Happy New yEar

I had a CI moment few days ago, after all those snow we had, for the first time in very long time, we had a VERY thick fog, the type we couldn't see the rear lights of a car unless you are right behind it, very scary while driving!
I was walking my dog, as I live quite near to a very busy cruise/shipping docks. I heard a low deep groan, I couldn't think for one minute what that sound were coming from... then it sounded again at one minute intervals, I realised it was the fog horn! I have not heard one before unless it's right next to my ear. The docks/shipping lanes/light house are at least a mile away. I think I need my super ears tuned!!

Yesterday, after New years eve party at a hearing friends house, We didn't go to sleep until 4.30 in the morning, my friends needed to leave at 7.30 to feed their horses, they had made lots of vibration which woke me up! So I woke up, packed and left the house in my PJ's in hope no one would notice me driving in my PJ's. The CI was in my PJ's pocket. When I arrived home I quickly took the dog for walk, yep in my PJ's, there were not a soul in the park thank goddess for that. Came home, did bits pieces, had breakfast, had lunch, couldn't sleep so I took the dog for a walk round the park again in my PJ's, had a bath threw my PJ's in the wash and put my clean PJ's on. At 4.30 pm, I crashed out on the sofa, woke up at 8pm as I was hungry, I had bite to eat and turned the washing machine on which I forgot earlier, then I thought, my CI must have a flat battery, I proceed to move my hand on my head and thought, jeez where's the CI? then looked at the washing machine remembering earlier the morning I put it in my PJ pocket. ARRRRRGGGGHHHH it's in the washing machine... oh man, I can't turn it off since it won't drain water which is already full, so I left it and prayed for miracle. When the cycle had stopped, I frantically looked for it, I couldn't find it, heart thumping... where is it?.. where is it?... I am really good with looking after my CI and I must be very sleep deprived if I cannot remember what I have done with my CI... Trying to think very hard where I put it, Zephyr box - nope, bathroom - nope, dog's mouth - nope, Texted my friend to look for it in her house! Looked in the car, it was on the dash board..... I must have sub consciously put it there for safe keeping since PJ's pocket didn't have a zip or a button to keep it secure. Right, panic over.

Happy New year to my afar and close by family and friends.

Rachel's visit and Snow

Rachel Chaikof, creator of Cochlear Implant Online, She comes from Boston, USA and is currently studying in London.
She came to my house for 2 days, we had fun. On the first day, I took her round historic Winchester, I love Winchester as they have beautiful old buildings also Rachel came on the right time as we have christmas market too and a ice rink by the catheral, Rachel bought beautiful items from those little christmas huts for her future home. In the evening I took her to Mexcian resturant since it's her favourtie food. When we got back to my place, we went on Skype and talked to our greek friend Vivie Moraiti.
The next morning, We had it easy. It was bitterly cold and were about to snow, bless her she was so cold and not used to british damp cold weather. I was snug as bug, even the dog had his coat on. Rachel was wearing appropitately but maybe not enough, she needed techincal coat or a down coat. After a New Forest walk I got her into cute tiny cafe for a lovely hot chocolate completed with mashmallows and cream on top. Then took her into an antique shop! she was in awe! and bought pretty items as gifts (I am not going to say what incase someone reads this) She was really pleased with it. I took her back to the train station early than planned as I was expecting snow and knowing Britain, everything stops over few cms, Glad I took her back (but disappointed we didn't have longer time) as the snow started literally few mins later in thick flakes.
The next morning, I got couple of inches and couldn't go anywhere! Most of the roads were snowed over. Since I live in hilly area, it would be sucidial to drive on untreated roads and I didn't have any snow chains.

A cute pic of Boris in the snow, he LOVES snow and loves playing "find the tennis ball" in the snow! Amazingly he found them everytime, his sense of smell is incredible!

