Listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door, let's go

Recently I posted about a phone call and then a long meeting, both of which I could hear and do well in. There was a tiny detail that I left out.  The phone call and the meeting were both interviews, and I  will be starting a  new job in June.  Same company, but a different site and a different role.  It's going to be new to me, and after a lot of years where I am now, I'm looking forward to a new challenge.  I'm also much more confident than I was a year ago that I can function and hear people. In fact, today I went to lunch with five other people from my current job, and we went to a restaurant that I've always had trouble in.  it's just a huge room, and it's noisy.  But again, no trouble at all, we had a good time and a good discussion. It still doesn't sound perfect, but in general so much is easier now - and I'm getting used to it.  It's really a cool thing to be starting to reverse nervousness and frustration that's been a signifi...

One year ago today - at this time exactly, I was in the operating room at the University of Minnesota clinic surgery center, having my first CI implanted.     This was momentous.  When I woke up after surgery, it was a whole new world, though I didn't really start experiencing it till after activation.  Since then I've learned to listen with my CI, received my second implant, learned to listen with that one, and then began working with the two of them together. And it's amazing.  I've been rabbitting on in this blog for over a year now about how astounding it all is and what a change it's been, but it seriously cannot be understated.  I had been getting progressively more hard of hearing since birth; in recent years my ability to navigate the world was becoming more and more restricted and I was, to a significant degree, isolated by my inability to hear. Now, due to losing my remaining natural hearing in surgery, I'm almost completely deaf. ...

Recently I've been noticing that my ability to hear things that I couldn't before has been getting steadily better.  I suspect my word comprehension now may even be a bit better than the 89% that I got in January.  Last week I had a half-hour phone call and heard the whole thing - and that's huge, I've been avoiding the phone for fifteen years. And today I had a series of meetings, including some time in a very noisy production area, and had no trouble hearing throughout the day.  It's actually kind of difficult to maintain a professional demeanor when what you really want to do is just up and down exclaiming, "HEY I HEARD THAT!".   I haven't started making voluntary phone calls yet, but in the business calls that I'm in I'm hearing more than I have in a long, long time.  It's really amazing. I also heard from another recent implantee that she has trouble hearing for an hour or so after flying if she sits in the window seat.  I have o...