whoooaaa

Oh wow ok. Last week I called the audiology to make an appointment, and that appointment was today at 4. I arrived just in time and within a couple of minutes Shane and I were in his office. I told him I had been audiologically evaluated for a cochlear implant and from the results, that I was a candidate. So he's excited about it. I made copies of the audiogram and test results that Allison had given me so that he could have it in my records. He hooked up my hearing aid to the computer and brought up the lower frequencies gain. I also had him activate the FM+M mode too, so that I can listen to music AND also hear what is going on around me for when I take my music to work with me.

Now, I'm hearing my computer buzzing once again. And when I got into my car after the appointment and started it up, whoa! I was hearing stuff I hadn't heard before, or maybe I did hear it before but just don't remember it. Anyway, yeah. Everything sounds slightly different, and a bit louder, but I'm sure I'll get used to it over time. And ever since I got back from Denver, I've been forcing myself to deal with the background noise that bother me, instead of turning off my hearing aid. If I can't deal with the background noise NOW, then how will I deal with them with an implant? If I absolutely have to, I'll turn off my hearing aid for only just a few minutes, then turn it back on.

Shane is happy for me though. He says Allison is a great audiologist, and that Dr. Kelsall is an excellent doctor. And he has a patient that is going to get his implant turned on soon and he's pretty excited about that. Shane told me this patient was his first adult patient with an implant, so that's pretty cool.

Also recently found out that the Star Tribune gets their insurance through BlueCross BlueShield. Human Resource wants to be sure I'll continue working the "full-time" hours that I have been working so that I can get the benefits. Things are happening within the prepress department, hence the unsureness of the hours. Hopefully I can continue to work in that department, but I'll talk to the prepress supervisor and see what he says. Hopefully all this gets worked out.