Miiiiaooowwww

Few weeks ago I had quite alot of CI moments and is pretty chuffed with them the best of all was, as I was watching a film, the volume was loud but comfortable for me, I was watching a good film. Half way into the film, I heard something faint and it didn't connect with the film, so in wonder I put the TV on mute then went into another room where the sound were coming from, I heard my cat mewing outside wanting to come in. :-) I couldn't believe it! At 16 she had been giving me health scares, but so far she's trucking on and still steals food off poor Boris! She is half the weight she supposed to weigh and she's eating out of the house.

Also I had dripping taps in the bathroom for long time, the taps became impossible to tighten. Over one weekend, I finally got round to replace whole bath tap unit and the dripping had stopped completely... since then I feel quite uncomfortable with the silence! I didn't realise that dripping taps were quite soothing!!

Climbing

After 10 years break and finally found a climbing buddy who happen to be deaf, under assessment for the cochlear implant, she lives quite far away but will be in my city for few months, I geared up for first climb, in a very long time, and put my spare rechargeable battery in my shorts "just in case".
I tackled the walls fairly quickly and were 6a plus within an hour! It was just like riding bike again after long break! But man, my arms, fingers, back was so sore afterwards.
When I got home and put all my clothes in the washing machine, I forgot to check the pockets. Yup, I have one washed and squeaky clean rechargable battery! It's still working, Whoo hoo and it hasn't even been in the dry and store yet but I will do the wise thing and put it in tonight and tomorrow night to make sure it's absolutely dry.

Rosie's Hen Party

Last weekend, because I am the bridesmaid it's traditional for us to organise a hen party of the bride. For months, I had secretly organised a weekend in wigwams http://www.wolferlowwigwams.co.uk/ and a greatest day out at the "Go Ape" http://www.goape.co.uk/whats-it-all-about. We had such a brilliant weekend and it couldn't have been any better for Rosie.

In the evening we had campfire and played a lot of games. There was 7 of us who is profoundly deaf (and I am the only one with CI) we were in our comfort zone and signed for England, there was also Rosie's mum and her sister, who both are hearing all weekend we encouraged them to join in and they both had great time and laughed a lot even there is language barriers but they seems comfortable and enjoyed being with us and never showed any signs of isolation, Rosie, I and few others took turns by keeping them in the loop with the signing, we translated everything they had said etc we didn't feel it was a burden to do it. It's only fair when they cannot understand 7 deaf people signing very fast! what hitted us as one of the girls had said recently that if it was 7 hearing people and 2 deaf people the attitude of the hearing would be completely different such as not making sure that the deaf people are fully participate. It's always like "never mind" "tell you later" or "u have your deaf friend with you, talk to her/him" or fully explain to us what the game is about or inviting the deaf people in the game (which is mostly verbal), for us deaf it's quite sad and isolating. It's one of many reasons that I am not too keen on outings/events with hearing people apart from few people who I know very well and who bothers to explain every details of the event/whatever like it's no trouble for them I am forever grateful for those people.

Interesting isn't it?

Austria July 2010

I had returned to Austria during what was the most unusual weather for the area my parent lives, Austrians weather is almost similar to typical British weather but not while I was there. It was so hot and it was 39 for few days, the lowest it went were 29 which is higher than average but the weather was beautiful with cornflower blue skies with very little puff of mare tails. I had swam in the local pool just few steps from my parents house almost daily, there were virtually no chloride, just pure mountain water, little chilly but it was nothing better than dunking in a chilly pool after a very hot day. Of course the CI remains in my room in the house. I had to rely on my mum for communication and awareness of what's happening but that didn't stop us from enjoying the pool.

We went blueberry picking whilst my dad went mushroom hunting, I heard the waterfalls. We had a dog staying for the weekend, I took him for a walk through long grassed fields and I heard a lot of noise! It was the crickets and there was A LOT of them leaping out as we walked through the grass.
We took a day trip to Bibione Beach in Italy, My parents fell in love with this beach and vowed that next time we would stay in Bibione for night or two to make most of the sea! It's 2 and half hours drive which is not ideal for daily trips to the beach! And it's not far from Venice.

