Activation Update..

That was a brief activation post but honestly I was exhausted. I was put on nights at work (which I don't mind at all) so my early morning appointments no longer work as well. I only got a couple of hours sleep before going to activation and then needed to stay up all day to go back to mornings at work for Friday and Saturday.

So much has happen in the past 2 days it is hard to get it all together. Voices are wonderful if I am paying attention. If you speak a distance from me then it is harder if I don't know you are speaking to me. I have so much to learn yet. This experience is both thrilling and challenging. A good example of this is what happened to me yesterday afternoon once I got home from work. I have turned on sound again to the television, computer etc. so all these sounds are new. I can hear the television and pick up a word here and there but not good yet. It will get better. After work I was sitting here at the computer and I kept hearing "tones" but I couldn't figure out what it was. It was like 3 or 4 tones in a row almost like a warning beep. I thought at first it was coming from my processor and it was trying to warn me about something but I had no clue what. I thought at one point it might be the computer making tones as I was doing things but that wasn't it either. It turned out to be my cell phone! I had a text message. :-) I have never heard that before! How neat!

I am amazed at the things I can hear already. We have these large birds in our neighborhood that make a very loud noise. I was inside and could hear them about 50 feet from my house! There are some pitches I am not hearing at all but that will all change once my brain figures this all out. I had a friend come over last evening and it was so neat to be able to sit outside (not much light) and be able to have a conversation with her.

When first activated the audie will set it up and in the 3 program slots have the same program with an increase in volume as you progress. As the brain get use to this, the volume lowers. More and more is added until things start to "settle down". I asked her how long she thought I'd be on program 1 before I needed to switch to 2. Everyone is different so she had no idea but told me it could be in as little as an hour from then but she wanted me on 3 by next Friday when I go back for a "tune up". By Saturday morning I was still on program one and a little concerned not really knowing what to expect. I did notice my voice was calming down a bit so I thought my brain is getting use to hearing my voice! Not what was happening at all. LOL I needed more volume and didn't even know it. I guess my voice is suppose to be loud to me and I will get use to it. A couple of hours after I got to work, someone told me I was talking louder again. I changed to program 2 and that did the trick. My voice was normal again and things did actually sound better. Not having any sound at all for 2 years has made this difficult to judge. A few hours later she told me I was doing it again so I went to program 3. I also had to get my friend to come in and set my television to a comfortable level because I had no idea if it was loud or too soft. I want to practice with the right volume but had no way to know where that is.

Along with still being tired from surgery and work, rehab can be very tiring too. I am trying to take it slow and not over do it. Sometimes harder said than done. I have had my new Kindle "read to me" while following along with the text. I know it doesn't sound that difficult but it proved harder than I thought it would be. I have my car radio on a talk radio station so anytime I go somewhere I am listening. Most of that sounds like mush but I am hearing certain words here and there. I try to put enough together to at least figure out what the discussion is about. LOL I also went to an online site set up for rehab that was nice. Again much harder than I thought but on the easiest settings I scored 88% my first time. :) Granted, some of it was guessing but I will take that for my first try.

Today is only day 3 and I see improvements everyday. Hearing my cell phone, a knock at the door. I don't think speech can get any better. It sounds normal to me but then again, I'm not a good judge of things right now and could be wrong.  Road noise sounds like static and that is annoying but I know it will get better in time.

The new theme in my life.... "What's that noise?" :-)