I just realized the other day that it's been two months already.  My constant feeling of dizziness is gone; I only notice it when I make sudden movements.  Some of my taste buds are still missing, but unfortunately, my appetite is still going strong!   I have been preferring spicier foods than usual probably to make up for my decreased sense of taste.  The important thing is that dark chocolate still tastes great!

My mapping didn't change at all at my last appointment last week.  My set volume is comfortable around the house, but when I go outside into the "real" world, WHOA!  I first realized how overwhelming the sounds were when I entered the tram and then the OHSU campus for my appointment.  I guess that I haven't quite adjusted to the increased mapping from my appointment previous to that.  Wearing my CI (along with my hearing aid) does make it harder for me to understand conversation and to use the phone.  I sometimes end up pulling off my magnet (which stops the sound) and holding it up by my ear (as it's attach to my CI) while I'm on the phone.  There is no way to turn "off" my CI unless I slide the battery out, so of course, that is not practical.  Since I'm not going to go around holding my magnet while talking with people, it will be interesting to see how I do when I return to work (back to work tomorrow!) as much of my job involves talking.  Perhaps that's why I love my job!  Anyway, at this point, the sounds coming in to my "baby" ear are causing some interference with the sounds coming in to my "old" ear.   My ears are still learning how to cooperate with each other!

Listening to music with both of my ears is awesome.  Having both ears definitely make the music louder.  I find that I don't have to play the music as loud, much to the relief of my boys.  Believe it or not, I used to prefer to have the car stereo turned up louder than my teenage boys would like!  Now we agree on the volume.  It's neat feeling the sound coming in both ears when I listen to music.  It seems like that I pick up on aspects of sounds that I haven't noticed before.  For example, I'm enjoying listening to the sound of trumpets from one of my favorite bands--Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.  I've been going through my CD collection and rediscovering old favorites like Chaka Khan.  It's great to have music to listen to during those long drives.

My auditory training is progressing.  I am now listening to books on tape with just my CI!!  I can follow along in the corresponding book really well.  On occasion I do have to cheat and turn on my hearing aid to find my place in the book.  One person on my CI listserve mentioned http://library2go.lib.overdrive.com.  It's great and free for some Oregon library users.  I'm fortunate that my library participates in this program--all I have to do is to log on with  my library card number and pick out the books I want to download.  I was able to find some listening books to download to go with the books that I already had at home.  Right now I'm reading and listening to The Time Machine by H. G. Wells and Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. 

Have you played the game, Outburst?  My boys are now using that game (children's version) for my auditory training.  Each card has a category with ten things listed under the category.  At this point I look at the first five words or so, then Simon or Michael will say the words.  After a few cycles I do pretty well, but sometimes words with the same number of syllables are tricky.  It's neat though sometimes I can tell exactly what word is being said.  Not bad since I've been turned "on" one month ago.  I wonder how long it will take before I can pick out the right word from all 10 words, and hopefully eventually, not even have to look at the words ahead of time.

Have a great week!