Throw Back Thursday

Here are a couple of photos of me (preschool age, around 1990ish) wearing this..... FM system/auditory trainer/assistive listening device.  We were living in Winner, S.D. at the time.  Just thinking back on it, and having to wear that thing strapped to my chest, wow.  Sure is interesting to see how technology has changed since then, with hearing aids and FMs being much smaller and much more advanced now than they were then.

holding Pretty Baby.  Owner was a friend of my mom's and a florist, and I loved this bird.

at the pre-school demonstrating how my hearing devices work.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is even a short video footage.  My mom is checking the FM unit to see if it works.  Apparently I couldn't hear her at first!





I remember, when I first started at the Wyoming School for the Deaf, kindergartners wore the same system that I was using in the photos and video posted here (older students used a different system I think?).  I think it was by first grade when I (and the rest of the WSD students) wore the COMTEK FM units from then on, wearing fanny packs to hold the receivers.  Teachers would have a fanny pack or pouch to hold the transmitter.  Whew.

 

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.

Trying FM on Neptune again

After a few more attempts of trying to get the Phonak FM system to work with my Neptune with no results, and after a few emails back and forth with an AB regional specialist, he called AB and asked them to send me a new Neptune Connect, in hopes that would solve my FM problem.  Yesterday when I got home, there was a FedEx package waiting for me under my welcome mat.  Yay new Neptune Connect is here!  I dropped everything else I had with me onto my chair, then got the Neptune from the book case where I keep all my CI stuff on and got to work.  Took the original Connect off, put the new one on, plugged the MLxi FM receiver into the FM port on the Neptune connect, turned everything on and voila!  FM was working great.  Something must have gotten loose or something like that in the original Connect.  Hopefully I don't encounter this problem again.  I remember the first time I tried using the FM set up on my Neptune, months before I even got the new transmitter, and had no problems with getting the FM to work.  Worked great right off the bat but then a few months later (after getting the new Phonak transmitter), lots of trouble.  Hmmm...  The original Neptune Connect is being mailed back to AB today.

Was going to play with the FM today with my iPod... This morning, the iPod still had enough battery power that it should have lasted while I worked.  Tried turning the iPod on a few minutes ago, and nada.  Oh great.  It's charging now, but I can't play with it while it's charging, since it's an older iPod.  Wish my iPod Touch's audio port wasn't broken, it didn't matter if it was charging or not, it would still be playable.  Ah maybe I should just load some music to my iPhone instead... but alas, my desktop tower seems to be dead (and my iTunes is on that computer with all the music loaded on it).  I'll have to spend some time updating the iTunes on my laptop and resyncing the music over (good thing I have an external hard drive that has all of my music and photos!).  There's no school tomorrow, due to it being Good Friday, so perhaps I'll have some time to get my iTunes all set up on my laptop and get some music synced to the iPhone.

Technology.... most of the time it's fantastic, but there are moments when it's just a pain to deal with.

Interesting....

I was almost at work.... I had just turned onto the street in front of the newspaper when I saw an ambulance in the distance.  I pulled over to the curb (I was already out of the ambulance's way), and waited until the ambulance went by.  I wanted to see if I could hear the sirens with my implant.  Nope, not really.  When it was right behind me, I heard the sirens, but it was really quiet and low pitched.  Interesting!  Anything that has a high pitched sound (like female voices and such), they just sound low to me.  Perhaps my audiologist can try to fix that when I see her again in April.  Even listening to certain music, music that was made when the artists were kids, they sound like they have low voices even though they actually had high voices at the time.  I get amused listening to such music, knowing the voices were originally high but they sound low with the implant on.


As for the FM use with my Neptune processor... Well, I have discovered that the set up doesn't always work.  If the Neptune doesn't recognize the MLx receiver, I have to fiddle with it, taking the Neptune apart and everything.  Sometimes it takes a few rounds of disassembling, then reassembling, the Neptune and FM receiver before it finally works.  Not something I want to do during English class, I have no time to be messing around!  I haven't used the Neptune with the FM the last couple of weeks or so.  I use the FM with my hearing aid, then the implant is just the implant with no FM input, and it works out I think.  The set up just has been finicky.  Don't know if it's the Neptune processor, or if it's the FM receiver, but it gets kind of annoying when it doesn't work when I want it to.

Oohh technology...

