time the world had changed for little Elena. When she was born, Elena was deaf in one ear and soon to be deaf in the other. Hearing is a sense that we can often take for granted even to the point that some buy $400 headphones to completely wipe out sound. Hearing will never be taken for granted by Elena.
Soon after the discovery of Elena’s hearing loss, John and Angie began searching for alternatives to her future situation. After a good deal of study, the answer was clear. A bilateral cochlear implant was warranted. As described below by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, a cochlear implant does not cure hearing loss but offers an alternative.©1997-2010 American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
“A cochlear implant is a device that provides direct electrical stimulation to the auditory nerve. In sensorineural hearing loss where there is damage to the tiny hair cells in the cochlea, sound cannot reach the auditory nerve. With a cochlear implant, the damaged hair cells are bypassed and the auditory nerve is stimulated directly. The cochlear implant does not result in "restored" or "cured" hearing. It does, however, allow for the perception of sound ‘sensation.;’”
It was not an easy decision as there are potential complications from the surgery, but in John and Angie’s minds it was the one that had to be made. The real question was should only one or two implants take place. John and Angie felt that two would be more beneficial than one and began to battle with the insurance company to get both approved.
It was a battle that seemed to make little sense to those of us who understood the difference between this little girl living a world of silence and a world of near-normal sound, but the insurance company was only following the instruction of Angie’s employer. Not only did they not standardly approve implants for children under the age of one, they refused to cover a bilateral solution. Children of this age rarely get two implants but their doctor at Children’s Hospital in Columbus was seeing great success in getting the children “hearing” at younger ages to help establish improved speech. Elena would be a special case and with the cost of the procedure at $40,000 per ear it was going to catch everyone’s eye. They finally had to seek outside assistance from a State of Ohio fund in order to accomplish both implants. Elena became one of the youngest children to receive the double implant in Ohio.
The follow-up was not easy. Elena suffered from several infections in one of the implants and eventually it had to be removed. After time was given to heal, the implant was again implanted. This time, all was well.
When Julia visited Columbus in January she was amazed at the progress that Elena had made. With a significant amount of training and constant attention from her parents and caregiver, Elena was talking as well as any two year old. She could even carry a tune to songs like “Rock-a-Bye Baby” and “Jesus Loves Me.” When I saw Elena last week, I could not believe how easy she was to understand. Don’t get me wrong, she is like all two year olds. Sometimes you have to look to their parents for translation, but this was no more than I had experienced with other children in the past.
Elena is a bright little girl with eyes that will keep the boys hanging around the house when the time comes. She is as sweet as the day is long and gravitated to both Justin and Jason like they were her best friends. She was introduced to some friends of ours who later admitted that they had no idea that Elena was deaf.
There has been a good deal of controversy in the deaf community about this procedure. Some feel that it should be the individual that makes the decision to reject deafness and have the implants and not the parents of an infant. I can certainly understand their feelings but after seeing Elena and how happy she is, there is no doubt in my mind that John and Angie made the right decision.
We have entered a period in medicine that in the past was reserved for the Bible. Short of a miracle directly from the hand of God, I am certain that both Elena and I are examples of miracles facilitated by man with the help of God. One can only wonder about what the future will bring.
