adjustments

I went to the clinic center to see Shane, the audiologist. I signed in and all. Waited and waited and waited. My appointment was 11:00 and I didn't see Shane until like 11:20ish. Someone else was in with him, someone I KNOW! This guy used to be the janitor for the deaf school.
Anyway, turns out Shane's office had moved! yeah. and he's now using the Dell Ispirion 2560 or whatever the numbers are, notebook for programming hearing aids instead of the Dell desktop. Interesting yes. He got my hearing aid hooked up to the notebook, then looked at the tubing. He asked "how old is this tubing?" and I just shrugged haha. He changed it quickly, and we got to reprogramming. At first EVERYTHING was messed up and too damn quiet. So Shane went over to the desktop, printed off some stuff from my files that are still on that comp, then put them into the notebook. He kept messing with the volume and all, and finally we got somewhere. Everything's a bit louder, and basically, the volume for my hearing aid, according to the program on the notebook, is maxed out or whatever. HAH! But hopefully I can hear the emergency vehicles as I drive now. Crazy!

meningitis and deafness

Meningitis is an inflammation of the membrane(called the meninges) that surrounds the brain and the spinal column. Meningitis itself doesn't cause deafness, but since the brain is so close to the ears, sometimes the inflammation of the meninges can cause the inner ear to become inflamed also, and this can result in deafness.

well what do ya know? FINALLY I learned exactly how meningitis causes deafness! Ever since I did a project on meningitis in 7th grade, I never really understood exactly how it could cause deafness, and now I do! YAY! I learned something new about ME!

I stopped by the deaf school to return the Twins cochlear implant video tape, latest issue of Hearing Health magazine and a couple of books to the library there. Sherry was there, we talked a bit. Talked with Tom the audiologist, asking if I should go to my hearing aid audiologist dude Shane about getting my hearing aid adjusted so that I can HEAR the emergency vehicles coming while I'm driving. I don;'t hear them when driving unless the vehicle's like 3-5 feet away, and that's bad.
Went to go see Shane during lunch hour, but he's out of town. So the secretary and I set up an appointment for Monday at 11 to see him.

SSDI denied

Got letter from Social Security Administration office.. Disability Insurance Coverage thingy DENIED! Course that was to be expected as I haven't been working long enough. Still waiting to hear on the other one, the usual SSI crap I think?

I scored a 62% on the "How deaf are you?" Quizie! What about you?

WYHI!

WYHI on Friday! NO SCHOOL FOR ME! YAHOO! sure is nice to be a hearing-impaired student in Wyoming.... and being able to attend WYHI... gets me outta school! And Momma's gonna take a lunch hour that day from work, come to WYHI and talk with Angela about the cochlear implant business. Angela had her surgery for the CI in late May, got "turned on" sometimes in late June/early July.. somewhere around there... Hopefully Angela will be of some help to my mom. And I wanna chat with Angela about the CI myself too. I seriously do want one.

Course, I need to try applying for SSI too.. need to talk to mom about that some more. She told me she was waiting until I turned 18 to try the SSI thing cause they might help pay for at least PART of the CI process or whatever.. I dunno. Maybe we'll discuss cochlear implants again tonight... hmm...

CNI Cochlear Kids Camp

I'm HOME! YES! I so missed home.. I missed my momma, Little, Mouse, giving Mouse her mohawks every morning, sleeping in MY bed, the computer, the life at home, etc. The Cochlear Kids Camp was a lot of fun and a wonderful experience! So happy I went! Snow Mountain Ranch is a beautiful place, HUGE and open, but beautiful. WOW!

I chatted with various people who have implants, and they shared their experiences with me. I saw little kids, kids, adults, and teenagers with implants! It was pretty cool. I learned more of the 3 different devices, and got some more information packets... Pretty interesting stuff. and MAN I was happy to hear that the MicroLink FM system works with all 3 devices! So now I know I don't have to get a whole new FM system for the implant if I had one. SWEEEEEEEEET!

There was this 3 year old girl, Bailee... oh she is so cute! She uses signs to communicate, so of course I watched her most of the time (I was assigned to the 3-year-old group). She just really likes me, and she's just so cute and tiny and sweet! She's like Asian or something like that, and she was adopted. But still very cute.

I got to meet Allison Biever! She's one of the audiologists at the CNI Rocky Mountain Cochlear Implant Center in Colorado, and I was really happy to meet her face to face. And we actually talked of stuff that we probably wouldn't have in email! And Miss America 1995 Heather Whitestone was there! I met her and got to talk with her a bit. Even got her autographs and a picture with her! Very cool. Heather is such a very nice person. And I got to talk with a guy (I think he's a senior in high school now) who has had his implant for about 2 years, and he told me of his experiences and all. He loves his device, and is very happy with his decision. And he encouraged me to go for it when I knew for sure if I'm a candidate. He seemed to be a pretty nice guy.

And Allison did mention that if I wanted the left ear implanted, that I should start wearing a hearing aid in the left ear again, just to keep the auditory nerves stimulated. Made sense to me! So now I need to have an earmold made for the left ear so I can start wearing a hearing aid in the left again. She said it didn't matter if I could hear or not, it's a good idea to keep the nerves stimulated and that sort of thing. If the nerves were not stimulated, then chances of the implant being a success probably wouldn't be too good. And I want the implant to be a success for me, so I'm going to do whatever I can. I'm happy she shared that advice with me. I would have never gotten that from her in email I don't think!

Overall, this whole thing was just plain AWESOME! And I would definitely do this again if I had the chance! So fun, cool, a really neat experience. I'll try to get some pictures posted on the Deaf Wyoming site.