Spring Sprint

Friday, February 25, 2011

Fryday

This is the 3rd time that I have sat down to do this ... something happened each of the other two times like an e-mail that took me somewhere else then on and on .... u know ....
Anyway Friday already .... yesterday went well , last night had  dinner with my friend Barry. I arrived about 6 and stayed till around 9 . What was interesting for me was at 6 pm i could read and hear everything that Barry and I talked about without any repeats ... by 7 pm I was getting Barry to start repeating some things and by 9 ... i was hardly getting 50% understanding ...I was just so tired and I think that my brain had shut down ...
interesting and I was smart enough to say ..listen i am really tired so gotta shove off ....
today is just a domestic day here at home and I am loving it -- no radio or tv on just me and the birds till Rhonda gets home at supper time ..... I am loving the quiet. I do hope to go for my walk in an hour if I can get all my chores done ..... 
Have a great weekend ....... Cheers ...... 

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Thursday already ..................................

Sunny Thursday .. Adrienne will be proud of me i am on level 3 today with my CI and turned up over 1/2 ...... yeah those birds are now right in the center of my head hahahhahah ... I will leave it there for today and see how I do ....the noise does give me head aches but I can honestly say that I can notice a difference in many things when I keep the sound up loud. It just that everything gets magnified and that is the hard part. On Tuesday I was out geo caching with my three buddies, Ken, Rick and Brian ... we had a great day ... brain was the driver most of the day and i was in back seat ... I could tell easily who was talking but if I wanted to know what was being said I usually had to ask ,, but I did get a lot of what was being said ... one neat thing happened -- we were on a side road mid afternoon and i was down the road from the guys and all of a sudden one of them hollers out -- I am guessing he said my name --I looked up and they pointed behind me --  it was a school bus coming and I had not yet heard it .... that was pretty neat to me that they could holler and get my attention ....the other day  our friend jan was over twice in three days and we talked a lot and i can honestly say that by the end of the 2nd visit I was not only able to understand her so much more I could also hear her more clearly and the vibrations in her voice were less and less . So it will take time but it will work .I am feeling so confident about all of this ...wow .... 
One more thing yesterday I was out for my walk ( proud of myself as it was cold but I went anyway ) and i met two different people and it was so great to say something to a person and hear that they replied to you and also to understand what they said --- how many times did I meet people and say .. nice day or something like that and smile and move on because I could not communicate with them ... I had an extra bounce in my step after meeting people on my walks --- 
okay Hope that you all have a great day .. tonight I having dinner with a friend that i have not seen since my CI and it is just he and I so it will be interesting to see how it goes .... stay tuned ....




 

Monday, February 21, 2011

monday

Hope all had a good weekend ..... On Saturday I was at Tans as you know and my son Nick came
in and said the kids were in his car right outside the door so I went out to say ":Hi" to them . Lara is 15 months and is sitting in her car seat with the biggest smile on her face --she is awesome and Aidan is 3+ and he is in his chair and in the car when Aidan talked to me I could understand and hear him perfectly --- it was neat ..saturday afternoon we went to our Neighbor's Life Celebration at the community center which is an old Fancy Home here in town. It is beautiful inside with big high ceiling but not a great hearing place for me .. with all the chatter of folks in the room I had a hard time with my conversations but that is just all part of the learning curve .  Rest of weekend quiet and uneventful. Which is great.
The maker of my CI is AB and they set up a web place for users and family and friends to post questions or leave info etc..it is called Hearing Journey ..HJ and I did join and have asked a few questions over the past bit and the number of responses is amazing . Well one thing I was interested in is a soft ware program that my Audiologist Adrienne told me about call " Clear Voice" or CV ... what this program does is filter out the background noise and makes voices clear. I knew it was not yet licensed in the US but is here and in many other countries. I wanted to have some feedback on this program . WOW ...I was blown out of the water by the stories that many poeple wrote to me about how good this program is . They tell you a lot of details and one thing I discovered is that all the sounds that are so loud to me like the road noise in the car etc is what all these other folks are hearing too . That is awesome for me to know . CV does eliminate the majority of this back ground noise but as many suggested in their posts to me and as Adrienne has told  me . I have to let my brain  get to know all of these noises ... and i do agree and I do understand more . This just gives me something to look fwd to maybe in a year times ...the folks in the US are jealous that we have it and they do not yet but it looks like it was get the gov't approval by this summer. Amazing ...
ok have a great week everyone ...... Chris  