My parents had made alot of friends in their village and I am so happy to see them enjoying their new life in different country where there is few language barriers. I (and my brother) became the important person in their life as their friends always asks after us and wants to see us when I am in Austria. One lady in particular who speaks half a dozen languages! were so interested to see how I developed spoken language even I was born profoundly deaf. She and I spoke quite a lot last time I visited but this time we didn't have time to visit her. There was another lady who lives opposite to my parents house, she got a nephew who lives in Germany and he has got a CI. She had always asked my mum how I got on with mine. I went to her house with mum but my mum didn't stay long and left me with her. At this point I would have clammed up and tried to escape but I was totally chilled. I was feeling very confident talking to her in her fluent english with soft accent! I loved listening to her! We talked quite a bit. I don't see them often as I wished but I am glad I can understand her well. On my final day my mum and I went to another person's house, I said to mum "why are you coming with me?" realising that I am perfectly capable of speaking to people so she left me and smiled. This person, He has very strange personality but very intellgent, a very nice man but sadly not in the best of health. We spoke for a bit in fluent english with beligan accent then we said our good byes, I walked back to the house.

When we reached the airport, I realise that wearing CI through the metal scanner is harmless so I decided to see what will happen, since this airport is very small it only got one detector and small group of security it's not possible that they would always have female available. Few times they had refused to turn the detector off for the sake of the queues so I had to wait until there were clearance. But with it being very small airport my flight could have gone without me! So this time I went through with CI on my ear, switched on, card in my hand, the detector beeped (yeah the first time I ever heard it beeps!) the lady guard wanded me and I heard the noise from the wand as it got near my ear. With the german card, She was happy to let me go. And I was completely unaffected by the experience and will contiune to so.

A new Hearing aid

Since my last blog, I took the plunge and went to my hearing aid clinic. I have not been there since I was refered to the CI centre, the CI centre provided me with temporary HA for my unimplanted ear to keep me out of the silence for 5 weeks while I was recovering from the operation. That hearing aid was an analouge and did pretty good job of hearing the environmental sounds but with the cochlear implant, I couldn't tell if it was on or off! I went weeks without realising that the battery were dead and thats when I took my CI off to change the battery! Duh Oh...

I had alot of listening practices with the Speech and language therapist, at first I used both ears and realised I found it little easier to listen with both ears not just CI alone. I think it's because I get better low frequency input from the hearing aid. This influences me to get my self in gear and get new hearing aid. I got my mum to call the audiology department at my hospital and were surprised with very quick appt date, usually they put me on the list and sometimes I had to wait 3 months, but not this time, I only waited few days and they already had HA all set up and ready for me to use. I received a Phonak Supero, it's a digital hearing aid. At first I found it hard to use, the sounds were so tinny, and over powering the CI, everyone sounded as if they are on helium... I remembered 2 years back when I was first switch on, it was just like that, so I said, I will try it for few weeks and see how I get on with it. The audiologist was surprised at my response as most people would immediately hate it in the room! I didn't like it at first but I knew if I waited and got used to it then it might be worth it. I am glad I did, after 3 weeks of helium sounds it finally the sounds became more sense! The audiologist had setted the HA to the max which means this hearing aid have no more room if I loose any more hearing or lose the benefit of it.

I am picking more speech sounds without lipreading, today I got a teacher to sign some papers for my course and while I was looking at my papers I heard her saying, "I need a pen, do you have one on you?" then I went to the other room to get the pen without looking back at her and came back with a pen, she looked at me flabbersgated, she had known me when I was at the school as child, she used to work very hard to help me with oral speech since I couldn't hear any speech now with bit of practice, a new hearing aid and wonderful cochlear implant. She smiled and saw the success of the CI.

Today I heard some strange noises and couldn't work it out until I realised it was the battery dying on my hearing aid! I am pretty pleased that I finally could tell if the battery is dying.

The nice thing about the superos is that they are 1/3 rd smaller than my old hearing aid. I asked for brown one to match with my Cochlear implant/and my hair they said no... so I will work on it....

Long time no see, no hear, no speak, no blogging!

Over the last few months had been very busy with the following...

