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

Next week I am going on my first business trip since being implanted.  It's a short trip - driving distance and just two nights, but still, I'll be in a hotel room by myself, so I requested an accessible room for the deaf.  And got it.  I don't know that I really worry that much about hotel fires or any of the other reasons why I'd need to have an accessible alarm, but I'll admit that if there were to be a fire, it would be nice to survive. So that's good. And on the other end of the spectrum I managed, for the first time since implantation, to forget my battery wallet today so when my rechargeables died I had to put in disposable batteries.  They work, and I was glad I had them, but man, I really prefer to use the rechargeables.  I don't like having to throw out (or recycle if possible) batteries every few days.  Note to self:  do NOT forget the damn batteries anymore. And on a completely unrelated note, I had cause to learn just how LOUD heavy ...

I'll take "Things I Hardly Ever Say Anymore" for $500, Alex. I mean, I used to say that all the time.  "Sorry?  What was that?"  And I happened to have to say it again yesterday and I realized that it was the first time in a long, long time.  It's just generally not a problem anymore. Even at work, where the machines are loud - employees are required to wear hearing protection in some areas, and when you start to get evaluated to make sure you're provided with the best kind for your own ears.  Except for me, of course, I have no hearing to protect. But even so, I'm hearing better than ever and hardly ever have to ask people to repeat things. I just love this kind of realization.

Well, another month-long gap between posts.  I guess I've been a bit busy.  This year Memorial Day weekend was four days, so naturally R and I both caught a bug that's been going around - he thinks he caught it on the plane and gave it to me, but the day after Memorial Day I went to work and about five other people had it so I suspect the contagion field may be a tad wider that one 787. It made my hearing sound a little off - at least, once the sinus congestion set in.  It was a bit odd having the echoes seem amplified, but it's tapered off now that the congestion cleared up. Then I started a new job - and after two weeks, it's still new, though I'm starting to be able to find things in the plant without a map.  This is the company's largest domestic manufacturing site and going by my Fitbit I walked about three and a half miles just going to three different meetings yesterday.  It's a BIG place. But it's going well and people are nice.  No one has...

We just got back from vacation - eleven days in France, during which I didn't do any of my normal listening - no TV while on the treadmill, no meetings at work (oh, sob) - lots of talking to my husband but not so much with other people. Except you do, of course.  We talked to people in restaurants and in museums.  And neither of us speaks French, but I heard enough even in a week and a half to start putting some credence in the immersion method of learning a language.  On the way back I went into the restroom at the airport and a woman came out of a stall and turned to me and said something.  It took a minute to sink in but I actually realized that she was telling me that the stall was out of paper. Pretty cool for me.  I'd bet anything, a year ago I wouldn't even have heard her, let alone understood and certainly not understood in French.   And now I'm back home, have worked a couple of days.  Today I went out to run some errands (actually ...

I'm within a week of being one year from my first activation.  I'm also very close to being six months from my second one.  The second CI complicated things.  Having two makes your brain start over with rehab, and it's kind of frustrated doing the same thing twice in the same year.   But you know, it works.  So yesterday I had the last of my scheduled audiology appointments - from now on I have to request an appointment when I want one.  I'll probably go in later this summer, and soon I'll be just checking in annually. But yesterday we did some testing, and I learned what I already knew:  that despite the frustration and the imperfect sound, things are going really well.  So to recap my last hearing test and add yesterday's results, I give you this:   Prior to implantation, with two hearing aids:          19% comprehension Three months after right side implanted:      ...

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. ...