Drats.

No Naida today. I did go to the audiologist's office and all. The hearing aid and remote was on the audie's desk, the hearing aid already hooked up to the computer. Audie did some messing around, but everything sounded too quiet. He called Phonak for help, and did some more messing around. Still too quiet. Even the audie put the hearing aid up to his ears, and he heard a bunch of buzzing. Phonak says they will send out a new replacement today, so hopefully on Monday I'll have it. Audie has even ordered the Naida FM boot, and says he won't charge me for the boot. He had my T-mic FM transmitter back, looks like it's been replaced. I didn't order the FM boot, but he did anyway, he thought I might get some use out of it. We'll see, though.

Also mentioned the bone conduction experience, and he found that really interesting. I've had meningitis, and with the bone conduction hearing aid, the sounds still goes through the cochlea. It's been presumed that my left cochlea is ossified due to the meningitis, and traditional hearing aids have never worked. He says we can play around with the bone conduction thing some day, see if it's something I should consider or not.

Whooaaa...

We were just wandering the mall in Wilmington, NC, when this gentleman
came up next to me and my mom, wanting to see my hearing aid. We got to
talking a litle bit. He's been deaf all his life, and has tried just
about everything minus cochlear implants. He has a bone conductor sort
of hearing aid. He even took his off and placed it on behind my ears,
and holy crap! For the first time ever, I heard a little bit on the left
side ever since becoming deaf. Wow. My mom was talking, I was watching
her talk. I didn't hear all the words she said, but I actually heard a
little bit. It was pretty amazing. The 3 of us chatted a bit more, and
even exchanged addresses.

Hmm, I'll have to mention this to my audiologist on Friday, see what he
says hearing aids have never worked for the left ear for as long as I
cam remember, so I'm surprised I could hear something with the bone
conductor device. Hm, maybe there is hope yet.

He was a very interesting person, a sweet gentleman. I didn't think he
would even suggest that I try his bone conductor. It was all his idea,
and he took it right off and went behind me, placing it on me. It was a
neat experience, for sure. Felt a lot of vibrations from the noise all
around, and heard my mom a bit. Even mom was excited.
--Meghan via the sidekick 3

Sweet dreams beautiful baby.
Sweet dreams Aiden Ryder Betts.

Some vacation

Some vacation this has been. Last Tuesday, my mom, step dad and I flew out of Denver into Raleigh, NC. Then we rented a car and made it to our beach cottage in Surf City. Wednesday, we find out my sister has been checked into the hospital, as she was in labor. All day we were anxious, waiting for the baby to be born. They ended up having to do an emergency c-section (the whole day of labor was very normal and going very smoothly, the baby had a very strong and steady heart rate up until the last few minutes). Baby got taken out, doctors fought to keep his heart going, but he didn't survive. Very bad night for all of us. We're still getting through this, moving on with life. (Sweet dreams Aiden Ryder Betts)

Pretty much the whole time we've been out here, I've been having difficulties hearing, making sense of what is being said. I have been lipreading but that doesn't always help. I know part of my not being able to hear for a while was due to the shock of what happened with my sister's baby. Perhaps the humidity in the air also has had some affect? I have no idea. In Wyoming, the air is very very dry, but out here it's humid. Have been using the dry-aid canister (the drying crystals) every night. Definitely very difficult to hear speech when out at the beach, since I hear more of the waves and the wind than anything else. But when indoors, sometimes it's other sounds I hear. I can hear some speech sounds, but not all, and it's just been insane for me to try to keep up with conversations going on.

But this Friday, I should have the new Naida hearing aid. I am anxiously looking forward to getting the new hearing aid, and trying it out.

Sorry what'd you say?

Geesh I wish my mom didn't get grumpy with me if I didn't hear what she
said. We're on vacation in North Carolina, its humid here and the
humidty does get to my hearing aid. And when in stores and restaurants,
I do turn to the noise adapt setting on the hearing aid so the
background noise is much more quiet, but then the stuff I do want to
hear is also more quiet and more difficult to hear and understand.

