Monday Morning ....

Good morning ... I said I would blog when something happened to me  and last night something did that I found so funny I thought ...this is for the blog ....
We went to the movie with 2 friends last night. I have always loved the movies and what I do is read the story line before we go and I then I usually just make up my own story about what is happening ..LOL
Our friends picked us up and again the car was the best place for me to hear and understand. Amazing really ..... anyway we are in the lobby of the theater and I standing all by myself while Rhonda is in line. I turned the volume up on the CI so I would not miss any sounds in the movie ...  all of a sudden ... bang bang bang !!!! My mind says guns going off hit the floor but first I look around and all are pretty cool then I see the popcorn overflowing from the pot ----- oh I laughed over that one ........ 
Have a great day ......................................

Sunday Jan 30/2011

Well it has almost been two moths  since the CI was turned on .... when someone asks me about it I say it is a "miracle" and I truly believe that it is. I never thought that I would hear any sounds again. Truly a miracle and every day I appreciate every sound.I honestly do not think that |I will ever take it for granted. Now my blogs are farther apart. Not because I am loosing interest in the blog but rather that my days are becoming more normal and i am adjusting to my new life . I am trying to blog when things seems to stand out to me but the normal days are just that pretty normal. Before I tell you about last night I just want to again go over my hearing and hope you understand that I do not hear like you do or exactly what you hear  but I am hoping that as time goes on it will appear to me that I do .... one question a lot of people that know me ask is ... how is your balance now ? well it is the same no better because I do not get the sounds all around me ...just the sounds on my left side and only the sounds that are in the hearing range that |I hear ...so  no change in balance. I often use my cane when all by myself . much safer .
Last night we went out to dinner with 4 friends. They picked us up to go to the restaurant and so in the van we played a  game to see who I could hear ..... we were in the back seat . the 3rd seat back ... when the two ladies in the middle seat spoke ...there voices were very squeakily but I could easily tell which one was speaking. when either of the guys in the front seat spoke , I knew something had been said but no idea who said it ......as they all continued in their conversations I could easily tell when they were all talking . That is just pretty awesome in itself --- before I would just sit in the car and not know what was going on . Now in the restaurant , we had it all to ourselves so that was great for me as no major background noise . But in the restaurant , unlike in the van ,   I could only tell who was talking by looking and watching . That is because the room was so big the sounds  were lost . again my one on one went very well .
Every day with Rhonda , I get better and better at hearing her and understanding her. that was how it was with speech reading also . I am able to speech read Rhonda better than anyone else.
Ok ...that is it for now . I am hoping to go out and put the snow shoes on for the first time this year and have a little hike around the soccer field. have a great Sunday afternoon ...... 

WEDNESDAY EVENING

Well just had to blog about my great day today ...it went so well and it started at 7 15 am when I went out to clean off the car ... as soon as I walked outside I heard this noise and my brain said -- " crows" .... stop laughing this is important ...... I have heard crows 4 or 5 times ... first time had no idea what the noise what till I looked all around , 2nd time I was in the woods with brian and heard a noise and asked what it was ans he said a crow . I was with Rhonda coming home and saw and heard the crows at sunset but she told me but this morning when I heard teh sound my brain told me it was the crows !!!!!
I was in a car today with three of my caching buddies.We went to Bridgetown caching . I was in the back with Rick. All day when people spoke I knew that they were talking. No idea what was being said but I knew they were talking ---- that was great for me .... when  we did talk on one on one  or were outside I could do ok . So sun was shinning all day and we had a lot of laughs and I felt just like part of the gang .... these guys are great and always included me before but today I felt more a part than in the past so that was neat .....
After I got home , I knew Rhonda  would not be home till later as she was going up the valley. I am in the kitchen and I hear some noise --what is it -- hear again --- I walk out to hall saying --anyone there and sure enough ,,,Rhonda is there and is saying --"hello hello " .... wow ...I was surprised to hear the sound but also so glad that I did .
Okay , now a hot bath -- 11 1/2 hours outside playing -- 24 caches ..... all that listening !!!!! What a day ....

Tuesday

I saw Dr M yesterday as I had guessed my tumors are just fine , so Dr said I am now good for a year before another MRI as apposed to the 6 month schedule for past number of years. He spent most of time talking about the CI and checking it . He is very pleased how it is working for me and said all post op looks good . with the speech reading and voice sounds I was able to get most of what the Dr said. There were a few repeats for me but I did understand almost all of it so that is great . It was too cold outside to do much around the city so a quick stop at mall in Dartmouth and then home.  I am not having these new sounds moments as often now and |I still find most voices are distorted but I am just so happy to have all my noises and will sort them all out as time goes by . Off to do some caching with 3 other friends tomorrow so that will be an interesting hearing day for me and of course lots of fun. That is it for now .... Chris

Monday Morning ....

