This weekend has been crazy!   It is marvelous the resources available for the deaf and hard of hearing, and the technology is such a big deal!  I had a big weekend regarding hearing things.

 Friday night I met with Debbie again.  She video tapes our meetings so that I can look back over the dvd and see how to sign the things that we talked about.  Very helpful.  You can look at pictures and get some of it, but seeing it makes a difference.  I also have trouble remembering a lot of what we go over, so this is a big help!  We cover a lot of ground.  It took a while after we were finished to load the materials onto her computer and than make copies of the dvd, so we were there very late, but  it was worth it.  I tried to explain to her in ASL as much as I could what happened at my CI evaluation.  She helped me with a lot of vocabulary, but I made a good effort!  I just need to practice – a lot!  

Saturday morning my friend, Robin, and I attended my first HLAA meeting.  I really didn’t know exactly what to expect.  There were more people there than I thought there would be.  Some were friendly, some didn’t really attempt to say hello.I guess that’s true in almost any group situation.  I am in a particularly difficult spot right now because I don’t have hearing aids that help me at this point (although I think I may be able to have the one adjusted to my new hearing level and it might help some) and I haven’t had the CIs done yet, so I really couldn’t converse with anyone very well, anyhow.  The entire meeting was captioned on a big screen – they used something called CART which I heard about last year in the meeting in St. Paul.  There was a person there with equipment that reminded me of a court stenographer, and she captioned what was being said.  There were business items to attend to in the meeting, then they had a guest speaker.  The topic wasn’t announced beforehand, but it turns out that the topic was “Cochlear Implants” and the speaker actually has bilateral implants by the same company I am leaning toward!  I thought that was pretty amazing!  I enjoyed hearing what she had to say.   So far, every blog or comment that I’ve seen about bilateral implants is very positive.  They all say they hear better with two than one.  Makes it pretty easy for me to feel comfortable with my decision.  After the speaker, there was more business to attend to, then at the end they had 4 men from Starkey (a hearing aid company) there who actually are part of the teams that design their products.  They wanted to see/hear firsthand what issues and concerns users of hearing aids have to help them do a better job of designing and solving problems.  There was a question and answer session after the speaker and the Starkey guys. There seemed to be more questions than time for answering, but it was all interesting to me.  There is only one more meeting before they break for the summer and it falls on a day when I will be out of town, so I will likely become a member this fall.  

Saturday afternoon was a bridal tea for more lovely daughter-in-law to be!   It was wonderful taking some time to honor her and shower her with love and gifts!  Jessi (my soon-to-be daughter-in-law) and Nicole (my daughter-in-law) were really wonderful helpers for me at the tea.  They were both seated next to me, and immediately (without being asked) they each took turns making sure I understood what was being said as much as possible.  They used sign language and wrote me notes when necessary and let me know when the room got quiet and only one person was speaking to the group (when you can’t hear that, it’s easy to embarrass yourself – you just keep talking without having a clue!) and just helped in general the whole time.  It touched my heart how they both were thinking of me the whole time and stepped right in to make it go as well as possible for me!  I’m a blessed mom!  

Today was also a big day at church.  Luke, a friend and the technology guy at our church, has been working on getting some software up and running for me that will caption what is being said at the podium.  Today was the trial run, and there were a few bugs to work out, but in general in went great!  The software made quite a few mistakes (I’m pretty sure we didn’t discuss biotechnology, the SEC, or pray not to be bullies) but really, it was impressive what it could do.  Luke says that it will “learn” the voice of the primary user and become more accurate over time.  It really is very helpful.  Even when I am able to get the right pieces of equipment going to amplify the sound and can follow what is being said – it takes a lot of concentration and “work” for me to do it.  My first thought when I could read the captions was “blessed relief”!  It was a relief to not have to work so hard at it.  I only used the captions for Bible class, but added my personal  assistive listening device for the assembly.  Having sound and captions was nice.  They filled in the gaps for each other and today was still pretty tiring but I think part of that is just trying to manage it all and learn a whole new set of things.  Part of it was reading a long ongoing document.  I believe some font size and spacing adjustments will help with that a bit.  I think it would also help me if I bring a tv tray to church and use it to set my computer on.  It gets heavy after a while, and if my hands were free it would help me manage all of the other things – reading glasses, my listening device (needs frequents adjustments as different speakers are up and singing, etc) and I could also possibly use a Bible, etc…..I will try that next time.  

Overall, it was a very busy but very productive weekend in my hearing world.  It is an ongoing learning experience.  I  stopped in a store and a woman was so helpful – she wrote me notes and even offered to go around the store with me and help if I needed it.  I didn’t, but I appreciated her attitude so much.    It really is very touching to me how hard most people work to communicate with me.  I feel very blessed.