My Poor Big'en!!!

Yesterday, Sylvester -- aka Big'en, aka Roy (as in Roy Biggins from the tv show Wings. They do favor each other!!!).....anyway Sylvester had to go to see Aunt Donna (our vet). Big'en used to be BIG....a 16/17 pounder. He is now a measly 9.6 pounds. Aunt Donna has checked him before but can't find anything wrong with him. Recently we thought he had a couple of bad teeth that had to come out, so off he goes to Aunt Donna's. Thank goodness, it ended up that he just had gingivitis, so she cleaned his teeth really good and then gave him an antibiotic shot. She has also done some more testing. ANYWAY, all of that is to say, that when I picked him up in the evening, he was NOT a happy boy. Not happy in the least. He was screaming and yelling from the moment they brought him out and continued to scream all the way home. I really hated for him to be so unhappy and I tried my best to reassure him that we were going home. But the thing is -- I heard him yelling the whole time!!! Never before would I have heard a thing!! Love my boy!! He can be a talker!!!

Today on my way home from work, I was listening to the radio and realized that whenever they were spouting off numbers, I caught them all. I don't know what it is about numbers, but I can catch them! Now, if I could just teach everybody to talk in number code everything would be just peachy!!

Here are 3 of my babies. Sylvester is down in front -- the black one. Next is Scarlet, aka Momma Girl, then Baxter, aka Cutie Boy, Baby One and Rutabaga Head. Lucy must be off to herself someplace.

ps -- Jim, I checked out "my" picture!! That's beautiful!! Thank you, oh kind one!!!!

Hello?? Hello???

Last Saturday Cynthia was over at my house and she was talking on the phone to Mom. I walked in the room and Cynthia promptly put the phone up to my ear. Well, I'm sure she didn't even think about it, but she put it up to the implant. I haven't even tried to talk on the phone because I really didn't think I would catch anything. Well, the phone was already there so I figured I might as well give it a try. Mom says Hello! I said Hello! She says Hello, Hello!! Then she moved on into the general conversation. She had no idea that I was listening by way of the implant. I was truly amazed!! I caught pretty well everything she said!! First off I got to hear how she had not been feeling well and thought she was going to vomit........ It's always nice to have your inaugural conversation be about vomit. Lovely, just lovely. She was fine now, but had been feeling poorly before.

I tried talking to Rick on my cell phone a couple of days ago, but I was in the car and it was harder. I still understood some of what he was saying. I need to try talking on the phone some more and see how it goes. Because of my hearing -- or lack thereof -- I just don't talk on the phone much. I'm going to have to start calling people!!

We drove out to see a house that my cousin is building. Let me just say --- BIG, beautiful mansion on 68 acres -- getting the picture??!!! Anyway, I was driving, Rick was in the passenger seat and Mom was in the back. Rick and Mom were talking and I was catching some of what she was saying. Not a whole lot, but some here and some there!

I have switched back over to the "fast" program. I've had it on the "slow" program for probably about 3 weeks. I can't tell a big difference. I think I may get more sound from the fast one.

I had a headpiece die on me. That's the part that sticks to my head. I went to put on my processor one day and nothing happened! I thought I had shorted out!! Thank goodness I had a spare!! I switched over to the spare and everything worked fine. We messed around with the non-working processor and discovered it was just the headpiece that quit working. Meg has called AB and they are sending me a new one! God love those people!!

I still keep noticing little things here and there all the time that I've not heard before. I have found out that my house pops all the time. And the thermostat clicks when it comes on and goes off. I also heard the rain one day!!! I never hear the rain!!!

I was in the car with my friend Regina the other day. We went out to grab a sandwich at lunchtime. As we pulled into the parking lot, I went ahead and took off my seat belt. Well, of course it starts beep, beep, beeping constantly. I said -- Sorry I made you beep!!! Regina said -- you probably would not have heard that before. I said -- NEVER in a million years would I have had any clue that it was beeping!! There's no way I would have heard that!

For the most part, I still have to be looking at people to understand exactly what they are saying. However, it is so much easier to understand!! I do catch what Rick is saying sometimes without seeing him. He still likes to test me every now and then. I usually know what he is saying.........if not the first time, definitely the second.

It keeps coming along and getting better all the time! Yes, it's a slow process and yes, I really wish it would happen faster, but I am very pleased with the progress I have made already!! There is a total and complete difference from when I first got hooked up. It was all just gibberish, noise and beeping back then!! Remember the beeping???!!!! It is now real people speaking real words!! People still don't sound exactly right, but we're getting there!! It will just keep getting better and better!! Wheeeeee doggies!!!