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Basketball Game

We, Rhonda and I had a new hearing experience last night , our 15 year old niece was playing in a basketball tournament at Horton High and we went to watch the game. I had the CI turned back up on 3/4 again and thought I was ready for noise. Oh man was I wrong ....when we arrived they were out still warming up so noise level was high but not bad then all of a sudden --- this loud loud sound --the buzzer --oh man it was loud --- when the game started I was actually able to hear the sound of the ball being bounced on the floor --- all the chants and yelling were very noisy and loud -- by 1/2 time I did have a bit of a head ache from all the noise so I turned it down a bit but not too low. It was quite an experience --- they lost by 3 points so game was close and lots of action and noise . Today ,Saturday I am writing this at Tan coffee shop in Wolfville and they just turned on the coffee grinder and I thinking this place sounds  like the airport --outside hahhahahhah okay just turned off and now back to normal noise ----- this afternoon we are going to a "Celebration of Life" for our neighbor and it is in the community center so another hearing experience ...stay tuned ............

Friday, February 18, 2011

Thursday update

Yesterday when I woke up I said today  I am turning up my CI higher than ever , the 3/4 mark. I was going to visit my son John and his two boys Jack & Isaac who are 5 & 3. Adrianne would be proud of me I left it at 3/4 all day even though it was soooo loud . First , the road tire noise was soo loud driving down and I put teh radio on and easily got the beat but the singing was way to hard on my hearing so I shut it off. . When I arrived at John's place Isaac opened the door and yelled "Hi Grampy" ... I heard that for sure -- did i hear clear or just 2 words and guessed he said "Hi Grampy" ..who knows ??? but I did hear and understand that .... that was worth the whole drive down ..... now rest of the visit I honestly did not get a lot of what the boys said and they do tend to yell or holler a lot and that was pretty hard on the hearing but if I got Jack to look at me and repeat once I could usually figure it out but I do not want the kids to shy away from talking with me so I do not push the understanding and repeats too hard. I know it will all come together . so it was a good visit and we did get outside for a while we did 3 geocaches together so that was fun. Left the CI on 3/4 all night --- heard the front door bang and Rhonda call out "Hello" when she got home . No big change on the TV for me but I do consider hearing the grand kids all day a big step. I just have to get used to the loud noises.
One other thing on my way home I stopped at Super Store in Sackville and I needed  to ask where something was and it was so awesome to ask a ? and get a reply and understand without saying --- Could u please repaet that I am deaf and did not get it >>>>... okay ... have a great weekend .........Later Gators ....

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Sunny Wednesday am ...

It is a beautiful sunny morning as I sit to do a short blog .... yesterday I was out with the geo gang , Brian  was missing but Laura was with us ..... I was driving so my hearing side was away from all. I could easily tell when  anyone  was speaking, I could tell who it was and I would get the odd word here and there. One particular word I got was Las Vegas when Ken was talking about the fantasy cache trip. I could also tune out the noise when I need to concentrate on driving in some blowing snow . It was a fun day and great to be out and again it is so different being part of the hearing world. last night our friend Jan came over and I had a great one on one with her and could understand everything she said. It is a mix of hearing , speech reading and environment. We were on the chesterfield  so no interference . Awesome. Jan voice like many female voices still is quite tiny but i am hoping it will continue to change.
This morning I decided i am  going to start a chart about my hearing and pick the things that are very low and see how they do improve .i have so much that is great but I also have so much that needs to improve and I need to chart it . So I am going to start today and as I progress I will blog it ... most base sounds are pretty good but getting my understanding and clarity is what needs work on .
Enjoy the sun today and let is brighten your Wednesday ......

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Sunny Sunday Morning !!!!

