Spring Sprint

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

May 1,2012 .................... it has now been 18 months since I have been turned on with my CI and what a difference it has made in my life . It has changed things with Rhonda, with the grand kids with friends and family and it has made so many new things available to me . I say new because they are new . I have been turning up the volume whenever possible these last few months and so many new sounds are coming .
yesterday I was cutting the grass first the first time this year, now I know that I cut the grass last year with the CI but so many things were happening to me that I do not think I paid that much attention to the mowers and maybe I just turned so low I could not hear ...well yesterday I heard both of them --those suckers are loud --lol ...I had the ci cranked up so I turned it down some but not so low that I could not hear all the sounds --I use two mowers and both sound different .....I had a great day hearing all the different sounds from those mowers ...here is an interesting thing --if I stood with my CI ear to mower hear it perfectly clear but when I turned away from mower it just sounded far off --no idea which direction the noise was just noise far off ...
just to repeat again from other posts that when I am in a quiet room with no more than 2 other people and I can see them ...I can get at least 90% ..... change any of those and my hearing understanding changes ---
Now --- the other day I did get a new I phone and YES I do love it ...a buddy knew I had the phone and so he called me using 'Face Time" ...well I heard my phone ring --saw it was Wayne --saw the face time connect and next thing I know I am looking at his face and Yes I could get what we talk about because I could both hear and see him ..........oh technology is sooooo amazing .
With this higher volume I am using more power so batteries lasting even less time ---I have been taking the car charger with me lately as the other day I went thru 5 batteries ... again PTL they are rechargeable ...
Life is rolling along --I feel so lucky and blessed that this hearing opportunity has been given to me ..the last time I was in to see the Doctor he told me that they had done this operation now on a number of NF2 patients and only 1 had not worked. That is fantastic news for any NF people.
Enjoy all the sounds you hear and Remember to always Protect your hearing ...
Have a great day ...Chris

Friday, February 3, 2012

Feb 2012 in the

Well good morning ......sun is brightly shinning over the snow in the back yard .....have not had much snow this year so far and I am just fine with that . Yesterday I sent a note to a friend that is doing a travel blog and told him that his blog will be a great mémoire for him in years to come and that is also how I feel about my blog.
Monday am I am in bed  and I put on CI on, Rhonda has the radio on and there is no other noise in the house. I can easily tell when the DJ is talking or when there is music on but what is being said is not clear at all. When R wakes up I tell her all this and then she suggest maybe putting on a song that I like using the ipod. So we do that and again not clear as to the words in the song. Then we get the idea that maybe I should read the lyrics as the song is playing just like closed caption on TV or at the movies . So I go get the note book and bring up lyrics by Charlie A'Court and song starts and now as I read along I am able to hear and understand what is being sung 90% of the time ......this is amazing and it just reinterates the fact that I need to lip read along with hearing in many situations .It also points out again that I really can only do one thing at a time --if I am going to listen to music I need to sit and take the time to do it but I think after a number of times in reading it my brain will make the leap when it hears the song .....how many times I will need to read the song is yet unknown and also finding the time to do just music ..... 
I think I am going to treat myself right now to one  song .... 
have a great Fryday ................... Chris 

Thursday, January 12, 2012

January 2012 ....

Well almost the middle of January ....I know that I have not posted often but that is kind of a good thing too because that means that life is flowing along pretty smoothly ....
I am really liking the new program in that a lot of back ground noise is much quieter ....I really notice it in the car but is also noticeable if I switch back to the regular program just how loud everything is ... 
I am hearing a lot of voices very differently since December and they are not clearer but almost like I have a cold and hearing that way ...it is different because some people that I could understand perfectly before now have a higher or fuzzier voice ...... the TV is worse instead of better ...... funny how that seems to be .....
Now the neat thing that happened to me this morning and that I wanted to share was this ..... I really needed to get outside today so found a few caches close to home so loaded my gear up and took off .... one cache that I did I needed to walk in a small farm field . As I am walking along I could hear myself walking in the long grass. It was soo cool ...there was no snow down and grass was very cold as it was about -12 this morning ...... it was not just a crunch crunch but rather I could hear the grass blades bending .... it was just so quiet and I was all alone ................ wow ....I did say a prayer of Thanks and then thought .... blog this Buddy ........
Have a great Thursday ..... Chris