So far so good, my surgery went well. Added benefits, I'm not dizzy, nor am I calling for Huey in the bottom of the bucket. For me this is a HUGE success. So it looks like the whole procedure will be a small blip in the routine instead of the predicted ENORMOUS and highly dreaded one. I am very happy!
The external device ( looks like a hearing aid with a tag on it, but no earmould) will be fitted in about 3 weeks.
Art class at the school went really well too, some massive issues with registration, (during the stage 5 - which is gr 9-10 silk screening) that I can now hope to address after my two week moratorium on driving, as long as the dizziness keeps at it's current non level.
Showing posts with label Cochlear. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cochlear. Show all posts
Friday, June 18, 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Holly Jolly Swap Blocks
I don't have much of my own quilting to show you at the moment, since I'm slogging away at the last snowman stitchery, it's a whopper, I'm hoping to be done by the end of winter.
The holly jolly blocks arrived around the beginning of April, just as we were beginning to start the renovations, of which the downstairs area is supposed to be finished by the end of tomorrow, here's hoping!
The blocks were a definite mix, I've tried to group them together as best as possible.
This group includes my own submission.
The softer colours
One of my favourite blocks and definitely one of the ones that would have taken the longest since it's needleturn. Isn't he cute!
Cute snowmen, buttons to be added for detailing after quilting.
Another favourite, the plum pudding is very cheerful. Love the stripy dish!
The holly jolly blocks arrived around the beginning of April, just as we were beginning to start the renovations, of which the downstairs area is supposed to be finished by the end of tomorrow, here's hoping!
The blocks were a definite mix, I've tried to group them together as best as possible.
This group includes my own submission.
The softer colours
One of my favourite blocks and definitely one of the ones that would have taken the longest since it's needleturn. Isn't he cute!
Cute snowmen, buttons to be added for detailing after quilting.
Another favourite, the plum pudding is very cheerful. Love the stripy dish!
Which ones are your favourites, colour or pattern?
Some news, I was going to post mid last week, that I had put my name on the waiting list mid March, (late March?) and had been told that it would be about 6-8 months until my surgery. On Thursday last week we received a phone call to let me know that my cochlear surgery had been scheduled for May 21st, and did I want to go ahead at this time? EEK!! As if we didn't have enough going on with the renovations! Not knowing when the next available date might be, I jumped in with both feet. Talk about being ahead of schedule!
If you don't see much of me in the next while it'll be because;
- I'm trying to get all the final details sorted for the upstairs bathrooms, since I won't be driving for at least 2 weeks after surgery, if not longer, I'm hoping not longer!!
- sorting out stuff for the kids during that time period, my in-laws who now live locally will be a big help in this regard
- maybe sorting some meals out? at the very least making sure that the pantry is figured out and flush!
- general stuff that I might need to have done in that two week period afterwards, I will be trying to get most of it done beforehand on the off chance that I'm too dizzy to even read, which I'm desperately hoping won't be the case since I live off reading!!
- stamping up catalogue launch party at a friends tomorrow night
- 3rd birthday party Saturday for a good friend's son
- Preschool picnic & church service Sunday, at which I've volunteered to direct some of the kids craft.
- there's probably more that I'm forgetting, my head has been spinning trying to figure it all out so that we can just slideit into our lives, rather than having it stop everything dead in it's tracks.
Normally we stay home on Wednesday's, yesterday was no exception, what was an exception was how the day went. Normally the day melts down into a horrible mess, with some stuff done around the house, but lots and lots of yelling and fighting and is generally unpleasant.
Yesterday was amazing, it embodies what I had in mind for our Wednesdays, by no means am I going to try to say that there wasn't a single voice raised or anything like that, we aren't perfect.