College:- I have been doing a lot of college work which I am very glad to say is now OVER!!! I have few things to tweak, complete before having professional discussion to sign me off as COMPLETED, I really enjoyed my time at college and will miss the busy life. I am hoping to seek further education once I know what I am doing in September.
While I was at college, I had to do Maths and English exams to see if I am up to scratch, I am pleased I got 85% in Maths and hoping to get similar for English which is on 21st of June.
I am loving the school life! I love the kids, they look up at me with their pleading eyes and asks if I am coming back in September (which I am not sadly!)so, I have got 5 short and quick weeks left with them and will miss them a lot. They have been a great sport with my assignments (I had to do case studies about some of them)

Love life:- I have new (well since January) love in my life that had been keeping me very busy, his name is Tim, he is a lovely guy and it is going very well.

Cochlear Implant:- I am just 2 months short of 2 year "switch on" anniversary (20.08.2008), the mappings seems to have settled as I haven't had real map since one year anniversary last september, although it's going very well and I seem to have become a calmer person and is less stressed out as I get on with my life much easier. This morning, I had a dutch people asking me for directions to the supermarket, I heard them the first time without asking them to repeat!
Heard what people say in the shops without looking at them. It seems to only happen on really good day, a person that are speaking nice and crystal clear, I am pleased that my wish for less lipreading had started to happen, to keep my expecations low, I know it won't be perfect.
I can almost understand sentences without lipreading but as long I know the context. For my seesions, I am now on one syllabe words such as identifying a word out of list like Pat, Mat, Bat, Cat, Sat, Fat etc...
I am having integrity test to see if there is way to re arrange my map to get the middle freqency (I have one switched off) which is vital for sounds like Bit, Bed, Pit, Pet as I can't hear the I and E sounds very well.

One day I pushed the battery into my controller and it cracked big time! I had always been very cautious about pushing battery cages in after few stories of cracked controller and thought it would never happen to me but it did!! I got brand new replacement very quickly.


Recently, I had fallen ill with ear infection, my first one since I had the implant (Pre implant I used to have ear infections 2/3 times a year), it was strange, as it was only in the implant side, my implanted ear was red, my throat was one sided red and I had temp of 100oF, the nurse weren't sure if I can have antibiotics drops for the ear so she had put me on 5 day course of oral antibiotics which means I cannot have a glass of wine!

I am looking forward to finishing the school year and to have proper break! I do need it, my brain is fried!! LOL... I will be going back to Austria for a weeks holiday straight after the school breaks up.



Hope you all are keeping well and busy.

Take care

Changes.....

After reading Rachel's (www.cochlearimplantonline.com) post on Facebook about people's music on their blogs, some of the people had added very good points and I felt it was time to change my blog as I realised that black back ground is quite hard to read for some people so after nearly 2 years I have new background!!..... And a new photo....

I am now also a Cochlear Advocate for UK, they have put up my personal story on http://www.drum-online.com/ci/help--advice.aspx scroll down to the bottom, I am the one on the horse!

2010 and reflection of 2000's

Goodness me the last 10 years had gone so quick,

It wasn't that long after I left 16 years of full time education (12 in school and 4in College)

Exactly 10 years ago last night, In Morzine, France. I was skiing down the mountains at stroke of midnight holding flame torch just wearing my shorts and tee shirt, it was freezing cold but the sky was so clear, we were celebrating the millennium, we could see the fireworks going off in the village from middle of the mountain!

Went on first ever solo holiday in San Francisco and Los Angeles! I just said mum (When I had bad bout of tonsillitis and were completely exhausted) I need a holiday then few weeks later I was on the plane to the unknown. Coming home was bit of nightmare as I missed the flight by alot of hours! Sorry, mum!

Selected to join 16 amateurs and one professional skipper on world's toughest yacht race, raced round the world against 11 other boats. I was the only deaf and one of the youngest in entire fleet of 250 crews and it was emotional, physical but exhilarating trip, we were placed 3rd over all. Whilst racing round the world, I explored 5 wonderful countries, the States, South America, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa.

