The Good and The Bad

Well, I went to see my good buddy Meg this morning. I KNOW that poor girl has to groan when she gets out of bed on the mornings that she knows I'll be coming in for an appointment. I feel for her!!

She put me in the booth today. I knew it was coming. At my last appointment, she looked back in my chart and saw that it had been quite a while since I made a trip to the booth. So I knew I would be taking that fateful walk! I hate the booth. Everybody does!! Well, that would be everybody except those with perfect hearing. AND if you have perfect hearing you would not be going into the booth!

So, to the booth I go! First she did the tones, then sentences, then single words, then more sentences. With the tones, I'm right around the "normal" line. That's great! Prior to my CI, most of those tones I didn't even hear.

We'll jump over to the single words category. I did better than last time! She was impressed with the single words!! Most people don't do so well with those. But I improved. Yay for me! HOWEVER, with the sentences, I regressed (is that the right word?)! Did not do as good. Got worser. You getting the idea? It wasn't horrible, but totally not expected. Really threw Meg for a loop!! Last time I got 86%. This time it was something like 77%. Meg can't figure out why. It doesn't make any sense. Usually people will do better with the sentences and have a harder time with the words. But you must understand......we are talking about Cherri......Cherri definitely does not fall into the "normal" category.

So she tweaked some more. Not sure what to try, but try something different! She upped some things and put some more high tones in there to see if that helps. I have issues with the real high tones. Those are the last 2 electrodes on the implant. Usually when she turns those on and sends a "beep" through, I don't actually hear it, but I feel it!! It causes me some real pain at the base of my skull. It's just too much for my nerves. They can't handle it. Today, I didn't have the pain in that area, but got some across my forehead! That was a first!! But she did put some more high tones in there, just not the ones that would cause me pain. She didn't want to overload me. Ain't she a sweet thang!? So we'll try this and see what happens!

On another note, Advanced Bionics is doing a trial with a new program they are hoping to come out with. It's called Clear Voice. They are only doing trials with certain hospitals. Well, I asked Meg and UK is one of them!! Shocked me!! So I asked about the possibility of being a participant. Once everything is cleared with the FDA and they can begin the trials, I should be in that group! I'm excited about that! Clear Voice is a new program that is suppose to really help with noise. All CI users have issues with noise and I really don't do well in a noisy environment. So I can't wait to see how this goes! I hope and pray that it will be a great improvement!

So, that's the latest. When you're having a moment with God, remember to put in a good word for me!! Maybe He'll smile down on me a little extra!! :-)