Tinnitus update; college

Since finishing the steroids, it seems the new tinnitus sounds have faded away.  I don't notice that annoying musical tune that I kept hearing over and over, and I think I was still hearing a bit of the crackling/tapping sound but it was very quiet and almost unnoticeable.  I am definitely happy about that.  I still have the usual old tinnitus as always (ringing or buzzing or even sirens...!) but I know that is something I will probably be living with for the rest of my life, and getting the implant didn't help with that.  But I am most definitely happy the new sounds are gone.  I can deal with the old usual sounds that I've had for ... well.. forever.  But the new sounds, not so much.




New semester has started at the college this week and so far so good!  Photography instructor is hard to understand, and he admitted to mumbling too.  He said he would try to enunciate more for me.  I told him I would be bringing in my FM unit, in hopes I can hear him better in class.  ASL 3 is going well so far.  The ASL class set up is interesting, as both ASL 3 and 4 classes are combined.  There are only 3 or 4 level 4 students, and maybe 5 level 3 students.  Interesting.... The ASL instructor is still trying to figure out a system to balance both levels in one class. 


In a way, I'm happy the new semester as started.  I have classes to take, stuff I can focus on.  I am really excited about the photography class; it is black and white film photography.  I took a class in 9th grade and enjoyed it!  Since I have decided to switch to General Studies for my major, I'm just taking classes that will fulfill the credit hours needed to graduate with the Associate degree.  Photography will be a fun one, for sure.  Have decided to do Intro to Music, which ought to be interesting.  There will be times when we have to listen to certain music that's associated with our text book, and I thought this would be an interesting way to do auditory training. Am also taking a Developmental Psychology class online, and a PE class (fitness training).  Better go find my AB Snuggies/Huggies so I can keep my Naidas on my ears while I'm working out!  I found one Snuggie so far, but don't know where the pack with the other snuggies are, so will have to dig through my AB boxes at home.  More than likely it will either be in my Harmony box, or my extra supplies box.

Another semester down

Got through another semester of college!  A in intermediate algebra, B in human anatomy, government, and English comp 1010.  Whew!  Also got the first half of the radiology observation done in December as well (second half will be in a couple of weeks).  Observing the radiology department at the hospital was interesting.  I had my FM with me, wore the Neptune with the FM receiver plugged in and all that.  I kept the transmitter on me, and just followed the instructor around, doing my best to follow what he was saying, and what others in the department were saying as well.  Got to observe an ultrasound being done on a gentleman's arm (checking for blood clots), a CT scan of another person, a couple of different type of X-rays.  Instructor asked if I wanted to observe an MRI and I had to decline, due to the cochlear implant.  I emailed Advanced Bionics later and they confirmed that I cannot be in an MRI area at all with my CI (I also forwarded their response to the head of radiography program at the college as well, so she knows I cannot include an MRI observation on my application).  All the information I was told, it was all kind of overwhelming. Whew.  But I got through the morning. 

Got through the holidays, which had its crazy moments.  Christmas Eve with all families over at my mom and stepdad's house was nuts.  A FULL house, with kids running amuck.  It was all fun though.  Sis and I exchanged stockings (yay we did our sister stocking exchange!), and funny enough, we both got each other the wooden peg games, which was hilarious.  We definitely know each other well haha.

my dog enjoying the snow

a video project I worked on between Thanksgiving and Christmas

bunch of tapes to go through, whew. Ended up with 3 sets of 8 DVDs for 3 members of the family.

some cookies I made

my new toy.  Decided I wanted to get back to videoing stuff again.

Am registered for the Spring 2014 semester.  Let's see if I remember what classes I signed up for... oh yeah.
Pre-Calc Algebra (online); English Comp 1020 (online); Human Physiology (online), BLS for Healthcare/CPR (on campus); ASL 1 (on campus, evening class).  English and human physiology I need to take in general to graduate from the college, ASL will fulfill my culture credit (and it couldn't hurt to try to improve my ASL skills, I'm rusty and still have trouble converting English language structure to ASL language structure).  Will still need to take PE, Psychology, and maybe another class or two just to graduate from the college in general.  Deadlines for applying for the Radiography program is Feb. 15, and hopefully my midterm grades will be good enough.  The CPR class is done with (originally I signed up to take it Feb. 22, which is after the application deadline, and then decided I should take an earlier class if possible, so I signed up for yesterday morning's class instead!).