Visited deaf schools in Boston and Wellington telling them about my experiences.

Got job in the sailing industry and loved it.

I took my best friend who never had holiday without her family on memorable trip to New York just 8 short months after 9/11, The scenery and smell were unforgettable. We also went to Niagara falls and Toronto. We had brilliant time, Rosie got the travelling bug after this trip.

2006 I finally flew the nest at age of 28!!

Had horses, I lost both, one was a feisty Anglo Arab called Remy, in 2003 and one a gentle giant ex racehorse, Buck, in 2009, I miss them but don't miss the cold mornings of getting up so early to sort them out before I start my day, don't miss the mud! I won't have another one at the moment, I don't have the time or money for them. I will have another one (more likely another ex racehorse) one day.

In 2006 I gained a new member of my family, Boris, a little white jack Russell, he joined my old cat and I. Yes, the old cat, Misty is still alive and kicking, she is 16 this year she may look bit bedraggled and slightly greyer/whiter but she still got her springs!

Is on third car in 10 years.

I had my cochlear implant switched on 20-08-2008 and it had been roller coaster ride but now as it improves as I gain confidence in listening. It also enabled me to join the blogging world, with this CI I gained so many new friends (cyber or real) worldwide, asked for advice, gave advice and generally became good (I hope) member of the community.

Just recently I had few brief conversations with my mum on the phone which I never did all my life! Had list of firsts but my favourties were the bird singing, my 15 year old cat meow, my beloved Buck wickering at some distance away, I still listen for Boris' collar tags jangling every time we go for walk.

Enrolled into college last September to become learning support assistant - L.S.A, I have been helping out at deaf school and mainstream school with deaf unit helping the children with maths and literacy, I had awesome fun and look forward to going back to school next Monday! I am doing very well with my assignments/college course, my tutor have no doubts at all.

Cooked my first ever xmas dinner for me and my brother, and it came out brilliant.

Here's to another 10 years.... I know it going to be very busy 2010!!

Breakthrough

I had lovely but brief conversation with mum on the phone this afternoon!! it was amazing feeling to beable to hear her voice! my confidence had started to build! Thank you to Iphone and the personal audio cable (PAC) it helps greatly to block out background noise.

Very happy bunny!

It had been long time since my last blog.

Over few months it had been a bit of roller coaster ride. I had my one year review in September, My lipreading had improved that it's back where I was at 6 month review (at my 9 month it dropped to 79) now I am hoovering at 86%, when it came to BKB (non lipreading) although I had listening practices and did very well at them but when it came to the BKB I had an panic!! I cannot believe it I was so anxious and my mind went completely blank! I could do it but it's trying to keeping me calm and confident for it! It is a tough job. I had practices with my speech and Language therapist, I was getting 80's as long I know the content of the subject, without content it's complete blank except for words of "the", "what", "and", those are the type of words we use every day. If I were to call you on the phone and say "hello" "how are you?" I would expect replies of "I am fine, thank you, or I am okay" those kind of words but if a person on other end asks me a question totally out of ransom my mind will go blank and I would panic! I need alot of confidence building. For the first time ever I had agreed to my colleague at work that I would call her (just her to begin with) within the deptartment.
My speech and Language therapist (she does do speech therapy but my sessions were purely listening therapy) had given me new project!!! Previously we worked on single words. This time is sentences. She would give me sheet and I have to keep them covered and listen to what she had said, I am only allowed to look at sentence if I heard the the words in the sentence correctly (or almost correctly). The story is about "Tin binder"? (Sp), I have never read it, I just know it's about a solider. I had to work out what she said without lipreading even just one word it was hard at first then gradually as I go through each sentences on the paper, I started to put the pieces (words) together and began recognising the whole sentences without lipreading! whoopee!! It is a long process. I will keep going to my weekly sessions with Speech and Language therapist and hope it will go well.
I am quite excited as I am getting new Phone!.... an Iphone 3Gs, I am looking forward to it because it's clear enough for me to hear on, the direct link for my processor can be plugged into it (Which I couldn't with current phone) so I can use the phone with minimal background noise. And I have talk time on it too (I had text/sms only for years!) in hope I would pluck the courage to call someone!......
Also another exciting thing is My parents and I had gutted my kitchen and started from scratch (new plaster walls, new electric sockets so on) a brand new kitchen almost completely different lay out, it had been night mare at first with the plumbing but finally I have the important stuff working well (dishwasher, sink and washing machine) The units are up and against the wall, even looking a bit faceless (no doors) it still feels big with the new lay out (my kitchen was quite small family kitchen with bad layout that took up too much wasted spaces), Sadly after 10 days my father went home to Austria. He had very busy time here we hardly spoke/ hugged/ spent time together, I have no idea when I would see him again (it was feb when I last saw him) I have got my mum for another week but as I am busy bird I don't think we'll have any time to do anything other than trying to get as much done on the kitchen.

