Update

Haven't posted for a while - but things have been wonderful. Last Tuesday I went back to Vancouver and Dr Pijl gave me back the ORIGINAL map I'd had from the beginning. Oh man it was SOOOOOOOOOOOO nice to have it back. He seemed a bit surprised, but what can you do? I like this one better and I'm able to understand speech better with it in *most* (not all) circumstances. Everybody is different though. I do think that the other program worked better for the phone, but this one works better for person-to-person speech. Maybe at the end of the trial I can keep the "main" program of the other map just for using the phone...we'll see what happens.

I'm still using the phone with this one too though and not having too much trouble, Had a convo with Mom (our first on the phone) the other day when she called me to see if I could come help her at a place she cleans for and she told me that after I had hung up she hollared in the kitchen with happiness (and was glad nobody was home there to hear her! *grin* ) It was pretty exciting.

At the end of the month, I'll be going to the Coombs bluegrass festival with my parents and my brother and his family. We went last year and while it was an enjoyable experience it was pretty much lost on me in terms of the music etc. This year should be MUCH different! I can't wait.

A few days ago I was having a nap, and my Dad woke me up and asked me to come outside and sit on the patio with him. So I did...he said "Shhhh...listen!"

and OH MY GOODNESS...I heard THUNDER!! For the first time since having my CI activated!! WOW! Unless it was a SUPER LOUD *boom*, I could never hear thunder with my hearing aids and I could hear all the rumbling, I could tell when the booming got closer, when it faded away...it was WILD!!!! My Dad just sat there grinning at me. When I was a child I used to LOVE to sit outside and listen to the thunder before a storm hit. He remembered that - and the fact that he woke me up to come listen to it with him made it a very special thing to share together.

I go back to Vancouver again next tuesday for a FULL day of testing which should be interesting. I'll also get the other program back for another 2 weeks but I'm not worried about that as I'd learned to use it even if I prefer this one for the time being.

We've not been able to re-add the missing 5 electrodes without stepping outside the protocol for the study, so that is something that we will play around with after the study is over.