This morning I am off to Halifax to see Dr Morris about the MRI results I had the other week. Dr M put the   CI in so I know he will be  more interested in that then the tumors and I am pretty sure that all is ok with them but always good to hear it from the Dr himself.
The other day I was out with Rick and I had just gotten out of the car and I heard a new sound , it was loud and repeated it very often so I guessed an ambulance and looked around and sure enough .... red lights flashing and coming my way ... this is how |i hear a lot --it is similar to speech reading -- you have to make some logical guesses because my sounds and your sounds are not the same .
Yesterday , two of our grand children , Jack & Isaac came for a visit and this new program is very strong. when the kids spoke I could hear them talk. Jack speaks very quietly so with him I just knew he spoke but really no idea what was said but I could guess what it was ---Isaac has a very high voice and is very loud ---so although I could not get what he said I sure knew he  was talking and I could guess at a lot . the other night when our grand daughter Lara , who is just over 1 spoke out I did hear that she made sounds so  it is all a very rewarding experience for me .
I understand Rhonda the most as I hear her every day and also because I know her and how she speaks . yesterday , R was up stairs and I wanted to ask her some thing she could reply with one word answer so I hollered upstairs the ? . I got back a 2 word reply --now I did not understand what she said but I knew it was 2 words and knowing Rhonda it would be  .. " Pardon Me" ...so I hollered back up --did u say Pardon \Me ... R replys yes and so I repeated my ??. Might have been easier to walk upstairs but that was too easy for me ..LOL
Ok , shower time ...Have a good COLD Monday ......Chris

Wednesday Morning

Last night I am having dinner with Nick and he says .." So what's the matter with you ? all Ok ? " I said i am fine why ?? He said no Blogs for 6 days ?? My answer was well life has been pretty normal and i did not want to bore any one .... but I do have a few things that happened over the last few days so read on :
The other day I stopped for gas . Now I usually always go in side to pay but this day in a hurry so I decided to pay at the pumps -- imagine my surprise when I started hearing all these beeps every time I pressed a button -- oh man it was funny ...so next time you gas up outside, while u are punching in numbers and beeps are going off think of me and have a smile ---
Next , I was out in the woods with my friend Brian and I hear something and i am not sure what it is ? so i ask , what is that noise I am hearing, it is faint but I hear something. It is so quiet in the woods --Brian says --It is a "crow" ... amazing ....a little later in the day my batteries quit so I change batteries and hook back up and say to Brain , Ok say something -- well he mouths all these words but I cannot hear him ...then starts to laugh and says ..oh u want me to say something out loud !!! what a character .....
I have stayed on the same program for past 2 weeks with the CI  and as things start to get a bit clearer and less echo's I have turned up the volume. So today  I switched up to the next program and the echo's are back but hopefully they will blend in soon .....
Here is what I am noticing when my battery stop -- if I am by myself at home and battery stops some times it tales me a little bit before I realize no noise anywhere . I have been deaf for 12 years so the silence alone is pretty normal ... if battery stops while I am doing something that I hear or I am with someone that is talking I notice right away . There is no warning it just shuts off . What I do notice is that when I take the CI off at night or say to get dressed what a "void" it feels with no sound .....
If I am in a room with 2 people and i talk with one of them , I am ok doing that . then if they talk together I know that they are talking but no idea about what is being said ....so although I hear in that situation I do not understand .....
The other night we went to a movie at theater with open captions --- I have been to OC movies before but this was first time  with a CI and I have to say that with the sound and captioning it was all pretty neat and I did understand most of the movie but I had a head ache after it was over from concentrating so much ...
okay , tonight should be an interesting experience for me ... once every two months the local cachers meet at Boston pizza for dinner and chit chat . This will be my first time since I got the  CI so should be interesting ..
That is it for today ......hope that you all have a "Good One" .........

Thursday already

Well I know that you will not believe this but today I went to another funeral and saw another doctor .... LOL ..
Can you believe it? .
The funeral was for an older man that I knew since I first came to Windsor and it was in the catholic church. So a new hearing place for me to go ..what a difference ...everything in the church was distorted for me and I could understand nothing  ...they played the same songs as the other day but in that environment nothing but noise and uncomfortable sounds . I will not rush back there with the  CI turned on. 
Then I went a new dentist here in Hantsport. My dentist has retired so I decided to switch to a Dr close to home. Dr Hagell , what a nice guy and he has a beard but with the CI, I was able to talk with him ok ...had to ask him to repeat a few things but overall did just fine .. I walked over to his office and the wind was up and blowing in my ear and the sounds it made reminded me of when I had a hearing aid in my ear and the wind  would blow --- that is a first with this CI so another FIRST !! 
Tomorrow there are no plans so hopefully a quiet day in H town BUT you just never know ...
Have a good evening ....................