20 years I've been deaf, and here's mom getting frustrated with my not
being able to hear. Give me a break, I can't help it, but there's no
need to give up after the first 'what?' and say "nevermind!" with that
irritable look and tone. If she really wanted for me to understand what
she's saying, she could make more of an effort to look directly at me,
or get my attention instead of trying to tell me when I'm not looking.
You'd think shed know better, after having to deal with this for 20
years, but apparently she doesn't today. Oy!
--Meghan via Sidekick 3

More Naida ramblings

Called the audiologist's office again, and "spoke" with the assistant (I used the i711 internet relay to make the call, as usual), as I had some questions I completely forgot to ask on Friday.

I will have to pay for the hearing aid and remote on the 25th, before I leave the office, and try out the Naida for 45 days. If I don't like it, I can always return it and get the money back. And, the mypilot remote is only $250, which is a lot less than the $400 estimate. Wow. So I'll need a total of $2,145.

Have another relative that wants to help pay for the hearing aid too. She had some money set aside in a savings, and decided she wanted to put that money to good use. Wow, several family members are going to be owning a piece of my ear! I wonder which part I'll own.. hm! My family really does so much for me, it's great. I really wasn't expecting all this help with paying for the hearing aid.

Speaking of Naida prices... I saw a post from a parent on the AllDeaf.com forums. He's down in Texas, and has a deaf daughter that is getting her first hearing aid. An audiologist recommended the Unitron Element 8 or the Phonak Naida, with the Element costing $1,850 and the Nadia costing $3,000 for just ONE. Whaaaaaat?! $3000 for ONE Naida hearing aid? Wow. Now, if the audiologist was also throwing in the remote and FM system and whatnot, then that price is more reasonable. But for just 1 hearing aid alone? Wow. I was shocked to see the price difference.

Ramblings

$1,895 for the Naida V hearing aid, really? Wow. My mom and I both were expecting it to cost more, so I was shocked when the audie assistant said it was $1,895. And the remote would be about $400ish. My parents will help me pay for the rest of the hearing aid (already have $1000), so we'd need about $1300 more.

Anyway, have made the appointment for April 25th at 11 a.m. for the new hearing aid. I think my audiologist will be ordering it. He could have ordered it on Monday (tomorrow), and I could have had the Naida by Thursday or Friday. But since we are leaving for North Carolina next Monday, I thought it'd be wise to wait until we got back from NC to get the hearing aid. Just from past experiences, I know I will be visiting the audie quite a bit at first to make adjustments to the hearing aid. A new digital hearing aid won't be completely perfectly programmed right on the first shot, I know this very well.

I'll probably call sometime this week, double-check to be sure the audie will be ordering the Zebra-style hearing aid for the appointment.

Still no price.

Just called my audiologist's office, still no price info for the Naida hearing aid. But, I was told to call again tomorrow afternoon as he should have everything by then. So, will hit up the i711 relay online again tomorrow, and get the information. I'm going to assume that I won't be getting the Naida before we leave April 13/14 for Denver to fly out to North Carolina. But that's ok. So hopefully I'll have the pricing info tomorrow, and I'll share it with my dad. My grandparents are giving me $500 to help pay for the new hearing aid, and I have over $500 in my savings. As to how to much my dad will help, I'm not sure yet. We'll get this figured out though.

Yesterday, I went to our local public library after work. The Friends of the Library booksale is going on this week, and yesterday was half price day! It was so nice to just roam around, looking at books, and just listening to music on my iPod with the Hatis epic ear hook device. I didn't listen to people chattering, kids chattering or yelling or stomping around, etc. It was just so nice to just be able to tune everyone out and be in my own little world while browsing for books. Hey, 13 books for only $3.25, now that's a really good deal! Last time I went to the library book sale, I was still in high school! I'm glad I went yesterday.