Tomorrow I start training for Cochlear Advocate so it's time for my bed...

One year on...

The past year had been incredible journey, there are things I thought I would never achieve in my life but is now taking the sounds for granted.

There had been Love and Hate relationship with my Cochlear Implant, the bad times were the horrible high pitched sounds at the beginning like Paper rustling, cutlery on plates, pans clanging in the kitchen! This sound has now been “tuned” out as I got used to it. I don’t mind them now. The weight of it is still an issue to me, I cannot seem to get comfortable with it and had tried different methods, At the moment I am using longer hook (especially for Kids) and realised its bit more comfortable. I hope there would be an improvement soon or new lighter processor.

I still enjoy the sounds of DIFFERENT birds and can recognise some of them! My beloved dog’s tags brought me a lot of comfort of his whereabouts while out on a walk. I can now hear Misty, My very old cat, walking on tiles very softly.
The upside of having CI is that I no longer struggle to understand much. My headaches from hard conteration and tiredness from listening/lip-reading all day had radically reduced. Therefore I get more sound input of ALL of my waking hours whereas I used to pull my HA’s out as soon I am at home. And for the first time in my life I had no ear infections for at least one year and hope this continues *touches wood*
My home life had become easier as I hears water running from upstairs, boiled kettle, Microwave pinging. Now there is something dripping.... must investigate....

My friends/colleagues are getting very happy for me as they excitedly call my name just to see if I am still responding to them on the first call.

They also had taken me to my first concert and first cinema without subtitles.

I have gone through 249 batteries (83 changes) comparing to one battery change every 2 weeks with the hearing aid. I am hoping that there would be allowance for me to use rechargeable but the centre won’t give me one as they cause problems with the battery compartment and isn’t reliable. I wanted to have choices of using both batteries, disposables for when I am away from home and rechargeable when I am at home.
There is still a long journey to go, I am in process of having speech and language therapy and so far I have attended 4 hours worth, it had been going well, this therapy would help me to recognise words/phases/sentences. It would be long and hard slog. I have been without Speech hearing all my life and it would take 10,000 of hours of practice and its hard when I live alone. My hearing friend, Laura is helping me with my listening as much as she could before she goes back to Antarctica this October.

Overall I am very happy with my progress and my decision in getting CI

And oh I am having one year review (3 and a bit weeks late!!) on the 15th september, to be honest i am not looking forward to it. I had knock back at my 9 month review when my lipreading/listening scores had dropped. It would be an all day appointment. Hearing test/tune up then SLT then lunch then to see the surgeon.

Anyway.... “Happy Hearing Birthday” to my ear!

Corporate day last friday (24th)

Monday I had another tune up as the highs were starting to soften. After short tweak (my regular audi and I already communicated on email and I didn't need to have hearing test hence it was quick tune up) I am due for my one year review which will be on 15th September (my one year is 20th August)Current mappings sounds much clearer and I am able to hear water dripping DOWNSTAIRS!! Kettle boiling downstairs! the movements of the dog downstairs!! And while downstairs, I could hear my elderly cat walking very quietly on the tiles. My Dynamic Range is averaging at 45/50 dbs which is pretty good. I would have hearing test on the 15th Sept to see where I am on the audiogram but I am pretty sure it's above the 30db line.

