Started my day by picking blackberries for my breakfast.  Last night while walking around our place I noticed that they were ready to pick!  Yum!

Monday was my third mapping appointment for my CI.  I'm not sure why they call it mapping, but it involves the audiologist manipulating the settings via a computer to adjust the CI.  In my case, Don took out the economy mode which extends the life of the batteries as it was causing my implant to short out about once a day.  Apparently the more sounds my CI is exposed to, the more the battery has to work and it was too much for the economy mode.  Taking out the economy mode did the trick as my CI hasn't shorted out at all since then!  And my batteries are lasting just as long.  Go figure.  At my request Don also added a t-coil option to one of my program slots so that I can easily plug into my laptop or mp3 player. 


Dr. Don Plapinger adjusting the settings of my CI.

Don gave me some suggestions on how to progress on my auditory training.  Previously Simon has been reading aloud to me his old favorite children's books and moving his finger by each word as he's reading.  Don suggested that I move my finger myself.  I didn't think that I would be able to do that yet, but tried it and found it easy!  Now I'm at the point where Simon can read chapter books and I can just follow along without having to use my finger to keep track.  If I need to look up for a second I can get back on track.  But if I look up for more than a few seconds I have to cheat and look at Simon before I can find my place.  It's amazing how much one can pick up just from the rhythm and duration of the words without making out the individual phonemes of the sounds.

Don also quickly checked my speech reception threshold on my CI side as I was curious about that.  I believe that he'll do more frequency specific testing when I see him for my one-month visit later this month.  It's neat to work with Don on a personal level after working with him for years professionally.  He's a great audiologist.  Anyway I was able to detect speech (no understanding of it as expected) at 15dB.  Pretty cool considering that I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would be able to hear soft sounds in my left ear before cochlear implants came along.

While most of the sounds I hear with just my CI still sound very robotic, some of the sounds are sounding more normal to me.  Sounds like the telephone ringing and the water running sounds pretty much what they're supposed to sound like.  I've always been skeptical about the phrase "It was so quiet that you can hear a pin drop."  Well I experimented by dropping a pin on a wooden surface.  At the second try and afterwards I was able to hear the faint pling of the pin!  Whoa!  I also heard the sound of plastic wrap crinkling while I was wrapping up leftovers.  That was unexpected!

Like I've said it's louder to wear both my CI and hearing aid together.  In the past I liked to listen to music in my car at a much louder volume than my boys did.  Now we agree on the volume!  I also noticed that when listening to my computer or mp3 player the volume settings are not as high.  I love listening with the t-coil option which enables me to hear whatever I'm listening too without having to hear any background noise.

Well I drove myself to Portland for my mapping appointment on Monday and yesterday I drove to the coast to visit one of the families that I work with.  I did just fine driving in both situations and was able to deal with the heavy traffic (which I don't normally care for) to Portland and the winding roads to the coast.  The winding roads did not bother me at all!  I did get a tad worried this summer about whether or not I would be able to handle all the driving I do for work.  It's great not to have to worry about that anymore.  While I was at the coast I dropped by one of my main schools and got some updates on what's happening.  It won't be long before school starts.  Boy this summer is sure going fast!