*cough, sneeze, hack*

Tis the seaon to be sneezin....and boy am I ever. I can thank my beautiful nephew for giving me this lovely cold. Hopefully it will run its course soon.

I get nagged from time to time *you know who you are!! LOL* to update my blog. I admit I've been lax, as the novelty of my CI wears off, but at the same time, every morning when I put it on I'm still awed by the fact that in the 10 seconds it takes to put the processor in place and turn it on, I go from complete silence to sound. It truly amazes me.

I'll be going in to St Paul's sometimein April for my yearly evaluation and re-map. Looking forward to that. Each mapping just seems to make everything even better than before.

Today I had a fun CI moment - my Mom is babysitting my niece and nephew and called to see how I was, and my nephew Evan who is 3 got on the phone and we had a nice conversation (which revolved around his plastic dinosaurs for the most part, and how he doesn't want his younger sister Emily *whom he not-so-affectionately calls an Emmysaurus when he's upset with her* to touch them.) It was so sweet - especially hearing him say "Goodbye Auntie Neece - I love you!" It just warms the heart.

I also had the most amazing conversation recently with one of my best friends. She lives in Ontario, and we met online about 10 years ago. We've met in person only once, and at the time I didn't have my hearing aids (long story) so I had never heard her voice. It was just so amazing when she called me up and I was able to hear her! After a few initial stumbling moments as I got used to her voice, we talked for over an hour. It was wonderful. I'm gaining confidence and using the phone more and more, with many other people. The only difficulty I have is "recognizing" voices on the phone. I almost always have to ask who it is, I'm not sure if voice recognition is something other CI recipients have a difficulty with as well. Only my mother, my brother and my boyfriend cause no problems. I know them off the bat.

I can't believe its almost been two years...time has just flown by. The things I can do now that I never could before --- from watching videos on YouTube.com and not having to worry about misunderstanding them, to videos on CNN.com, going to the movies and usually understanding most of the dialogue (it depends a lot on whether there is a lot of background noise/music. While I can see why hearing people enjoy Surround Sound, I find that it makes picking dialogue out of a movie at a theater much harder.)

I even enjoy watching TV shows that aren't closed captioned, and sometimes intentionally turn the CC off on some of my favorite shows (usually news programs and/or Discovery channel - people tend to speak very clearly.)

I've also been heartened to see that on several message boards that I participate in, there are more and more individuals who are willing to listen to first-hand experiences instead of just throwing propaganda that 'they heard the friend of somebody who heard another person say...."

There have even been some people who initially were anti-CI realize that CI's are NOT the death knoll for Deaf Culture, and it will continue to exist and thrive. When HA's first came out, they, too were dealt with suspicion and hostility. With time, CI's will be as normal as HA's.

I've been asked from time-to-time if I now consider myself a hearing person, or a deaf person. The fact remains that when I remove my external processor, I'm completely deaf. When I put it on, I can hear. I don't introduce myself to people as a hearing person, I prefer to say "I am deaf, and with the aid of a CI I can hear." Its interesting that I can have the dual identity of deaf and hearing. I don't hear 100%, but then even my hearing mother doesn't hear 100%. Its all in the way you visualize yourself. I'm HAPPY - I think that's the best way to identify who I am. A very HAPPY individual.