That was fun!
I went to a Stampin' Up card party last night at our preacher's house. I had been before...we actually get together about once a month. Every other month, we make cards and order our supplies, and on the odd months, we just make cards and play around. I love making cards because it's not a huge time committment committiment expenditure (man, I can't figure out how to spell that word, apparently). I have friends that scrapbook and I love watching them...I actually love playing around and making pages with them...but I am bound and determined not to start that here...I am not organized enough to store all the stuff properly, and I have enough OCD that it would become an obsession pretty quickly...so no. Card making is a little different...you can just make one here and there...not time-consuming. Anyway, I had a ball...the women we meet with are wonderful...sweet and fun...and we always have a good time. Here are the cards I made last night...KA, aren't you proud of me? ;) (Ugh, my scanner makes them look grainy...oh well)...
Yesterday was pretty calm and quiet until I went to get the girls from school...after I got them home I had to leave again to go to the chiropractor. I have been going since I fell last week and have been feeling pretty good for the most part but the past couple of days I have had a pain in the back of my shoulder and my left arm stays kind of numb all the time. He was able to fix it while I was there yesterday, but a couple of hours later, I plopped down in a chair, probably a little harder than necessary, and got a sharp pain in my shoulder, and then it was back. It's not too bad...more of an annoyance than anything. I'll make it through the weekend and I have another appointment on Monday. Anyhow, came back from the chiro and made dinner (another Pioneer Woman recipe...yum!). I hadn't given myself enough time to make it and ended up having to leave for the stamping party before it came out of the oven. Katie and I ran down the street to Dairy Queen and grabbed a hamburger instead (but I heated up some of the leftovers when I got home...and they were delicious!).
Busy weekend ahead...we have a cookout at Granny Sue's tonight (I love the cookouts, but this one promises to be positively sweltering...ugh), and tomorrow is the monthly HLAA meeting in Nashville. I had such a great time at last month's meeting and can't wait to see some of my new favorite people again! :) They have a little social time before the meeting and people bring snacky stuff...I need to go to the store after a while so I can take something (haven't decided just what for sure yet :) ).
I finally made an appointment for a new CI map (a kind of reprogramming for all you hearing folks ;) ). I have needed a new map for several weeks, but my schedule didn't permit me to go, then my audiologist went on vacation (the nerve of her ;) ) so it's taken me a while to get in...I go Monday. I used to wonder how people knew when it was time for another map but now I know...things sound absolutely terrible. Apparently my brain is doing SOMETHING (I'd kinda given up on it) . I've had many, many people ask me if I'm hearing better with my CI, and the answer varies from week to week. The final answer, though, is this: I am hearing SOMETHING with my CI. Is it great? Frankly? No. Will it get better? I am sure of it. Considering, once again, that for over thirty years I heard nothing at all in my implanted ear, and considering the vibrotactile issues I've had to deal with, the fact that I hear is just short of miraculous. When I get frustrated, I just try to remind myself that without my CI, I would be totally deaf at this point in my life...I can't imagine that.
The fact that I can tell what pitch some songs are (not all of them, mind you) is fascinating (and I sing along with them, to the horror of my children). The fact that I can't hear sirens is frustrating. The fact that I can hear Claire crinkling up candy wrappers on the pew next to me at church is astounding. My speech comprehension is lousy, but, as I said, it's time for a new map, and I think it will make a huge difference.
I was told repeatedly before I had my surgery that one of the key elements in adjusting to a cochlear implant is patience. As I've said many, many times before...I was gallivanting around in the shapely nose and free-spirited attitude lines when patience was being given out. So this journey has been VERY trying for me. However...I'd do it again in a New York minute. If I was doing it over again, I might have gone with my better (right) ear, simply because I honestly believe now, after almost a year of being implanted, that my brain is determined for me to be "right-eared". But then again, I would have never had a chance to have two ears...if I had done the better right ear first and had it been successful, insurance would never agree to fork over more money to experiment on a dead ear...case closed.
