Saturday's night out

Last Saturday was my first proper night OUT with group (7 of us) of hearing friends since being activated.
My very good friend Andy who is leaving to work in Lima, Peru for couple months. He's a huge hairy man that resembles a big fuzzy bear hence his nick name is "Lord Bear"! I have known/worked/travelled with him for many years.

I met Andy and the others in a busy, noisy pub before heading off to "Kuti" for a Thai curry. When we were in the pub... Yes course it's very noisy. Andy kindly explained to me that it's OK to shout in the pub. He realised that since i had the implant, my voice is quieter than it was with my HA's. Also previously when i was in pubs with Andy, He was the only person who understood me as he is a VERY good Lipreader!!!! But he wanted to HEAR me use my voice over the back ground noise. I tried and got there in the end!

In the group, we have a friend Deb, I knew her around since same time as Andy, we started working/travelled together for 3 solid months back in 1999. Deb had very STRONG Geordie accent! I never ever really understood her for many years. Man, she do talk for the world! Never seen her quiet except that 5 minute visit to mostary (sp) near Barcelona, Spain.
Last sat, I UNDERSTOOD HER!! AND could hear her over the background noise...she sure sounds like sandpaper! When Andy asked me what does she sound like I said Sandpaper.... He said... yes, that's bout right!! there were tears of laughter.

The night went very well, I am so pleased with myself, as there were rare times when I tapped someone to repeat. It was a fun night.

My 3 month review

Yesterday I had my 3 month review 1 week and a day early than my actual appt on 19th. I was desperately needing a tune up that all of my programs was maxed out for fornight, I noticed I was struggling with understanding people. People commented that I am not responsing well. Sarah my usual Audi was very kind and agreed that I should be seen sooner so booked me for the next day.
Before I had my tune up I had hearing test with CI it was 45db across the board (at one month was 40/35 db)
Also I had problem with my processor AGAIN! I had experinced H5 warning few times and christmas lights flashing (the red light at the ear hook as an adult it should not be flashing or on at all!)Also the keeps processor shutting itself off. So.... I had my processor/coil replaced for the 2nd time in almost 3 months! Oh well.. things happens.
I had a really good tune up as it sounded so much better since when I was first switched on. I actually prefered the fastest speed of 7200 p/s so all of my programs are setted at this speed, P1 is everyday, P2 is Autosensivity, P3 is same as P1 but louder, P4 is my old map pre 3 month but louder in case i am experincing problems with above.
I had my hearing test with CI, it is 30/35 across the board, this is actually MORE than I ever heard with my hearing aids.
I also had CUNY test, Lipreading and listening the first question came up i was shocked to be able to listen/lipread FULL sentence of an unexpressed man! then my grin broke out and grinned through out the test and got excellent 77% (may not be big deal but i only asked for 5% improvement, Pre Implant was 40%, 1 month was 64%)
Sarah, My Audi really wanted me to do listening only test, so I tried... tried... and got one phase which I thought was "the fire engine is red" it was so hard to try to listen for something that made sense. However she stopped after few attempts. "The fire engine is red" is actually "the car engine is running"!!! ALMOST there!! Doh!! Hope I will get something at my 6 month!.
I went straight to London to see my old school/dorm mate, She is a 11 year CI user and we spent all night comparing notes, it was fun! She got very tall house. I could hear Boris the dog barking and my friend's beautiful silver maine coon cat hissing at him from 3 floors up!!!
I am pretty pleased with myself but hitting the walls for not getting enough listening only pratice... not easy when you are single, lives alone well not excatly alone as Boris lives with me but he can't speak.