What a beautiful sunny morning and hopefully if Rhonda gets the school work done early we will go out on the snow shoes again . We both enjoy that .
Well last night at the dinner was a whole new experience for me . First the acoustics in the fire hall where the dinner is held are not very good so a lot of sounds bouncing around ..there were 70 + folks for dinner so it was very noisy . I had the CI turned up and when I was talking to people and everyone around me was talking it was almost impossible to concentrate on my conversation. there was just so much noise all coming in but as the evening moved on and people sat for dinner it became easier for me to chat . Everyone that I talked with was very interested in the CI and how it works . I am continually meeting someone that says they know others that have a CI and what a difference it has made in their lives.  One person I met last night that really made an impact on me was a gentleman who told me his grand daughter had 2 CI ... I asked how old she was and she is 4 years old . She was born deaf . Can you imagine ?? I just get goose bumps when I think about this little girl. the grand mother often looks after the little girl and so we had a great chat about how I hear sounds and noise and was able to describe for her somethings she often wanted to ask her grand daughter --- totally amazing and miraculous ---- my head was spinning by the time  dinner was all over but it was a great experience for me and a super success as a fund raiser ................
I hope that all enjoy their sunny Sunday and have a great week ....

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Saturday afternoon ......

Well it has been sunny here all day and temperatures are rising accordingly but maybe a small snowfall tonight . I mean what would I do if I did not have to start the day with the snow shovel LOL !!!!!
 It was a good week and I have been using the CI on the louder setting so lots of noise ... I think I have blogged up until l Thursday and that was food Bank day here in Hantsport and I have been involved with it for a number of years now . It is amazing in a small town like this how many people require help. There is a great team of volunteers that work here. I missed the last three months due to my operation and various Dr appointments so it was great to get back. They all cheered when I walked in and for many of them it was our first visit since I got the CI. On the one on one conversations it was great . Our work room is quite large  and when the others were at one side of room and I was on the other I could hear no sounds but when they got closer to me I could tell . We use carts to load the food bins and man they sure are noisy as they roll around. That is what i mean about the new hearing levels and that some sounds are just so loud. The carts were very noisy ..that is why in certain situations i get a head ache easily ---- but I need to keep it up so that I can get the other sounds --- eventually after a good period of time  we will get a program that is totally comfortable and I do understand this .  It was great to drop a can of food on floor and hear that it dropped --- amzing the small things that amuse this small mind -- LOL ...........
This weekend is a valentines banquet that our neighborhood puts on as a special annual fund raiser. Last night I was there helping to set up and it was interesting as most of the neighbors had not seen me since the CI and a few did not know I had it done. One lady I was talking to at the beginning of the evening said when she found out -- Gee I was talking with him and did not notice the gear on his head .....  Ok I know -- get her an eye appointment hahhahahhah again similar to working at FB --the one on one is great but groups or distance in a room cause challenges .... tonight i am serving at the dinner -- we have 80 people coming for dinner so it will be interesting to see how I make out . stay tuned on that update.
yesterday afternoon the battery was depleted on the CI and it shut down and I did not have a spare in my pockets . Rhonda was just going up stairs so I asked her to please bring me a new battery down . It took about 5 or 10 minutes for Rhonda to come back and I had been down to basement and back and when she brought me the battery I said
" Thanks a lot --- You have no idea how awful it feels not to hear even for that short time .... it was like a big sea of emptiness" .
I was so surprised that i felt so strong about that and how it felt to be deaf ---- even though I do not understand a lot of what I hear , I am still hearing sounds and that in it self is awesome .
Also yesterday I had coffee with niece and her two boys. Jax is almost three and because it was very quiet at Tim's and because he was sitting very quiet and I think he has a deeper voice I was able to hear him --- not totally understand but I did hear and did get a few words --his mum helped and we got it all .
Ok , time to go make myself beautiful for the dinner serving job ...hope all have a good saturday night ..
Cheers ............................

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Wednesday ..

Well today is a snow day off school here so I am glad of that and now we have sun shine so maybe an afternoon outing ... maybe on the snow shoes ...who knows ???
Well I am keeping the CI turned up so Adrienne should be happy with me but sometimes I do have adjust it --yesterday I went to the dentist . All was great till I got in the dentist chair and he walked in and said "hey Chris" . He has a booming voice and his office is quite small ...it sounded like he was on a mega phone ---- so I just turned it down a wee bit ... on we went  with a small filling ... when he started the drill I thought that was loud but when the assistant brought on the suction tube that was right beside my left ear I thought I had an airplane engine starting up ...   then when she turned it off .. man all was so quiet ..... then back on again and the noise was soooo loud --- I did not say anything just smiled to myself but knew I had to blog about that ....rest is going normal , birds are singing away and life is sliding along ...my goal now is working on the TV ..it is mostly just noise and not always comfortable but I am  going to get it I hope , it will take me a long time but I am working at it each day ................ okay ...enjoy the sun .... 