Been 2 weeks of school so far... for the most part it's going well enough, although I do get a bit frustrated here and there. Frustrated with some of the math, trying to make sense of it. Seriously, fractions are NOT my friend! Also, the captioning set up for English is weird. Seems like I encounter some sort of issue with the set up during each English class. Last Monday, it was working fine for a few minutes, then boom nada.  Turns out I didn't have the microphone charged. Ok.  Last Wednesday and Friday, everything seemed to run smoothly enough, with hiccup here and there (the transcriber would disconnect the call on Skype, call me back and then it's running smoothly again).  This past Wednesday, it seems like there was some trouble with the internet connection?  The disabilities coordinator at the college had the IT department put in a blue network cable into the classroom so I could use it to connect my laptop to the internet instead of relying on wireless (the wireless signals in the room is very weak).  Set up worked fine at first, then we ran into issues, but got everything working again.  But today, nada.  No luck right from the start. We tried everything, reconnecting, restarting the laptop, no such luck. I sent an email to the disabilities coordinator about the troubles, and told him if we keep encountering problems that I just may not want to keep using the captioning service.  It's just not worth my time or the trouble, to have an issue arise and then having to spend time troubleshooting and trying to figure out what's going on, distracting me from the discussions going on in the classroom.  I may be able to get by in that class with the FM only.  The transcriber isn't able to hear the other students in the class when they have something to say, so either way I still miss out on what the students are saying. If I continue to encounter problems next week in English class with the captioning, I'm calling it quits with the service.  It's a great service when it works well, but if I'm just going to be encountering issues every so often, forget it.


Now, as for the FM set up... I went back to the audiologist the 14th... The ML10i came in, and we got that attached to my hearing aid. Tested it with the Smartlink+, and it worked great!  We tried fussing with the old MLx receiver for my Neptune yet again, and got no results. So we were quite stumped. The audiologist even spent some time on the phone with Phonak for some help as well.  Oh well, I was sent on my way with the Smartlink+ and the new receiver attached to my hearing aid.  We were starting to think perhaps the old receiver just isn't compatible with the Smartlink+.  But during the week, I played around with the FM system some more at home, and boom I got it working! Excellent, now I didn't have to worry about needing to get a new receiver afterall!

Today, I'm usig the FM set up with my ipod, and it's fantastic.  I connected the ipod to the Smartlink+, and music is playing in my ears without my needing to wear wires. Oh how nice it is to be wire-free!  I love it!  I don't need a separate set up for each ear device anymore. Sweet!

 

 

 

 

Update: The College's IT person checked the connection in the classroom, and even moved the network cable to a different desk. It seems my laptop was sharing the connection with the teacher/classroom computer, but now I should have my own network connection separate from the classroom computer. Will try it out on Monday and see how that goes, and hope the set up works better.

No luck with the FM today

Well, this morning was a mess with the FM.  Phonak sent the wrong receiver for my hearing aid (they sent the ML11i instead of the ML10i), and they also sent the SmartLink transmitter instead of the Inspiro.  They said the Smartlink is more sophisicated, and the Inspiro is old and outdated. Whichever, I can accept the Smartlink. 

We also tried getting the FM to work with the Neptune processor. No-go at all there.  We kept trying different things, audie even called Phonak for some support. Nada.  After the appointment (she kept the Smartlink, and I'll see her again Monday afternoon so we can be sure everything works with the proper receiver for my hearing aid).  I went home, and got out the old HandyMic transmitter and played with it to see if I could get the FM working with the Neptune. Again, nada.  What?!  I had it working in very late Oct./early Nov. when I tried it out with the T-Comm for the Neptune; plugged the MLx receiver into the Neptune controller, plugged transmitter into my iPod and music was flowing to my ear!  But today, I got absolutely nothing. So I'm wondering if there's something going on with the Neptune, at least with the controller.  I've taken the control off, put it back on and saw the green light flash saying it was synced to the Neptune, but I still was getting nothing. So I'm stumped.

I did email Allison about this, as well as the Wyo/Colo AB clinic specialist, see what they have to say.  Just weird.  If I end up just using the FM with the hearing aid only, and using the CI for hearing what's going around on around me in the classroom (like students saying something during a discussion or whichever), that might work too. But it would be nice to have the FM working for both ears.  Hmm......