Wednesday MRI day

First it is still snowing here at 8 pm ... I think maybe the weatherman got it right this time ....darn ............................. anyway .. off to Kentville this am for my MRI and when I arrive at the hospital and go to check in I am expecting same routine where they say all the info and you just say Yes or no ... not today -- she asked a ? and i had to give the correct answer --- who changed these rules anyway ?? LOl anyway after 2 repeats of the questions I figured it all out and I guess I passed cuz she sent to X ray for my MRI ... now it was the first time these people did a MRI on a patient with CI so they checked all the paper work and in I go ... it was a very long time , usually 45 minutes but this was 1 1/2 hours -- long time in an MRI but what was neat was after they showed me some pics of the inside of my head and I saw where the CI was ,,, neat ,,also saw the tumors. I had seen them before with the doctors ...it is amazing what the  MRI shows...anyway all went ok . Nothing else too exciting .. went to a couple of stores but life is very normal and i am glad of that ................... so hope that we do not get too much snow ,, another funeral tomorrow morning so hope we can get out for that then dentist ... oh my I am doing the Doctor route these days --PTL it is nothing too serious .....sleep well ...  

Momday recap ...

Well yesterday was one awesome day because I spent most of it in the woods chasing down some new geo caches .... went with my buddy Rick and weather was perfect .... now as far as the hearing goes it was also awesome --- first when we were out and if Rick talked to me I could hear him , not understand but heard him and so could go to where he was and talk with him , that was neat ,,, walking on the new snow and hearing it crunch under my feet was amazing for me .. we were out by the road and I heard this noise coming and it was a Bell Canada van going by --oh man it was soooo loud --just like a airplane -- what I am finding with this new program is that some sounds are normal , it is a very accurate program I can actually hear a small tap on the table if all is quite , a truck going by is like an airplane but the voices of people  seem pretty normal except that still a lot of echoes ....
So that was my Monday ... today is an at home day so just taking it easy with normal house stuff and of course my wonderful budgies squawking in the back ground ( u know they never stop !!!) 
Have a good day ..........

Sunday Morning

Well yesterday we went to Judy Strum's funeral and it was very sad.  65 used to be quite old but now it is quite young ... now for me it was an unusual hearing experience... rooms was packed so we had to stand --there were two ministers, one was Karen Lynch  who was good friends with Judy and another male minister. I could easily tell the difference when it was Karen speaking or the other minister.  Every time Karen said the words --Judy Strum --I heard those words -- nothing else -- now is that divine intervention or what ?? We were standing in the line up to go into the reception room and talking with another person --- there is a ramp that you go down into the room --- maybe 10 ft in length --at the top of the ramp I heard nothing from the room below but as we got to the bottom I got all the noise from the room --- that is pretty amazing --- that within 10 ft I go from quiet to very noisy --- 
I explained to Rhonda the other day that it is like a big ocean of sound ---- you can hear all the ocean of sound but for me it is like I have a straw to my ear and I get what sounds come down that straw ---- Rhonda said that helped her understand how it was for me ...We spent the rest of the day in New Minas just doing mindless stuff and last night at home and feeling much better mentally today. Funerals are always hard on many people , Each in their own way .
This new program is very powerful , yesterday someone in the store went by me with a cart full of stuff that was banging around and I thought an airplane was taking off ..... it is ok around the house just loud ....
Okay , hope all enjoy their Sunday ..I am hoping for an afternoon walk with my Lady ......

Friday night

just wanted to wish any blog readers an enjoyable weekend ... today was a pretty normal loud ( extra loud with new program ) day . I am glad to say that things were pretty normal -- I spent the day with a buddy and other than the fact that most sounds that I have been hearing are now much louder but the echo's on my voice and many others are now blending in so that is a good thing . The cars and trucks are very loud  so that is  safe place for me .
Just glad to say that things seem pretty normal.
have a great weekend ...

