An unexpected call

This morning started as a usual morning….thoughts of Ivan’s CT scan were very far away. I was going about my usual business of getting Maria ready for school, and doing the normal morning tidying up, when the phone rang. I thought it was my Mum calling as usual to say ‘good morning’, and to see whether Maria cried out for her during the night. I immediately recognised the number on my caller i.d. as being a call from the hospital. I have been calling the hospital so frequently lately to check on Ivan’s potential cochlear implant operation that I know the numbers by heart. The lady speaking on the other end asked me whether Ivan was at home, I said no as he had already left for work. She asked me whether Ivan ate something before he left; I said that he had eaten a slice of toast. She asked whether we could go to the hospital for the scan at noon. Need she have asked!!!!!!!!!!!! Right now we would drop anything to go to the hospital at any time for these tests. They are so important for Ivan. I immediately confirmed that we would be going. I got in touch with Ivan straightaway, informing him about the appointment and telling him not to eat or drink anything. I also decided that I will not be sending Maria to school this morning, as we might not be ready in time to pick her up from school. I informed a couple of other people….my mum, my brother and my father in law. Ivan also informed his specialist.

Ivan has insisted with me that whatever the outcome, he does not want to know the interpretation of these scans by local doctors. These scans will be sent to the UK for interpretation by the doctors who will, potentially, be doing the procedure themselves. So, now I am fingers crossed for Ivan, I can only wish my dear husband the very best, because he deserves nothing but the best. Whatever happens Ivan, I just know things are going to be OK for yourself.

Finally!

Finally, something to report! Today I got a call that there's an opening for a Hi Res CT Scan at noon at St. Luke's. This will then be examined by my consultant in Malta, and then sent to the consultant in the UK to assist his decision. So it's very much a fingers crossed thing now!

Interesting document about cochlear implants and their components

Courtesy of the CI news group on Yahoo, this document shows the components of cochlear implants, displays characteristics of the implants available on the market, and gives a brief demonstration of the different signal processing techniques used. Very interesting, even to people who are just techies as opposed to potential implantees!

AB Recall - an Update

This is an email I received from someone else, highlighting the real reason behind the product recall. From the looks of things it's all a storm in a tea cup, and is the result of the manufacturer trying to improve standards from 97.5 to 99.5. If anything, this should be something POSITIVE and not negative as has been interpreted by the market.

Effectively, it is a VOLUNTARY recall, and the implants are just being removed from hospital inventories due to increased reliablility of a second supplier of the same product. Currently implanted people are NOT affected. Please read below:

We would like to inform you that Advanced Bionics has voluntarily recalled certain unimplanted HiRes 90K cochlear implants. These implants may be linked to an elevated risk of moisture-related device failure. We are removing the affected unimplanted devices from the hospitals' inventory and replacing them with devices not affected by the recall. All affected doctors and audiologists have been informed of the situation and we are working with them to assure that upcoming surgeries are not affected. No action is required on your part.

Advanced Bionics has proactively chosen to issue this recall in patients' best interest. Implants manufactured with a particular component from Supplier A are highly reliable demonstrated by a one-year Cumulative Survival Rate (CSR) greater than 99.5%. A 99.5% CSR means that of every 1000 implanted devices, 995 continue to operate properly at the end of one-year. Devices manufactured with a particular component from Supplier B have a one-year CSR of 97.5%. Because Advanced Bionics is focused on delivering products with the highest quality and reliability, we recalled all implants containing the components from Supplier B.

FAQ's with more information are found on our website: www.bionicear.com. If you have any questions, please call Advanced Bionics at this special toll-free number: (877) 454-5038 between the hours of 5 AM and 5 PM Pacific Time, Monday through Friday.

In Europe please contact + 33 389 65 98 00.Advanced Bionics is committed to ongoing product and technology enhancements to improve the quality of life for individuals with hearing loss.

The letter is available in full here.

Coniglio al Modo Mio (Rabbit, My Way). Stuffat tal-Fenek kif nagħmlu jiena!

This is a rabbit recipe I tried out the other time, and I think it was delicious. Thought I'd share it with whomever wants to find a decent, easy recipe for rabbit.

One rabbit, sectioned into joints (4 legs, ribs, skirt and the saddle cut into 2 or 3)

A can of lager

250ml chicken stock

1 tsp English mustard

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

1 tsp rosemary

1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp Soy Sauce

Salt and Pepper

Flour

olive oil

The day before, place the rabbit in a bowl, and pour over the with the lager, garlic, rosemary, soy sauce and the honey.

Next day, take the rabbit out of the marinade (reserve it). Pat the rabbit dry, dip it into flour and fry it in olive oil until sealed - just a couple of minutes. Place the rabbit inside an ovenproof dish.