Monday, February 7, 2011

Monday Night

Another new week but what a weekend we had . All the grand kids were here Saturday afternoon . That is Jack & Isaac and Aidan & Lara ... I had my  CI turned up all weekend and what a difference with the kids .... it was all so loud --- when they were excited and screamed or yelled it was like the sound of a paper shredder ... I could not understand the boys but I could usually tell when they talked --Lara is still a squeak to me but I will take that as much better than nothing ... lots of vibrations and feed back at the higher level but by this afternoon things almost seem normal so that will mean I have to turn the CI  up again ...We did have so much fun with the kids and Aidan stayed for supper with Jack & Isaac then John took him home and J&I stayed overnight. I did feel more secure with the boys because I could at least hear that they wanted something .. understanding them  was more of a chore but we did just fine ... 
Sunday was pretty low key with the Super Bowl on Sunday night . 
Usually when I have TV on I have the closed caption on  but for football they talk so much that I miss a lot of the game so I take the CC off . Last night I turned up the sound ---  I could not understand at all what was being said but could tell when people were talking or music on  or crowd yelling ,,, all very interesting ....
Today was out with two friends that I have not seen in many months and not since my CI . I think that I did very well with them and my understanding with lip reading and CI was very good.
Now I do often play a game and I close my eyes and get some one to say a sentence that is not something we have talked about ... of course most times I do not get any but some times |I do get one or two words . I have noticed that I have a hard time hearing words that \I have a hard time reading on a persons lips because of the way the language works --- like silent letters and look a like letters .. Rhonda says this does not make sense but so far it does seem to be that way ... I will just keep playing my game ...
ok , that is it ...kinda of a quiet week here and that is ok  because listening all weekend and today has tired me out ... sleep well

Saturday, February 5, 2011

saturday morning

Snow , snow and more snow coming !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But I really do not mind it and Rhonda hsa been home for a few snow days ...... okay  been quite a week and it ended with a visit to Adrienne for a tune up on the CI . On Thursday night we went to the Heart concert in Halifax. My first with the CI . THE place was packed so very noisy but that what people are is noisy !!! I did not get any of the singing but the light show and heavy rock I got and I can honestly say that I totally enjoyed the concert although so much was just loud noise in my head ... kinda hard to explain but I completely enjoyed it .  Last night we were out to a friends for dinner and there was just the 4 of us at their place and I was able to follow all conversations ok . As the night goes on and I become tired the listening becomes harder but I really did well and it was a great feeling. Dinner was excellent !! Thanks Steven ...
Friday afternoon I saw Adrienne and after some testing she said that I am doing fine but we still have a ways to go . What I need to do is keep turning up the volume on the CI each day or so and to continually challenge my brain . What happens to me is that I get comfortable in one hearing setting and I do not change it but when I do that it is kinda like treading water ...I do not move forward so Challenge I will do .....................
Two of the grand boys are coming sometime today for a sleep over and so so I intend to see how much I can hear with the volume up higher for a while ............
Okay , hope that all have a great weekend and that we do not get tooooooo much more snow ...Later ..... 

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Wednesday already

Not sure where all the time goes but it is Wednesday already. Yesterday some one said ..hey you have not mentioned the "birds" in the last few blogs  ??Oh they are still here and yes they seem to be Yakking a lot more but they they "blended in quite nicely " ...what I do notice now is not when they are making noise but rather the opposite ... like -- ' why is it so quiet ?|" hahhahahh .. that is a twist ...
Yesterday , I  was out in the woods for a while with my buddy Ken . It is amazing how much safer I did feel knowing that I was able to communicate with him . I have never thought about how that made me feel but I did yesterday and I did feel safer. That is pretty cool. We snowed shoed into a geo cache and that experience was GREAT . Ok , you get the idea I enjoyed yesterday LOL ....
Have to go get ready for this big storm ... Be Safe .Everyone ....