If you're considering CI surgery, and you asked me, I'd tell you, with absolutely no hesitation, to go for it. The fact that I struggle with mine doesn't take away from the fact that I have hearing now that I wouldn't have ever had otherwise. I know that my brain will continue to adapt and that over the next few months and years my CI and I will get more and more comfortable with each other. Science and technology have been able to give me back what would have otherwise been lost forever...isn't that incredible?
Going to get moving here and make me a grocery list. Need anything while I'm out?
Have an awesome weekend....love to all :)
<3
Yesterday was pretty calm and quiet until I went to get the girls from school...after I got them home I had to leave again to go to the chiropractor. I have been going since I fell last week and have been feeling pretty good for the most part but the past couple of days I have had a pain in the back of my shoulder and my left arm stays kind of numb all the time. He was able to fix it while I was there yesterday, but a couple of hours later, I plopped down in a chair, probably a little harder than necessary, and got a sharp pain in my shoulder, and then it was back. It's not too bad...more of an annoyance than anything. I'll make it through the weekend and I have another appointment on Monday. Anyhow, came back from the chiro and made dinner (another Pioneer Woman recipe...yum!). I hadn't given myself enough time to make it and ended up having to leave for the stamping party before it came out of the oven. Katie and I ran down the street to Dairy Queen and grabbed a hamburger instead (but I heated up some of the leftovers when I got home...and they were delicious!).
Busy weekend ahead...we have a cookout at Granny Sue's tonight (I love the cookouts, but this one promises to be positively sweltering...ugh), and tomorrow is the monthly HLAA meeting in Nashville. I had such a great time at last month's meeting and can't wait to see some of my new favorite people again! :) They have a little social time before the meeting and people bring snacky stuff...I need to go to the store after a while so I can take something (haven't decided just what for sure yet :) ).
I finally made an appointment for a new CI map (a kind of reprogramming for all you hearing folks ;) ). I have needed a new map for several weeks, but my schedule didn't permit me to go, then my audiologist went on vacation (the nerve of her ;) ) so it's taken me a while to get in...I go Monday. I used to wonder how people knew when it was time for another map but now I know...things sound absolutely terrible. Apparently my brain is doing SOMETHING (I'd kinda given up on it) . I've had many, many people ask me if I'm hearing better with my CI, and the answer varies from week to week. The final answer, though, is this: I am hearing SOMETHING with my CI. Is it great? Frankly? No. Will it get better? I am sure of it. Considering, once again, that for over thirty years I heard nothing at all in my implanted ear, and considering the vibrotactile issues I've had to deal with, the fact that I hear is just short of miraculous. When I get frustrated, I just try to remind myself that without my CI, I would be totally deaf at this point in my life...I can't imagine that.
The fact that I can tell what pitch some songs are (not all of them, mind you) is fascinating (and I sing along with them, to the horror of my children). The fact that I can't hear sirens is frustrating. The fact that I can hear Claire crinkling up candy wrappers on the pew next to me at church is astounding. My speech comprehension is lousy, but, as I said, it's time for a new map, and I think it will make a huge difference.
I was told repeatedly before I had my surgery that one of the key elements in adjusting to a cochlear implant is patience. As I've said many, many times before...I was gallivanting around in the shapely nose and free-spirited attitude lines when patience was being given out. So this journey has been VERY trying for me. However...I'd do it again in a New York minute. If I was doing it over again, I might have gone with my better (right) ear, simply because I honestly believe now, after almost a year of being implanted, that my brain is determined for me to be "right-eared". But then again, I would have never had a chance to have two ears...if I had done the better right ear first and had it been successful, insurance would never agree to fork over more money to experiment on a dead ear...case closed.
If you're considering CI surgery, and you asked me, I'd tell you, with absolutely no hesitation, to go for it. The fact that I struggle with mine doesn't take away from the fact that I have hearing now that I wouldn't have ever had otherwise. I know that my brain will continue to adapt and that over the next few months and years my CI and I will get more and more comfortable with each other. Science and technology have been able to give me back what would have otherwise been lost forever...isn't that incredible?
Going to get moving here and make me a grocery list. Need anything while I'm out?
Have an awesome weekend....love to all :)
<3
Comments