Preparing for college

College classes start on Monday! Ack!  I'll be taking Elementary Algebra, English: Basic Writing II, and Medical Terminology. I want to go for the radiography program, but of course I need to get some classes out of the way first. So I'll be taking classes for the next year before I can apply for the Radiography program if all goes well.

The disabilities counselor has the college has been a great help, helping me get registered for classes and such. On Monday I met with him in his office, and he got me set up with the ACS Captioning service, and checked out a RevoLabs Xtag microphone to me to use for English class.  I will use Skype on my laptop to "call" the person that will be doing the captioning for me, log in at the ACS Caption website so I can see the captioning, and the instructor will wear the microphone (this is how the captioner hears what's going on).  It's a pretty useful program and I am really happy the college offers this.  No interpreter needed!  And after class is over, the person who did the captioning will email me the transcript so I can refer back to it! Excellent! The counselor also requested a network cable be available in the English classroom so I can use it with my laptop for better internet connection instead of relying on the WiFi.

Tomorrow morning, I'll be going to my hearing aid audiologist's office to get my Phonak FM system. I'm sure there will be some programming going on, adding an FM setting onto my hearing aid and all. I'll be sure to wear my Neptune processor tomorrow so I can test the Phonak MLx receiver on it with the Inspiro transmitter to make sure it works, along with the hearing aid's ML10i receiver as well.

When I go to campus on Monday, I will definitely be loaded with techology.

• Laptop
• Phonak FM unit
• RevoLabs Xtag mic for captioning
• Hearing aid
• Cochlear implant

Better make sure I have spare batteries in my backpack for my ears!

English is only 3 days a week, so I won't be needing to bring my laptop on campus every day, which is good. My laptop is 17 inches, so it's big and heavy.  The math course is mostly done on the computer, and there are occasional video lectures but I've been assured the videos are captioned.

This is what my schedule looks like:

• Monday - Math, English
• Tuesday - Math
• Wednesday - Math, English
• Thursday - Math
• Friday - English

Medical terminology is an online course so I'll be checking in frequently.

FMs

Vocational Rehab says they may be able to help with the costs on the FM unit for college.  I'm looking at the Inspirio transmitter from Phonak, and the ML10i receiver to use with my Naida hearing aid.  I already have an MLx receiver at home, which I used with my Supero hearing aid. I have tested it with the Neptune processor a few months ago, and it worked well.  My HandyMic transmitter is too old, and doesn't even hold a charge anymore. I first got it in 2000/01 when I got my Claro hearing aid (and it's been replaced a couple of times too). I didn't really quite like it enough for classroom use (after using it in different classes in 9th grade), so it was mostly used for listening to music with.  But with the Inspirio, it should be a better system.  I also have a Comtek FM unit at home as well, but the receiver is a bit beat up and I don't have a T-coil mode on my implant processors. Plus, I would rather use actual FM receivers instead of T-coil, you just never know if there will be electronic interferences on T-coil mode, which can interfere with listening to the instructors at college!

I have called my hearing aid audie's office and asked about costs, and the receptioninst said she would have the audie's assistant get back to me on the information. Hopefully I'll hear from them soon enough.  CI audie Allison did mention in an email that the cost for both FM and receiver would be around $2400. Once I have the cost info, I'll let my vocational rehab counselor know and we'll take it from there.



Will be doing the Compass test at the college at about 5 today. I went earlier, but found out they are doing some construction in the Compass testing room. So they told me to come back at about 5 to take it.

Listening practice

Tonight I decided I needed to check out the Listening Room at HearingJourney.com.  First, I just browsed around, seeing what the Listening Room had to offer. Navigated my way to the Teens/Adults section, Listening Activities, Discrimination Activities. Ooo Clix! I've heard/read of that while lurking through the HearingJourney.com forums. So I downloaded the Beginner's Clix program, and got that up and running.  I did the 10 lbs Warm Up first, repeating the sounds so I could get an idea of what they sounded like. Then I did the Test - On Your Own, which covers all 10 levels. Certain words or sounds were very tricky, but I ended up scoring 70%, which I think is not too bad at all! And I am hearing little bits of speech sounds here and there. Like 'aaaAAAaaa', I'd hear the AAA portion more than the aaa's. That sort of thing. Very interesting. I am really happy with the Clix program so far, and will continue to work with it. I wasn't hearing ALL of the sounds or words, just little bits here and there. Mostly I was experiencing the sensations, so during the test, I'd listen, look at the words, repeat the word/sound if necessary and click on what I think the word/sound is. It's definitely a tricky process, but hey, my left ear needs all the practice it can get, right?

