It is hard for me to believe that it has only been one week since I started using my cochlear implant.  I am amazed at how much I can understand!  I believe I am following more conversation than I was with my hearing aid and this is only the first week!  Today I met with my audiologist and we decided to eliminate Program 1 (the one I like the sound of better, but isn’t as clear for me) and Program 2 (more distorted sound – a little helium and a little mechanical- but more clarity of words) and I now am exclusively working with the program I get the most clarity from.  It has now been moved to Program 1 spot and she added something called “Clear Voice” to it.  It enables my device to make more automatic adjustments.  It will be able to “recognize” repetitive sounds like road noise in a car and soften them.  It will help soften background noise in noisy places like restaurants and hopefully enable me to hear more of what I want to hear.  She also added a new program to the #2 spot.  It is called a zoom mic.  Since it is a separate program, if I am in a situation where it is noisy and I just can’t hear a specific person (even the Clear Voice can’t always make a big difference – hearing devices just can’t distinguish well between speech you want to hear and speech you want to tune out) I can switch to that program and it will eliminate all noise except for what is directly in front of me.  If I am facing someone and using that program, I should be able to hear them.   It will be something to play with a little bit and find out what situations work best with which programs.  The zoom mic does not work on my Neptune (waterproof) device, but the Clear Voice does, so I will test it out as well.  Today, Dianna also did a short test of sounds for me.  She covered her mouth with a paper so I couldn’t lip read and handed me a chart with some sounds like “shhhh,” “ahhh,” “sssssssss,” “baaaa,” “maaaa,” etc.  I got them all right!  WITHOUT LIP READING!  AFTER ONE WEEK!  I am still blown away when I think about this and so thankful!  I still need to lip read quite a bit, but possibly less than with my hearing aid. Overall, the appointment went great.

The only downside was the driving part.  I drove by myself today and traffic was much slower than I expected.  There are a lot of roads that are still pretty sloppy, but the interstate was in good shape and there really was no reason for traffic to be moving at 30-35 mph there!  My GPS took me a different route than normal to avoid heavy traffic and I honestly don’t know if it was faster or not.  I was pretty much at its mercy because I had no clue where I was!  I finally made it to the clinic about 10 minutes late but that wasn’t the end of it!  There is a parking garage nearby where we generally park.  I have been there before when it was difficult to find a space and you can spend 15 minutes or more driving around looking for one, then there is still a short walk to the building where my clinic is.  Since I was running late, I was concerned that I might be walking faster (and less carefully than normal) and there was a risk of me slipping on ice.  Because I take blood thinners, any bump on the head can be serious (or life threatening) and even minor injuries like sprains can be a much bigger deal than normal since the swelling is actually bleeding.  Anyhow, I just try to be more careful but it was a consideration here.  The other option is free valet parking.  Sometimes it is very busy there, too, but you get out right in front of the door to the building.  There is usually a fairly long wait to get your car after.  I decided to go for the valet parking, thinking in spite of those things it would likely be faster and minimize my walking on icy sidewalks.  I got one car length past the turn in to the parking garage and hit gridlock.  Literally, 5 or 6 or more cycles of green lights and no movement whatsoever!  Ugh!  So frustrating when you are already late!!!!!  I finally made it to the valet and go to my appointment 30 minutes late.  Dianna was gracious and still saw me.  She knows I am not generally late for appointments!  Afterwards, I waited for an hour and 10 minutes to get my car!  Unreal!  Let’s just say it was a tiring morning.  I honestly handled it pretty well and didn’t get too aggravated!  

We are having our family Christmas with the kids and Owen on Thursday, so I have tons to do between now and then!!!  I may not blog for a couple of days.  I think it will be nice to be basically done with all of my gift gathering and wrapping, etc. by then!  We have a box or two to ship, but should be basically done.  Then I have a trip to pack for!  I was expecting to have major difficulties with communication on the trip so I am absolutely thrilled to be doing so well.  I don’t  get to spend much time with my side of the family (Chet’s either for that matter) so it will be wonderful to be able to talk to them all!