Did the CPR class yesterday.  Got through it just fine.  No interpreter, no captioning.  I didn't request any accommodations for any of my classes this semester.  ASL I'll be fine, no problem.  And the instructor and I know each other so we'll get along just fine.  CPR, I've taken CPR a couple of times before so I had an idea of how it's done (there were some changes since the last time I took CPR, but no big).  I did buy the book for the CPR class, reviewed it the night before.  We watched a video in class, it wasn't captioned but it had random bits of text here and there.  I used my FM, and I got through the class just fine.  The video showed how to do the CPR on adult, kid, and infant, then the students each got to practice on the manikins.  Not a problem! 

College classes don't start up again until after MLK day, so I still have some time to enjoy a break from school.  Of course, I'm still working in the afternoons, and hanging out here and there.  Will possibly start getting my textbooks needed for classes soon enough, will call Vocational Rehab one day to make sure the paperwork/vouchers have been sent to the college and that sort of thing.  Will also be receiving the Pell Grant again, which will help with paying for books as V.R. doesn't cover all of my book costs (they have limited expenses).

I did also get my Neptune back from the audie, yippie!  Not sure Optima is actually installed on it.  Audie said she added it, but I haven't noticed any improvements in battery life.  Wondering if something went wrong somewhere.  Oh well, she'll be back up here in town in April so we can figure it out then.

I bought a few of the Little Critter interactive books on my iPad... I can listen to the stories, interact with them, and just enjoy them.  Have gone through about half of them already with just the CI alone.  I know, little kid books.  But, oh how I remember reading some of them as a kid!  And it's good auditory practice for me as well.  Have slowly been making my way through the audio of The Little Mermaid as well (free classic book I downloaded from the iTunes app store on my ipad ages ago).  I'm trying to get more audio book listening in, trying to do some actual rehab with just the CI alone.  Oftentimes I go to work with just the CI on, the hearing aid is turned off.



Oh yeah, I made a jack o lantern with CI's for Halloween.  Thought it'd be fun, hehe!

I keep adding to my skeletons family each year it seems.

Geez, I sure do ramble on don't I?  Of course, this does tend to happen when I don't blog for quite a while. Oops!  I shall try to update my blog a bit more often, but we'll see if that actually happens.  I may start blogging about random stuff every now and then.

New sounds, auditory rehab

There was a deaf ice cream social at the Dairy Queen today that I went to. It was fun, just hanging out, socializing a bit and just watching everyone socialize.

I picked up on a couple of new sounds. I heard the 1 year old girl smacking her lips as she ate her ice cream cone. I was a few chairs away from her and her mom, but I could hear her little lips smacking. And I only had the implant on, the hearing aid was off. I also teased a deaf friend a bit for being noisy.. He was just playing with the empty aluminum can he had. I kept hearing this sound, and it took me a few minutes of looking around until I realized it was just him crinkling the can.



Seems like I've been using the hearing aid much less than usual these days. Just focusing on listening with the implant and trying to make sense of what I'm hearing. I spent about half an hour using the Able rehab app on my iPad last night, just listening and doing my best to tap on the word I think is being said. As I get further along on the first level, it gets more trickier. Tike and dike, took and cook, key and tea.... the words that sound extremely similar are still tricky for me to get. But I'm still working at it. I also played around a bit with a piano app I have on the iPad, just to see if I could hear the difference between the keys right next to each other. I can't hear the difference between 2 keys right next to each other, but if I play 1 key, then aother that's further away from the first I can hear that difference. I think I can hear the slight difference with the implant though, but it's hard to tell.