I even played with Cochlear's Hope app on my iPod touch for a bit tonight as well. I have the lite (free limited) edition, which you can download to your ipod touch/iphone/ipad from iTunes or the App Store. I forget how much the full app costs, but I figured the lite edition would be fine for now. It may be more aimed for kids, but it's still listening practice. There's a picture that comes up, with a word under it. You tap the screen and the device will say the word. I will tap the picture a few times to repeat the same word over and over.

There is also another app available at the App Store/iTunes that's free and called Hear Coach. It's made by Starkey Labs, and several folks from HearingJourney were raving about it. I tried it the other day but couldn't make sense of anything so I think I'll wait and try Hear Coach again another time. Just level 1 is overwhelming for me so far.


I also got out my Phonak FM unit (the Handy-Mic transmitter, and the mlx receiver that I originally got with my Phonak Supero hearing aid), and it works great with the Neptune! That was a fun experiment. Have the transmitter charging up so it's ready to go whenever I want to use the FM.  I used the  audio interface cable that was in my Neptune box and plugged the Neptune into my laptop for the Clix program. Works great too! Of course, if I want to use the direct connect with either processor, I have to use it with battery operated devices. So I can use it with my ipod touch or my laptop if they're not plugged into the wall.




Here are the scores I got tonight:

History of technology for my ears

Thought it'd be fun to post pictures of all my hearing aids and FM systems for this blog.


My very first pair of hearing aids ever! Or perhaps my second. I'm not too sure.


My lovely old purple hearing aids. Oh gosh, I remember being so proud of them in the 3rd grade at school. None of the other students at the deaf school had colored hearing aids. By about mid-4th grade, I stopped wearing the hearing aid in the left ear, as I realized I never heard anything out of the left ear with it on.


The Comtek FM unit my grandparents got for me. I used it a bit, at church in Sunday School and whatnot. But for the most part, after I had gotten a discman, I used the neckloop to listen to music. The Comteks hardly ever got any use. And we used the school district's Comteks all throughout school. Comteks were used as the school audiologist felt they were the most powerful FMs to use.


The Claro, my first digital hearing aid ever. My interpreter (she's deaf herself, and is now a very good friend of mine), she had gotten new Phonak hearing aids while I was in middle school. Programmable hearing aids. I thought they were so cool, I wanted them for myself! Ended up with the Claro as they were brand new at the time.


The FM transmitter that I also got to go with the Claro. Tried it at school, didn't like how it worked (the signal wasn't strong enough). But wonderful for listening to music with! I then ditched using my personal neckloop and used this FM transmitter, plugged into the discman. I still use it today, on my portable DVD player and at the computer.


The Supero, far more powerful than the Claro. Every time I had to switch back to the Claro so the Supero could be repaired, I was always shocked at how quiet the whole world sounded with the Claro. Wow.


And now, the Naida, Zebra-style! I had already done the different colored hearing aid... now, I wanted something more jazzier, the Zebra. It's pretty neat looking, and I like the new FM shoe too. Much better than the FM shoe I had for the Supero, for sure.


My remote controls. The white one is new, and very nice. The old one, I've been using it since I got the Claro. And only once out of 7 years the battery has been replaced, just ONCE. It's been a good old remote, even though I've dropped it and lost it on several occasions.


And that is how I listen to music now. I've decided I was going to use the Hatis Epic ear device for music only. The HandyMic transmitter has been damaged several times and replaced 3 or 4 times since I first got it. After the last time it was sent in for repair, I got the Epic. With the FM, volume will be maxed out on the DVD player or CD player, and sometimes I would even have to turn the volume up on my hearing aid to hear. But with Epic, the first time I turned on my iPod, I just about blasted my ear off and had to turn down the volume on the iPod. And the Epic is a lot more convenient for traveling. FM, I have to bring the charger for it when traveling, and it gets to be a pain to have to charge it up.

And now, I shall stop rambling. :)

Switching and FMs

Hm. Guess I'll be switching hearing aids tonight. I'll wear the Supero so that I can use the FM only setting to listen to the movie on my DVD player and to whatever's playing on the computer. The rest of the time, I'll use the Naida so I can get used to it. And tomorrow after work, the Naida programmings will be switched from Music to T-coil, and from FM+Mic to FM only. Since I am only using the FM at the computer now... well gee, I don't want to listen to what's on the computer, AND the laundry going.

