Weekend one after Activation, August 9-11, 2008

My ear is quite sore, but I remember that from hearing aid days so I pretty much expected it. I know my ear will toughen up after a while. I don’t have any moleskin so I used a band-aid and cotton ball and stuck it right to my ear. It's helping.

It's easy to change the programs on the Harmony without taking the processor off my ear. I do use two hands, one to hold the processor steady, and the other to switch the program. If I forget which program it's on I just go back to the first one and count up to the number I want. Volume is what is harder to change. It's difficult to know how much you've turned it up or down. I find I have to take the processor off to be sure of where I am with the volume dial.

We had a houseful at the lake this weekend. My sister, her husband, two sons, daughter, Bill, me, our two boys and one of their friends spent the two days talking, eating and watching it rain! The boat was in the shop anyway – bummer - and it poured for two days straight. Lake Huron has been low for the last 10 years and it seemed like our dear God finally decided to fill it back up over the weekend! The sun would come out for maybe 5 minutes and then it would be raining buckets again, coming down so hard and fast that anyone to venture out was soaked to the skin in minutes.

I had a nice conversation with my niece. I talked to my son’s friend about his recent trip to Ecuador and had conversations with everyone there. I think the whole weekend was less stressful than usual for me because I was hearing so much more.

I got up this morning (Monday) and worked on rehabbing my ear for an hour or so, using a headset and the English site listed on my links section. I could hear some parts and other parts not so well. I’m using P today after switching back and forth all weekend.

Our cottage is part of a subdivision that is just around the corner from a marina. The rain finally stopped and our company all had gone home Sunday night. Bill and I went over to the marina on our bikes. We stopped to talk to some folks. Usually, I mostly tune out because I can never follow conversations outside with the wind howling like it was this morning. This time I listened to stories about boating, boats that almost sank and other mishaps. I laughed along with them. I even contributed to the conversation. I spoke instead of just nodding my head and smiling!

We also met up with the brother of one of our friends who was in town with his wife. We decided to ride our bikes around with them to show them the good places to ride since they’d be there for a few more days. I actually heard her talking with my new CI and I could not hear her with my old CI. As little as a week ago, I would have shied away from this bike ride because I would not have been able to hear. In fact, I almost avoided it today because I didn’t know the people we rode with very well. I couldn’t really see a way out that wouldn’t be rude though so I went. I’m so glad I did!

The best is yet to come! I had most everything packed up when Bill said he wanted to mow before we left. “Go for it” I said. Having some time to while away, I sat down at the computer. I found a site for internet radio called www.pandora.com and started listening to music. This site is neat because you are able to create your own radio stations. I picked The Beatles for one station and Carole King for the other. The site created two radio stations that had songs by these artists and some similar songs by other artists. The only problem was the windows and doors were open and the mower was so loud I was having trouble hearing. Then as I’ve been doing all weekend, testing what I’m hearing with each CI, I turned the older one off. The mower sound was gone and in its place was music. I could follow the lyrics of the songs I knew really well! I was thrilled! It still didn’t sound natural to me, but following the beat and understanding the lyrics at this point (5 days after activation!) has been very exciting! The new CI seems to filter out much more of the background noise than my older CI does.

Tonight, the hospital anesthesia department called me to ask me some questions about my surgical experience. I had volunteered to be part of a study on the day of my surgery. When I’m home, I use a patch cord to plug my BWP directly into the phone. This is how I took the call but I also placed the phone to my right ear so I could also hear using the T-mic. Sure seemed like using both ears really helped and I’d like to try this out at work. I will be going to work tomorrow for the first time with my new CI. Wish me luck in being brave and trying the phone with both ears. Generally, I avoid the phone like the plague at work.

I am so impressed with the technology of the Harmony! Each day and each new listening experience impresses me more. I'm very grateful to be bilateral!