We baked cupcakes, the boys coloured, painted a tad, built Lego towers and stores, Chatty and I did some piano together (we're both learning, as our schedules and moods allow) we danced to music, James Blunt, oo how lovely is the sound! Chatty spun around with his hands in fifth position, inspiring me to try to show him all five foot and arm positions, he did all of the positions with help and even attempted a couple of demi plies in first and second positions. Boy was I rusty though, first and second positions came back fairly, but I just discovered while looking at the demi plies, that I mucked up the third arm position. He seems interested in trying out a class, so I'm hoping I can find an afterschool (or wed?) class next week for him to go for a play. I am hoping that the girls in his class won't be snarky...the last thing I need is for him to be turned off of the idea by a few girls!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
New Hearing Aid
Warning this is a LONG post!
On the Friday before Canberra, my right hearing aid a Phonak PowerZoom P4 AZ, started to cut in and out. It's had a good run I got it in 2001, I used to wear two of them, but I had a cochlear implant in Feb 2004, so between the two of them they lasted 8 years, which is just about on par since the average life span is 4 years.
I have quite a significant loss which has been progressing for many years and I'm now left with profound hearing loss. The hearing aid I've been using, hasn't been giving me much help with speech , but has been useful to discern what direction sounds are coming from and a few other minor sounds.
Last Monday I went to the audiologist to start looking for a new aid. After testing the salesman - yes, salesman since he was 70% salesman & 30% audiologist which annoyed me to no end, recommended the Phonak Naida IX with a whopping price tag, which blew us away.
It was supposed to be ready for me to pick-up on Friday, Thursday I rec'd a call saying that the salesman had never fitted a Naida before, so he wanted to have a more experienced audiologist there at the same time. I was rescheduled for today.
After 2 hours of fiddling neither audiologist was able to get the volume & sound quality to a manageable level at the same time to make the price of the darned thing worthwhile. The seasoned audiologist was much more personable than the salesman and asked me questions about the cochlear etc. He came up with the idea to get in a Phonak rep to see if he/she might be able to adjust the HA to suit my needs, so now it's a waiting game to see when the three schedules (if not 4) all coincide.
At this time I'm starting to think that maybe the next logical step is another implant. I love my implant, it gives me better sound quality than I ever experienced with any HA's. When first confronted with the implant idea at the age of 19, it terrified me, I had visions of Frankenstein with huge bolts coming from the side of my head with the wires attached to a cumbersome & annoying body aid like the original HA's from the 70's.
When I actually did discover that the hearing in my left ear - the dominant ear was gone, I was devastated, I had moved to Australia only a couple of years beforehand and one of the things I had been more or less forced to write in my immigration application was that I wasn't moving here to get a cochlear & that I had no intentions of getting one for a long time, infact my ENT's letter said something about 10-15 years at the earliest. No one had predicted an infection that would wipe out almost everything I had left in less than 5 minutes. it happened so fast that I automatically blamed the HA, and sent it in for repair not once, but twice, after the second time of it coming back and not working we tested the hearing... 4 weeks later. The damage was done, the ENT prescribed steroids were useless.
After many tests, including one for the auditory nerve - ouch! psychological, balance, etc we waited and waited to see if I was eligible, I was sure they were going to reject me based on my immigration paperwork. One month before Christmas my right ear crashed... I was petrified, I'd never learned sign language, I had been mainstreamed my entire life, even if I had learned it, I'd would have known ASL not AUSLAN. Thankfully I still had the stroids from the previous episode which I took immediately, the next morning some hearing had already been regained, I likened it to coming up from deep water into the shallows, I only lost 10 dcB that time.
A short time later we found that I had been accepted for the cochlear, and it has been the best thing that has ever happened to me when it comes to my hearing. I have said before that I wish I had taken a hot poker to my ears years ago, the difference is astonishing, I found myself able to hear where my dog was from the jingling of her tags, and so many other extras which I now take for granted.
In some ways I hope the hearing aid doesn't work out, there are so many benefits to cochlear, sound quality, no earmold, no more or far less ear infections, the external device doesn't need replacing as often, the running cost is higher since they chew through 3 or 4 depending on the model, batteries every 2-4 days.
One other silver lining that lies close to my heart is that if I no longer have any hearing to lose, since my type of loss (LVAS) is pressure susceptible, then I might actually be able to experience a natural birth with any other kids we choose to have. I had scheduled Caesareans with both my boys which were really good experiences, I cannot recommend my OB highly enough for scheduled C-sections, he did a lovely job, I was up & walking aorund with ease within 48hrs of both, mostly drug free, but I always wanted to have a very quiet, natural stressfree labour, this might be my chance.
