The Nova Scotia Hearing and Speech Centre's Cochlear Implant Program waiting list is getting longer and longer... and most of them are New Brunswickers! Can you believe that, there's more NB'ers than Nova Scotians on the list!!! The program has received alot of referrals, and the waiting time is getting longer now... it can go up to 2 years or more before you finally can get the surgery, if you are a candidate.
Wow!!
Until next time..... :)
Friday 14 November 2008
Sunday 9 November 2008
Wicked!!!................
On Friday, November 7th, Raymond & I decided to take a day trip to the Miramichi to visit some relatives. We have not been "up home" for quite a while, so it was due time. It rained the whole time, but a nice trip in overall.
Down in Napan, we dropped in to visit Grammie B. first and she certainly was surprised to see us and very happy too. Stayed for two hours with her. I am excited to say this part... so may as well spit it out now. In the past few years, I have had alot of difficulty to carry on a conversation with Grammie as I was not hearing her as well as I did in the past. Plus she was not talking clearly with me like she used to, and she kept turning her head down or away from my line of vision. She is 92 years old now, so it is part of her aging process.
So hearing her on this day was the first time with my CI, and to my complete surprise, I was able to hear her voice really clearly. I had forgotten on how low she spoke. We had great conversation for the entire two hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. Raymond really enjoyed this too, as it was his first time to hear her voice with his CI. He found that her voice was much clearer than what he heard with his old hearing aid. He said it was less work to listen to her now.
At Grammie's house, I went upstairs for a minute and I heard something off a distance and recognized it to be a clock ticking. So I set myself to find it and it was in Grammie's bedroom on the wall and man-oh-man, it was loud!!!!!! I was so amazed at the loudness of it, and thought to myself, "How in the heck can Grammie sleep with that thing running???" It is much louder than the one I have here at home. I told Grammie about my wee adventure upstairs and she laughed so hard.
Next, we visited my grandfather down in Napan Bay for a couple of hours. I was able to hear his voice clearly as well, but he runs his words together, or more like mumble to me, so I had great difficulty in understanding him at times. Raymond had no problems at times, but had to struggle couple of times to really listen to him. Papa is 89 years old.
After Papa, we visited Aunt June for almost 3 hours.....when we get together, we can talk up a storm! I never really had any problems talking with June, but this time around, I was able to hear her voice more than before... so it made the conversation flow much easier.
Next pit stop was to visit Uncle Garth, but nobody was home, so off we go to visit Uncle David.... and this ended up as our last pit stop. Aunt Linda and I stayed in the house, while Raymond and David went into the men's garage, ya all know what that means. It was so funny, I just realized this AFTER the visit, more likely on the next day that Linda still continued to speak to me in her "higher than normal" volume after so many years of talking to me loudly. I guess it is a habit she soon will need to learn to adjust with me. I am sure she's the first one, but she won't be the last one.
So after seeing my relatives for the first time with my CI, made me realize it is a wonderful gadget! It works, and it is certainly SO worth it. I was extremely happy to hear Grammie's voice again so clearly. It "almost" brought tears to my eyes.
While thinking about up home.... and I felt like I was in a "timeless" zone... you know what I mean? Time stood still for a couple of years. Honestly! Things have never changed at Papa's house. I am pretty sure I have not been in the house for at least a year and half, and I felt like the last time I visited there was like a month ago. I took a "peek" in Grammie Sweezey's bedroom and nothing in there has moved or changed since she passed away 2 years ago. Just by looking in that room, you would think she was still around. I really miss her lots! :(
Ah, I am getting nostalgic.... so better end this before I bore you to death..... ;)
Until next time.....
Down in Napan, we dropped in to visit Grammie B. first and she certainly was surprised to see us and very happy too. Stayed for two hours with her. I am excited to say this part... so may as well spit it out now. In the past few years, I have had alot of difficulty to carry on a conversation with Grammie as I was not hearing her as well as I did in the past. Plus she was not talking clearly with me like she used to, and she kept turning her head down or away from my line of vision. She is 92 years old now, so it is part of her aging process.
So hearing her on this day was the first time with my CI, and to my complete surprise, I was able to hear her voice really clearly. I had forgotten on how low she spoke. We had great conversation for the entire two hours and I enjoyed every minute of it. Raymond really enjoyed this too, as it was his first time to hear her voice with his CI. He found that her voice was much clearer than what he heard with his old hearing aid. He said it was less work to listen to her now.
At Grammie's house, I went upstairs for a minute and I heard something off a distance and recognized it to be a clock ticking. So I set myself to find it and it was in Grammie's bedroom on the wall and man-oh-man, it was loud!!!!!! I was so amazed at the loudness of it, and thought to myself, "How in the heck can Grammie sleep with that thing running???" It is much louder than the one I have here at home. I told Grammie about my wee adventure upstairs and she laughed so hard.
Next, we visited my grandfather down in Napan Bay for a couple of hours. I was able to hear his voice clearly as well, but he runs his words together, or more like mumble to me, so I had great difficulty in understanding him at times. Raymond had no problems at times, but had to struggle couple of times to really listen to him. Papa is 89 years old.
After Papa, we visited Aunt June for almost 3 hours.....when we get together, we can talk up a storm! I never really had any problems talking with June, but this time around, I was able to hear her voice more than before... so it made the conversation flow much easier.
Next pit stop was to visit Uncle Garth, but nobody was home, so off we go to visit Uncle David.... and this ended up as our last pit stop. Aunt Linda and I stayed in the house, while Raymond and David went into the men's garage, ya all know what that means. It was so funny, I just realized this AFTER the visit, more likely on the next day that Linda still continued to speak to me in her "higher than normal" volume after so many years of talking to me loudly. I guess it is a habit she soon will need to learn to adjust with me. I am sure she's the first one, but she won't be the last one.
