Another tune-up! :)
I went to Vanderbilt today for another "tune-up", as I call them. Susan asked if I wanted to do both ears again and I told her that I thought we really needed to as my "good" ear was starting to sound flat. It's amazing that that little bit of sound that I had coming in with my new ear was enough to change the entire balance. She adjusted the good ear until we had it sounding clear and melodious again and then we got to work on the newer ear. I was VERY excited that while I wasn't able to raise the sensitivity in the lower frequencies, we made some pretty good gains in the higher ones. We were actually able to raise the overall volume a bit this time without it sounding too loud. Then we put the two ears together and found that the good ear needed some tweaking with the newer ear's adjustments, so we worked on it a bit longer, and voila! it sounded great!! I usually leave the office with a new map sounding great and by the time I get home it sounds scrambled and I am worn out...but this time we must have done something right, because I haven't struggled with it too much. I did start getting a little overtired in the middle of the day but a jolt of caffeine perked me up enough to keep going. I had a couple more appointments after that so I was moving too fast to get too tired!
In fact...I was listening to my John Denver CD on the way home...the one that I have nearly worn out playing it over and over and over and over again in the car between home and ASL class, home and meetings, etc...and I was hearing words to some of the songs that I hadn't ever heard before!! Awesome...not only are both ears working...they're working fairly well together at last!
I was changing from a sweater to a t-shirt this afternoon...the weather got warmer than I thought it would and managed to knock the magnet off my good ear, rendering me instantly deaf on that side. I was singing at the time (all the kids were gone so there was nobody there to tell me to be quiet) and I got a shock when I realized that I could still hear myself with my newest ear and it didn't sound too bad...that the volume only sounded a little soft and it was almost recognizable as a tune (of course, that's assuming that what I was singing was tuneful to begin with ;)). I have put off "one-on-one" time with the new ear, because I didn't get enough volume from it before for it to be useful in situations with the kids, etc. Now that it's getting loud enough that I can actually take the sound I'm getting and combine it with my lipreading skills, I think I'm going to try working it out by itself for an hour or so every day. The improvement today has made me so excited and has inspired me to try harder!
It's been a crazy week...we have some dear friends who are dealing with personal struggles, I've been back and forth a lot (going to Nashville again tomorrow, in fact...I'm about ready to move there!), and now Ellie is acting like she has the flu. The CDC says that flu hasn't hit Tennessee yet, so I'm not positive...will wait and see how she's doing tomorrow :).
I DO plan to write on the ALDA convention...I didn't mean to get this far behind! :)
In fact...I was listening to my John Denver CD on the way home...the one that I have nearly worn out playing it over and over and over and over again in the car between home and ASL class, home and meetings, etc...and I was hearing words to some of the songs that I hadn't ever heard before!! Awesome...not only are both ears working...they're working fairly well together at last!
I was changing from a sweater to a t-shirt this afternoon...the weather got warmer than I thought it would and managed to knock the magnet off my good ear, rendering me instantly deaf on that side. I was singing at the time (all the kids were gone so there was nobody there to tell me to be quiet) and I got a shock when I realized that I could still hear myself with my newest ear and it didn't sound too bad...that the volume only sounded a little soft and it was almost recognizable as a tune (of course, that's assuming that what I was singing was tuneful to begin with ;)). I have put off "one-on-one" time with the new ear, because I didn't get enough volume from it before for it to be useful in situations with the kids, etc. Now that it's getting loud enough that I can actually take the sound I'm getting and combine it with my lipreading skills, I think I'm going to try working it out by itself for an hour or so every day. The improvement today has made me so excited and has inspired me to try harder!
It's been a crazy week...we have some dear friends who are dealing with personal struggles, I've been back and forth a lot (going to Nashville again tomorrow, in fact...I'm about ready to move there!), and now Ellie is acting like she has the flu. The CDC says that flu hasn't hit Tennessee yet, so I'm not positive...will wait and see how she's doing tomorrow :).
I DO plan to write on the ALDA convention...I didn't mean to get this far behind! :)
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