On the Friday before Canberra, my right hearing aid a Phonak PowerZoom P4 AZ, started to cut in and out. It's had a good run I got it in 2001, I used to wear two of them, but I had a cochlear implant in Feb 2004, so between the two of them they lasted 8 years, which is just about on par since the average life span is 4 years.
I have quite a significant loss which has been progressing for many years and I'm now left with profound hearing loss. The hearing aid I've been using, hasn't been giving me much help with speech , but has been useful to discern what direction sounds are coming from and a few other minor sounds.
Last Monday I went to the audiologist to start looking for a new aid. After testing the salesman - yes, salesman since he was 70% salesman & 30% audiologist which annoyed me to no end, recommended the Phonak Naida IX with a whopping price tag, which blew us away.
It was supposed to be ready for me to pick-up on Friday, Thursday I rec'd a call saying that the salesman had never fitted a Naida before, so he wanted to have a more experienced audiologist there at the same time. I was rescheduled for today.
After 2 hours of fiddling neither audiologist was able to get the volume & sound quality to a manageable level at the same time to make the price of the darned thing worthwhile. The seasoned audiologist was much more personable than the salesman and asked me questions about the cochlear etc. He came up with the idea to get in a Phonak rep to see if he/she might be able to adjust the HA to suit my needs, so now it's a waiting game to see when the three schedules (if not 4) all coincide.
At this time I'm starting to think that maybe the next logical step is another implant. I love my implant, it gives me better sound quality than I ever experienced with any HA's. When first confronted with the implant idea at the age of 19, it terrified me, I had visions of Frankenstein with huge bolts coming from the side of my head with the wires attached to a cumbersome & annoying body aid like the original HA's from the 70's.
When I actually did discover that the hearing in my left ear - the dominant ear was gone, I was devastated, I had moved to Australia only a couple of years beforehand and one of the things I had been more or less forced to write in my immigration application was that I wasn't moving here to get a cochlear & that I had no intentions of getting one for a long time, infact my ENT's letter said something about 10-15 years at the earliest. No one had predicted an infection that would wipe out almost everything I had left in less than 5 minutes. it happened so fast that I automatically blamed the HA, and sent it in for repair not once, but twice, after the second time of it coming back and not working we tested the hearing... 4 weeks later. The damage was done, the ENT prescribed steroids were useless.
After many tests, including one for the auditory nerve - ouch! psychological, balance, etc we waited and waited to see if I was eligible, I was sure they were going to reject me based on my immigration paperwork. One month before Christmas my right ear crashed... I was petrified, I'd never learned sign language, I had been mainstreamed my entire life, even if I had learned it, I'd would have known ASL not AUSLAN. Thankfully I still had the stroids from the previous episode which I took immediately, the next morning some hearing had already been regained, I likened it to coming up from deep water into the shallows, I only lost 10 dcB that time.
A short time later we found that I had been accepted for the cochlear, and it has been the best thing that has ever happened to me when it comes to my hearing. I have said before that I wish I had taken a hot poker to my ears years ago, the difference is astonishing, I found myself able to hear where my dog was from the jingling of her tags, and so many other extras which I now take for granted.
In some ways I hope the hearing aid doesn't work out, there are so many benefits to cochlear, sound quality, no earmold, no more or far less ear infections, the external device doesn't need replacing as often, the running cost is higher since they chew through 3 or 4 depending on the model, batteries every 2-4 days.
One other silver lining that lies close to my heart is that if I no longer have any hearing to lose, since my type of loss (LVAS) is pressure susceptible, then I might actually be able to experience a natural birth with any other kids we choose to have. I had scheduled Caesareans with both my boys which were really good experiences, I cannot recommend my OB highly enough for scheduled C-sections, he did a lovely job, I was up & walking aorund with ease within 48hrs of both, mostly drug free, but I always wanted to have a very quiet, natural stressfree labour, this might be my chance.
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