I haven't done much with any auditory rehab tools lately. With school in the mornings, and work in the afternoons, by the time I get home I have dinner, do some homework, and then I'm just tired and want to take it easy. But I do try to watch TV with just the implant alone (unless a new episode is on, then I'm more likely to have the hearing aid on too).




Just got a statement from Medicare today, for the Prevnar 13 vaccine that I got in March.... $300?! Whew. Glad Medicare covered it.

New Listening app from AB!

Advanced Bioncs now has a listening rehab app which can be downloaded for free from the App store iPads. Do search in the app store for 'Advanced Bionics' or 'able' and it should come up.  I've only tried 1 level so far, but so far I'm liking it.  It's similar to the Clix tool from AB's Listening Room.  Download the app and add it to your auditory rehab toolbox!

Updated 4-8-13: Here's the link for the able app from iTunes.

 

Angel Sound

Here's a closer look at the Angel Sound Training auditory rehab tool available for download:

different module options

auditory training similar to Sound and Way Beyond

noise module

melodic module

open onset module

music module

Angel Sound Training has a lot more to offer in terms of auditory training than Sound and Way Beyond, including more advanced sessions as well as an expanded music training section. Very useful!

Angel Sound

There is a new auditory rehab software that can be downloaded to your computer called Angel Sound. It is the new Sound and Way Beyond, with a bilateral training module, more advanced training modules and more.  And it seems like it's a free download as well, so that's a bonus!  I haven't tried it out yet, since I'm not at home at the moment.  But I will be downloading it to my laptop this evening and giving it a try, of course.  Just thought I'd share this for any folks with cochlear implants who are wanting more tools for their auditory rehab. 

http://angelsound.tigerspeech.com/  is the link. You can also email them and request a CD-rom of the software as well.

Some progress

Yesterday was Mother's Day. I went over to my mom and stepdad's house to spend time with my momma! A couple of different times, I turned off my hearing aid so I could use the implant alone for practice. Mom and I talked on the bench swing in the backyard, and as long as I could lipread her, I was able to make sense of what she was saying (although she did have to repeat here and there). My sister, her husband and their son came over too. At one point my sister and mom got to talking of making some pepper poppers, and I clearly heard my mom say (while she was several feet away by the grill) "let's make some!" and I clearly heard my sister say "I'll help!". I didn't even look at my sister when she said that, but I knew what she said. That was pretty exciting!

Everything still sounds electronic at this point.  But I am hearing voices, they just sound electronicish. My bro-in-law asked if he sounded like a robot, and I said yeah, kind of. He thought that was pretty cool.  I don't really exactly know what robots sound like, but hey ok! But yeah, electronic voices, electronic everything.

I also ordered "Sound and Way Beyond" from Cochlear (it's $25 from their webstore, plus shipping/handling), so I have another resource for auditory training. It arrived in my mailbox last Thursday, and I wasn't expecting to see it until sometime this week. But hey! I played with it a bit on my laptop. The tones portion, that one was really tricky. Some tones I couldn't even hear at all, and at times they all sounded too similar I couldn't tell which one was the different sounding one.  But the environmental sounds, and the difference between male/female voice, I didn't do too bad with. That's all I've done so far with Sound and Way Beyond, but I'll work with it some more. I don't use my laptop for auditory rehab on a daily basis, it depends on my mood and how mentally tired I am.

I've been very slowly making progress with the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland audiobook. Before the mapping on April 23, I made it to Chapter 5. But when I would try to follow along with Chapter 5 (I was also reading along with the Kindle app on my laptop), boy oh boy I just kept getting lost so quickly and easily. Over and over and over, I'd try again, changing the volume and the speed of the speaker's voice, and just couldn't do it.  But last week I gave it another try, and I was able to get through Chapter 5! At a few spots I kind of got lost, but was able to pick up again with the next sentence. Will have to keep going and get through the whole book before my audiobook rental expires again.

Am up to Program 3 on the Harmony right now, so soon enough I'll switch over to the Neptune and work my way through the 3 programs on that. When I get to Program 2 on the Neptune, then I will FedEx the Harmony to the audie and she'll load up more programs on it for me.