I'm rather liking the new FM shoe for the Naida. I can get it off easily, it's putting it on that will take me some time getting used to. It slides on forward, and slides off backwards. My audie changed the battery door on the Naida so that the FM shoe can fit on it right. It's pretty nice. I never did care for the FM shoe for the Supero. It splits down the middle very easily, and sometimes you have to mess with it a bit so that the contact points are touching. With the Claro, well, the FM receiver just went right into where the battery normally sits! I like the Claro FM the best. It just blends in so well with the hearing aid, you can't even tell there's an FM attached to the hearing aid unless you look at it closely.

Oy!

The receptionists at the audiologiy's office are just so difficult. I've made several relay calls to them over the last few months using i711.com relay, and they are still uncomfortable with taking my relay calls. It's really not that difficult! I am not using the phone when I make these calls, I am on the internet, typing out my message to the operator, and the operater is relaying my message to the receptionist. Then the receptionist responds to the operator, operator types the message and sends it to me. Oy!

Hearing aid is much better. He took the bass-boost off. Good! Got the proper FM shoe for the hearing aid, so will play with the FM at home. But there's no telecoil setting on my hearing aid. Somehow it got switched with the music setting. I don't even know how the music setting works. I don't use headphones or blast music from a speaker. I use the telecoil setting with the Hatis Epic ear hook to listen to music, or to DVDs on my portable DVD player. Hm. I want to get it switched back to Telecoil, and switch the FM+Mic setting to just FM only. And there is no way I can wait until May 19 for further adjustments. It shouldn't take more than 5 minutes really, to just switch out the 2 programs to 2 other programs, and plug the remote into the computer so that it is updated to have the right programming options. I am not going to wait 2 weeks just for a simple little thing. That's just ridiculous.

Meh. I hate dealing with receptionists at times, especially when they are so clueless. I'm not asking for a whole half-hour appointment session. Just a mere 5 minutes to make the switches and that's it. No increasing the volume or messing with the bass levels, etc. The volume and bass adjustments can be done on another day, after I've gone a few days with the current adjustments so I can get a feel for it and figure out what further adjustments need to be made.

It's times like this, where I wish we could somehow adjust the hearing aids on our own computers, just simple adjustments. They should have a program for digital HA users to load onto their computer, and they can make their own simple tweaks, like switching out programmings and adjusting the volume a bit (with the program having a limit on the volume so some users don't go too crazy). Just little simple stuff like that. Then we wouldn't have to worry about making appointments. Just see the audie if there is a big enough issue with the hearing aid or for MAJOR adjustments, but not little itty bitty ones.

Oh it's horrible!

The music, it sounds so horrible with the Naida hearing aid at this time. I had the iPod playing, and good grief. Everything sounds so different, ick. Makes me wonder if there's too much bass on the hearing aid. I have never liked bass when listening to music, and I don't like it when there's too much bass on the hearing aid. I have been taking notes, keeping track of what it is I want changed.

I emailed Phonak last night about the HandyMic transmitter working with the Naida FM receiver. Got a response today, and they said it is compatible. Good! Will let the audie know on Monday, and he could call Phonak so that we can make sure the transmitter is working with the Naida.

And I am still not used to having to open the battery door to turn the hearing aid off. All of my previous hearing aids have had on/off switches. The Naida, you turn it on by closing the battery door (with a battery in it of course!), and turn it off by opening it. I keep feeling for a switch to turn it off, then remember I need to open the battery door. Very different.


I see the captionings are working on the CW channel once again. Hm.

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.

La de dah!

Got up this morning and I was nothing but goofy, happy and excited. It was like as if I was a little kid again! Made it to the audiologist's office, thinking my appointment was at 11. I looked at my sidekick and discovered the appointment was actually for 11:30. Oops! Oh well, better to be early than late, right? So I just hung out, played around with my sidekick a bit. The audiologist's aid came out to "steal" my hearing aid for cleaning. By about 11:20ish, I'm following Shane through the "maze" of rooms to get to his office.

He doesn't have the price for the Naida yet. He said it's so new, it just came out, and he hadn't gotten the price list for it yet. But, he'll call the company and get the pricing, then fax the information to my mom. And he says I can try it out for a couple of months, see if I like it. Great!