The corporate day I had on friday was my first proper corporate day since I was activcated almost a year ago as I was activacted in the near end of the sailing season. July and August is the busiest time of the year.
We had 3 boats, 3 groups of novice sailors (some never sailed before) and we had 3 races. I and the skipper were the only professionals on board, it was blowing 30 plus knots of wind. Maybe it was bit too much for the novices as they struggled balance and to winch the jib in. So Skip and I did most of the work. Geared up in full wet weather gear and wore Buff head band to protect my CI from the elements. The "Buff" did excellent job, it not only protects it, it is very breathable as I hate wearing hats, Very light and comfortable and still allows sounds through 2 or three folds (little muffled but still hears well) also the wind isn't so loud!!
Communication wise.... it had been a amazing improvement on both sides (me and the clients!) I was yapping away without any "pardons" "Sorry I am deaf can you repeat please" And it was blowing with wind and the water was coming over the bow to the clients' delight! It was so hard to hear over backgound noise but there is noticable sounds when I am conterating to listen what I want to listen for at all the times. I could hear the count down on VHF, People calling my name. And this with strong wind noises in the background!
At the end of long physically tiring day, we won the races!!

I am sure there will be alot of listening next week as I am doing the Cowes week. Last year I stayed at the back of the boat and only lasted for one day as I was just 3 weeks post Op and hungry to do something! This time I will be doing the ginding, pulling, getting wet!!!

16th July 2008

Today, one year ago at this time (8.21am) i walked to the theatre with bag of nerves, uncertain of what my future lies.... I was about to be implanted with cochlear implant and it was last year!!!! Cannot believe how the year went! It went so quick! Roll on 20th August for my offical hearing birthday....

Jools Holland and rain...

Few weeks ago, Laura asked me if I wanted to go to a concert. I was so excited for a chance to attend to my first ever concert.

On 7th July, We attended Summer Swing at Kew Gardens in London, Jools Holland was playing. He's a Jazz/piano musician, I have never heard him before!!

With weather forecast looking bleak with heavy rains and no sunshine. It didn't dampen our moods that morning as we prepared picnic for 12 people who are Laura's cousin Lucy and her wonderful friends whom I never met! I have had met Lucy few occasions at few parties.

We left so LATE thanks to lovely Laura we had to turn back to get her passport!!

Finally we hit the long stretch of M3. Heavens opened up mid way of our 1 hour and a bit journey had made me to drive super slow on the motorway as the visibility was so bad. At first I heard this "WOOSH" sounds and thought someone had beeped, Laura said it's the rain that stopped pelting on my car when we go under the bridges!! I never heard this before.
We arrived almost dry as bone to Laura's lovely Sister Daisy who gave us cuppa and lovely toasted cake.
A little while later armed with Picnic, chair and huge golf brolly we made our 20 min walk to Kew Gardens. As we arrived, Lucy wasn't too far behind we found good spot. Laid the blankets, then the heavens opened again I retreat to my chair and put the brolly over me! then the weather behaved for the rest of evening, we enjoyed food, wine, pimms, meeting friends of Lucy's.
The music was Okay from where we were sitting. After we had our food we walked up towards to the stage joining many other people dancing... I did dance, the music sounded a lot better!! When watching the music, they used many different instruments and I could pick out which is playing... I thought "Jesus" I'd thought I would never pick a musical instrument out of few others!!
The evening went too quickly as I was enjoying it so much.
Laura had admitted that she was worried for me, she was worried that I wouldn't enjoy it, or have difficulty hearing the music, No, I had wonderful evening. I shall look forward to next one.
As evening drew to close Laura and I went back to Daisy's house, I had to leave alone back to Southampton as Laura were going to Italy for a wedding with her other part of her family.
Thank you Laura for making my evening.