Thursday , January 6th

Well today was quite a day for me , this morning I met a friend in the city and we did 2 hours of Geo caching around Bayer's lake --it was an awesome morning .... I drove in by myself so had the radio on to try and offset the noise from the road --it is very loud but radio did help although no idea what was on -- when Brian got in my car, I turned on the key and he grabs his ears ---I guess  the radio was VERY Loud --- ( more about the radio in a bit) ... Brian and I had a great morning then off to see Adrienne . She is the audiologist. Adrienne gave me 2 new programs plus the one I was presently using and was comfortable with . Well the new program is very loud --just like the other ones were and a lot of echoes ... so before I left the office Adrienne turned the volume down just a bit ...well when I hit Spring Garden Rd I could not believe all the noise . Amazing -- all those cars I did not hear before --- well I sure heard them today hahhahah and I was standing at the lights to cross the street and 2 people behind me were laughing and it was like they were right in my ear ... crazy ..... so I get in the car and start it up and just hit the radio to turn it back on and oh man it blew me out of the car -- is was so loud --- I laughed and then I understood why Brian grabbed his ears ----this new program is pretty powerful for sure . after a few hours I did get a head ache from all the noise but I need to leave it so that I can get used to it and as each hour goes by things are getting a bit more blended ,,, when Rhonda came home and was talking with the birds ( yeah i know , we are crazy cuz we both talk to the birds all the time ) anyway , she uses a deep voice  and it was first time i could tell the difference and it really seemed like she was talking very loud to them but she wasn't ....
It is like a new beginning to me every time I get a new program .............. stay tuned for what will be heard next ... Have a good Thursday night ......

Wednesday Night

Well I am happy to say that today was a day at home . It seems that I have not been here for a whole day for a long time so I had a chance to catch up on a bunch of things . This morning it was so sunny and nice outside that I worked for about an hour putting the wreathes and lights etc away. It was really neat to heat myself walk thru the hard snow . I was just smiling all morning at that and I was closer to my neighbors house and when the dogs started barking I did know it was a dog and could tell the difference between the woof of the big dog and the squeak  of little dog so that was neat ......... tonight I was loading some caches on my GPS and heard it 'Bing" for the first time --- man their are a lot of sounds and noises in this world that we just take for granted ..
 New adjustments tomorrow on the CI  so wonder what that will bring .....
have a good night ......................

Tuesday Jan 04

Well last night my son Mark called and said ' How come dad has not blogged In the last few days ?" and my sister e-mailed last night -- keep that blog going -- well just for the record I do intend to keep the blog up to date it has just been very busy the last few days and no time to actually write my blog but I remember all my new sounds and so here goes ...
Sunday we were planning on staying home and on Monday going to a birthday brunch in Porters lake for Isaac's 3rd birthday. However a very good friend's mum passed away and the wake was Sunday night and funeral on  Monday so we changed our plans and went to Porters lake on Sunday -- we had a great visit with all there and the kids were awesome. I could not understand the kids at all but I usually knew when they were talking . When we left Porters lake we went by Lawrencetown beach and it was pretty well deserted and it was so calm and quiet but when we  walked to the shore line there were small waves coming and YES ...I could hear the water and could tell the difference between incoming and outgoing water !! It was amazing as I always said that the sound of the ocean was what I really missed the most --- now I wanna go to Queensland and White Point and Penny beach and ..........
The wake and funeral went OK for me but I realize that I do not function any differently in large crowds and that my hearing is very limited - The more background noise the less I hear. The one on one conversations were great so long as I was very close to person and that I could read their lips ---- that is what it is --I am lip reading but getting some assistance from the sounds ---
I am going back for another session with the audiologist this week so it will be interesting to see what changes are made.
Last night we watched a TV show and the closed captioning was very slow and so it was very difficult for me to be hearing some sounds but not getting the written words till a minute or so later ---
So that is where I am now and I hope to update this blog now every day or so ..... as things change or as new sounds are heard I will update .
Have a great Tuesday .................................................

January 1/2011

Happy New Year to all !! I hope that everyone enjoyed them selves in their own way. We did have a great time . Yesterday we left  home after lunch and first stop was the bank to get some cash . I cannot tell you the last time I used a cash machine so when I went into bank yesterday and got some money imagine how surprised I was when the machine starting making noises and sounds ... I came out to the car laughing and said Rhonda ,... that machine makes a noise --- LOL
Last night we went to the casino for a while before the concert and the place was packed -- and I thought I was old but the casino was full of some very old folks and I never saw so many wheel chairs --- amazing -- we did not stay long it was not fun so we went up to where the concert was and it started right on time at 11 and what a show the Trews put on ----- Fantastic ... now for me --I could not hear many of the songs and no great vibrations but I got the hand clapping that gave me the beat to most of the music and just watching everyone enjoying the music was awesome -- we both loved it and were glad we went ....today on the way home we decided to grab a matinee movie and it was another experience for me -- I will say that after 2 full hours of noise etc I was very tired and had a head ache but I did enjoy the show and could differentiate a lot of the sounds .... okay off to bed early tonight as last night was  a late one ..