Add the onions and cook them lightly too. Add them to the rabbit in the dish. Deglaze the pan with some of the chicken stock, pour it over the rabbit, add the marinade. Cover it with tin foil and cook in an oven for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours (until the meat falls off the bone).

It's nice with mashed potatoes and steamed carrots but in Malta people tend to serve it with chips.

Enjoy!

At work, thankfully!

This weekend was a terrible one - we literally didn't even step out of our house all weekend. Mandy had a tonsillectomy last week, on Tuesday, and it was very painful for her. Obviously it hasn't been very pleasant for all of us, least of all Mandy (!)

Maria was very bored cooped up inside and was a pest all weekend, wingeing for this, that and the other. Not a good idea to coop a toddler up for a week. We were slightly at war last night but made up and became friends again in the evening.

Hopefully Mandy will show some more improvement today. She's a little better now, especially since the swelling has gone down a bit. I've got a treat lined up for her once she's better, but I won't mention what it is in case she reads this!

Product recall for Advanced Bionics

Australia's Cochlear jumps on rival product recall

By Sonali Paul

MELBOURNE - Shares in Cochlear Ltd. , the world's top maker of hearing implants, soared 17 percent to a record high on Friday after itsrival Advanced Bionics voluntarily recalled some of its implants. In an "urgent recall" letter dated March 8, obtained by Reuters, AdvancedBionics told clinics that several of its implants had failed recently due to internal moisture, which it blamed on one of its two suppliers of a specific part that connects the sealed section of the implant with an electrode.

Advanced Bionics, owned by Boston Scientific Corp. , said it would send out replacement implants with parts made by the better supplier. Cochlear Chief Executive Chris Roberts said it was too early for the groupto upgrade its full-year profit forecast on the back of its rival's problem, as it was not yet clear how quickly Advanced Bionics would be able to replace the faulty implants." It's a bit premature to make any assumptions about that at this stage,"Roberts told Reuters."The major benefit to us is the further reputational damage to AdvancedBionics rather than a particular market share move."Cochlear shares surged 17.2 percent to a new peak of A$55.01 in a flatmarket, surpassing the previous high hit in November 2001. A recall of Advanced Bionics' HiRes 90K implant in 2004 due to moisture problems helped Cochlear reclaim U.S. market share last year, which thegroup has built on further this year to around 70 percent with its newestimplant, the Nucleus Freedom.

It was not clear how many implants Advanced Bionics had recalled this time, Roberts said.Cochlear would have a better idea about potential gains when it hears fromclinics whether they want more Cochlear implants or are just postponing operations while they await replacement implants from Advanced Bionics, hesaid.Spokesmen at California-based Advanced Bionics and the head of Advanced Bionics' auditory division, James Miller, did not respond to calls, and there was no note on the group's product Web site (www.bionicear.com) about the recall."This is the third recall in four years, and is a disaster for reputation, "Citigroup said in a note to clients."We would expect Cochlear to gain the majority of the short-term marketshare and secure medium-term market share as ABC's reputation slides," itsaid. Cochlear forecast in February that its core annual earnings would grow by 37 percent to at least A$80 million ($58 million) this year."You can assume people will upgrade their numbers because this will help Cochlear hold on to, if not gain, market share," said an analyst with a fundmanager who declined to be named.

Lent

Oh, and today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent.

So no SWEETS!

Small update

Hi everyone!

I received a mail or two - and a comment (hi MAK!) - about my lack of recent activity. You're right everyone, thing is, to be very honest I haven't had much to report, and what with all the sickness we've had in the family (Maria was sick twice, Mandy was sick as well, and needs a tonsillectomy operation, my poor baby!) I think that the misery of February acts as a 'writers block'. Much as I enjoy blogging, I'm not sure that people enjoy reading to the different antibiotics my nearest and dearest have been ministered with, or the fact that this last week was carnival and Maria didn't like it very much.. but anyway..

As it is, I got a piece of good news from my specialist yesterday. We went to visit him to diagnose Mandy and make a decision about her tonsillectomy (people in Malta - if you need a good ENT doctor, and I mean good, drop me a line, I swear by this doctor, he's so good. No, he's not a relative, but over time he's become a friend). Anyway, he asked me where I was vis a vis my MRI. I told him that I was still waiting, and probably had a very long wait due to the fact that the machine has until at least end of this month to be repaired.

So he told me that he would email the consultant in Manchester, and ask him if he wanted me to get the MRI done in Malta, whereupon the scans would be sent to Manchester. Then, the consultant would be able to see them, and if they're OK, great, we'll have an answer, one way or another - if they're not, well at least I would have tried. I'm all for this, so it's fingers crossed that the English consultant will agree. Personally I don't think he will refuse, as he'd already told me that although he had no problem with receiving scans from Malta he preferred them being done in the UK, but if they're clear enough from here, nobody's the loser. So it's fingers crossed!