So after seeing my relatives for the first time with my CI, made me realize it is a wonderful gadget! It works, and it is certainly SO worth it. I was extremely happy to hear Grammie's voice again so clearly. It "almost" brought tears to my eyes.
While thinking about up home.... and I felt like I was in a "timeless" zone... you know what I mean? Time stood still for a couple of years. Honestly! Things have never changed at Papa's house. I am pretty sure I have not been in the house for at least a year and half, and I felt like the last time I visited there was like a month ago. I took a "peek" in Grammie Sweezey's bedroom and nothing in there has moved or changed since she passed away 2 years ago. Just by looking in that room, you would think she was still around. I really miss her lots! :(
Ah, I am getting nostalgic.... so better end this before I bore you to death..... ;)
Until next time.....
Saturday 1 November 2008
Small update - noise reduction program and few tidbits
Tried the 2 noise reduction programs switches on my CI processor at work, and soon found out that switch #3 works best for me. It really reduces the noise level, but I do still hear the noises around me and in the background, but not as loud as it was before. I had too much simulation going on and it was making me extremely tired, and found a great difference with the noise reduction program.
However, one thing I noted with switch #3, the voices are not as clear and a little dull. That is okay as I work pretty independantly majority of the day.
Once I leave work, I go back to switch #1, which is for normal daily usage.
Last Friday, I met up with a friend of mine and she mentioned that she noticed I was talking a bit louder than a whisper now. That's good... hope it continues to improve. Or maybe it was because I had the volume down. I must check the next time someone says something about my voice level, and will check where the volume number is at.
Right now, I am having a heck of a time looking for a simple children's read-along book with a CD. They do have them in the stores, but they are more for teens, etc... I am going to drop in at Scholar's Choice/Moyer's on Monday after work to see if they have any. Keeping my fingers crossed as I would like to start practicing my listening/speech skills.
The speech therpist sent me a list of words for me to practice, and a friend will work on this with me, plus will get Mom/sister to help out as well.
Now, onward to Raymond. Really, there is not much to report from his end these days. He is doing extremely well. His CI is at the most comfortable level and he is hearing things pretty normally rather than the loudness he experienced in the previous months. Music is coming along well and he is picking up alot of words. He finally is able who the music artist is when it comes on.
Remember a few months ago, he tried out the bluetooth for his cell phone and he tried the MaxIT brand. It didn't pan out well for him, so he returned the product back to the company. Someday, not now, he will try another bluetooth thingy.
One thing we both still do not like...... is folks calling our names behind our backs testing us out. People don't realize that we DO hear the voices, but we do not realize it is for us. This has happened to me at work a couple of times, how do you expect me to hear my name with all that noise in the background, especially with the white noise?? Forget it.....
Every Wednesday night, we attend Bible Study over at the Lakeview Manor senior citizens/nursing home as they have allowed us to use their roomy chapel and large TV for our studies. There's all kinds of noises in that place!!! I can hear the buzzer's going off at the nursing station. Last week, while we were watching a session on the DVD, all of sudden Raymond and I heard a noise and I kind of looked over at Grace and shot my eyebrows upward. She laughed at me, as I am sure it was quite the sight that Raymond and I were the only ones that heard something while the other deafies watched the DVD. :)
Until next time.....
However, one thing I noted with switch #3, the voices are not as clear and a little dull. That is okay as I work pretty independantly majority of the day.
Once I leave work, I go back to switch #1, which is for normal daily usage.
Last Friday, I met up with a friend of mine and she mentioned that she noticed I was talking a bit louder than a whisper now. That's good... hope it continues to improve. Or maybe it was because I had the volume down. I must check the next time someone says something about my voice level, and will check where the volume number is at.
Right now, I am having a heck of a time looking for a simple children's read-along book with a CD. They do have them in the stores, but they are more for teens, etc... I am going to drop in at Scholar's Choice/Moyer's on Monday after work to see if they have any. Keeping my fingers crossed as I would like to start practicing my listening/speech skills.
The speech therpist sent me a list of words for me to practice, and a friend will work on this with me, plus will get Mom/sister to help out as well.
Now, onward to Raymond. Really, there is not much to report from his end these days. He is doing extremely well. His CI is at the most comfortable level and he is hearing things pretty normally rather than the loudness he experienced in the previous months. Music is coming along well and he is picking up alot of words. He finally is able who the music artist is when it comes on.
Remember a few months ago, he tried out the bluetooth for his cell phone and he tried the MaxIT brand. It didn't pan out well for him, so he returned the product back to the company. Someday, not now, he will try another bluetooth thingy.
One thing we both still do not like...... is folks calling our names behind our backs testing us out. People don't realize that we DO hear the voices, but we do not realize it is for us. This has happened to me at work a couple of times, how do you expect me to hear my name with all that noise in the background, especially with the white noise?? Forget it.....
Every Wednesday night, we attend Bible Study over at the Lakeview Manor senior citizens/nursing home as they have allowed us to use their roomy chapel and large TV for our studies. There's all kinds of noises in that place!!! I can hear the buzzer's going off at the nursing station. Last week, while we were watching a session on the DVD, all of sudden Raymond and I heard a noise and I kind of looked over at Grace and shot my eyebrows upward. She laughed at me, as I am sure it was quite the sight that Raymond and I were the only ones that heard something while the other deafies watched the DVD. :)
Until next time.....
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