My amazingly strong wife wrote this update after todays heart breaking news. Nikki has run into yet another obstacle in her life. Not a life-threatening one as her others have been, but definitely a life-altering one. She did not get her implant today. I knew something was wrong when the surgeon came out too early (after only 2 hours) and wanted to meet with us in a private consult room. Nothing good has ever come out of those meetings for us. She has nerves in the wrong places, bones where bones should not be, and empty spaces where bones should be. There is physically no way to get to her cochlear without risking doing major damage somewhere else. One way and her face could be paralyzed, another way she could suffer permanent vertigo, another way she could suffer from seizures. Her CT scan had shown some contorted anatomy, but we never expected to hear this. I emotionally feel like I have been run over by a truck. Doing a cochlear on her other ear is not really an option right now because there is no guarantee it would work with her auditory neuropathy. If it didn't, then she would have no hearing left at all. So for now, we will leave her with the sound she does have. However, she will need to learn sign language in order to be able to effectively communicate. And so, our path of life has changed, again. It's not the end of the road, just a different one. As an amazing show of sisterly love, when we got home this evening and told Nikki's older sister (Sammie is 6), that Nikki would not be receiving her new hearing device, Sammie went to her room, found her book on beginning sign language, and proceeded to sit on the couch with Nikki and her youngest sister. The next twenty minutes were spent with the three of them on the couch practicing beginning sign language.