Memories brought back

As I have started to read Audio books. My friend, Laura, recommended me to read Roald Dahl books.
The last time I read them were about 20 years ago, I was just a 11 year old school girl!!! It had brought memories back, I remember I was engrossed in those books, I loved Roald Dahl amazing imagation and his creative stories.
Laura and I went out to Waterstones and bought Fantastic Mr Fox Audio CD and book, along with it I also bought Danny the champion of the world book as Laura got the CD already. These CD's are unadbridged which means word to word without music and narration which made it easier and less confusing. Recently I downloaded both CD's onto Itunes which were downloaded on to my Ipod. I try and spend least 30 mins a day listening and reading.

Next Stop

.. Winchester, was my first Train announcement on a very noisy and full train yesterday... I had to check with ransom besumed stranger if I heard it right!

The new map isn't too bad but there is few issues with it as I nearly stepped into path of an ambulance, it came out round the corner from no where at full speed and I did my green man code, I guess the listen part didn't work! Thanks to my friend who suddenly realised that I couldn't hear it and grabbed me. I did hear it on my old map so on the 12Th June I am going back for yet another mapping session to see if I could get those sounds back.

What is mappings?

I recently went on my 9 month review. It had been so fast few months and I cannot believe I have been hearing properly for 9 and a bit months. Unfortunately my CUNY test had dropped a bit to 79%, I did have bit of difficulty in lipreading recently hence drop in my CUNY test so I had major 2 and half hours of tuning, Sadly it's still not quite right so would have to call on Monday for another tune up. BUT.... the good news I had 3 of my 4 turned off electrodes switched back on. I had them turned off last October due to strange non auditory stimulation sensations on my temple. By one, Sarah, my audiologist, turned them back on and increased the volume until it matched my other electrode's levels and it was fine until she turned the Number 14 electrode on it was very low and immediately I could feel it again so she turned it back off, I may never have it back on again as we think it will always cause the sensations.
My mum who came along for her very first sit in at my mapping session since my first assessment back in January 2008!!! She had eventual morning of understanding the technical side of how the implant works. I think she found it a bit mind numbing but enjoyed her morning learning something new. She asked for copy of my Map....

If anyone wonders what mapping is, as I have a computer chip on my ear and it's so small that we cannot programme it so I have to be wired up to the bog standard laptop using half of my processor and cable to the lap top. Why lap top, because as an implantee with electronic device on my ear the lap top need to be powered by battery so I won't get electric shocks from wall plug!!

Each time I get tune up, my internal implant get checked out then the mappings starts....

this is my current map...


It's very technical to explain, I'll try my best..

The numbers 22 to 5 is my electrode numbers, the 4-1 is hidden behind the scrolls on right hand side. 22 is low frequency 1 is high frequency.

Red bars is my threshold (T)
Green bars is the quietest sound I can hear (C)
Blue bars (there's 3) above or in line with red bars are the levels that NRT (Nerve Response Test), it was tested while I was under GA at hospital during my CI operation almost year ago and I had it tested again recently so they can see where my nerve is responding and what level I could tolerate. This is commonly used in little kids as they cannot tell the audiologist what they are hearing or if it's too loud for them, the Blue bars tells the audiologist that it's far enough, sometimes after we were switched on and hearing alot more than ever the nerves works alot more harder the blue bars often goes up as the sounds gets quieter.

On left side states what implant (freedom), map number (#68), Strategy is ACE, Rate 900 hz, this is speed of current that sound travels from outside through the electrode to the nerve.

DR is Dynamic range
LF is low Frequency (not sure how that works) Sarah said they only test people 250 (Low Frequency) to 4000 Hz (High frequency) as it is within the speech range so there is no point for them to test either sides of 250/4000hz.

http://www.listen-up.org/ci/mapping.htm here's link to bit more details, you may need cup of tea and few biscuits as it is a bit long.

Monsters vs Aliens

Last night I went to cinema with a friend. It was the first time I went since I was implanted nearly a year ago. We watched Monsters vs Aliens 3D, It's cartoon. Because of 3D there is no subtitles. Of course I was a bit cautious about not being able to understand it let alone enjoy it....

Guess what... I was able to understand some of what they were saying without the need of subtitles and I really enjoyed it tremdously.