Also, my FM transmitter had to be sent in. He said he messed with it for a couple of days, and couldn't get it going. Well crap! I figured it would have to be sent in though. Great.

Now, let's find out what the pricing will be, so I can talk to my grandparents and dad and find out how much they'll pay. I need to pay the $500 for my smashed in door on my car repairs, before the insurance will pay the rest. Oh it sure isn't fun not being able to make much money. Although, it sure would be much easier if I didn't have those monthly car payments of $110.32! Anyway, I'll get this figured out. Indeed.

2 More Days

Just 2 more days and I can bug my audiologist about the Naida hearing aid. I really cannot wait. It's funny how I get excited about getting a new hearing aid, but then again, who wouldn't? Right now I'm thinking, new hearing aid, and the iPilot remote control to go with the hearing aid, as I do change programmings on the hearing aid to fit the situation I'm in (noisy, quiet, telecoil, FM). I'm still unsure of the iCom thing, but I'll discuss this with the audiologist. Perhaps I can just get a new boot so I can use the FM receiver with the hearing aid, and continue to use the darned T-mic transmitter that likes to give me grief every so often. Or maybe I'll just stick with the Hatis Epic device. Who knows, maybe I'll end up ordering the iCom unit, I have no clue.

And it sounds like my dad and grandparents will help pay for the Naida too. My grandparents sure have been of a lot of help when it comes to purchasing new hearing aids and FM systems. Growing up, my parents didn't have much money to purchase hearing aids for me, so my grandparents would help out (they still had to pay off my medical bills from when I had meningitis). I don't know, I think they even helped pay for the purple hearing aids I got when I was in the 3rd grade. And they are the ones who purchased my very own personal Comtek FM system (where they got the system from, I have no idea). With the Claro, they pitched in too. Hearing aids can be expensive, and insurance doesn't cover hearing aids. But then, I have no insurance at all. I currently have maybe almost $600 in my savings, which was originally my "new computer" fund. But now, I'll use that to pay for what I can pay on the hearing aid, and my family will also help me with the purchase of the Naida too. On a couple of different websites, the approximate cost was around $2100, $2200. Now, to find out how much it'll cost through Alpine Hearing Care...

I've been wearing digital hearing aids since January of 2001. Did I get that right? Or was it 2002? Yeah, 2001. My parents and my grandparents paid for the new Claro hearing aid, along with Phonk's FM system, and the remote control. Then in May of 2004 (a bit before I graduated high school), I got the Supero 314AZ, with a new FM receiver so I could continue to use my T-Mic transmitter. Vocational Rehab paid for the Supero. I continued to use the same old remote control from the Claro with the Supero (audie just added the remote identification number into the Supero programmings on the computer, and it still works for the old Claro as well!). Out of everything that I have gotten since 2001, that remote control is the only thing that has never been replaced. Yes, it's been dropped and misplaced and hidden away on several occasions, the battery door doesn't stay on well, and the battery has been replaced I think only once the entire time I've had the remote (7 years!). Everything else (hearing aids, FM transmitter and receiver, cords for the FM, even the AC adapter charger for the transmitter) has been replaced once or twice or more, or repaired.

I'm still trying to decide on what color to get. Red, or zebra print? Right now, I'm leaning more towards the Zebra print (I've already done the colored hearing aids in the past, but never have I had a jazzy looking hearing aid like the Zebra or Cheetah styles that Phonak offers for Naida). I put up a poll on a messageboard that I frequent, and so far Red is winning. And these people are not even deaf or deal with hearing aids! It's cool though, I always like to see what their opinions are.

Miracell

Miracell, for dry itchy ears? So, I went and saw my audiologist last week about my broken FM transmitter. He said he'd take a look at it, and would send it in if necessary. He knows I don't make much money. As far as I know, he hasn't called yet, so I'm going to assume the FM had to be sent in.

Anyway, after we finished talking about the FM, I made mention of the hearing aid's ear hook putting pressure on the top of my ear. He said the other ear hook he had for the Supero is shorter, so he fixed the tubing. Then he got to looking inside my ear and noticed it was red and dry. He gave me a small sample bottle of Miracell to help with that problem. The left ear looked perfectly fine, but then, there's no hearing aid for the left! It's only the right ear that I usually have problems with. Now, I've used miracell in the past, which my audiologist recommended. It's an all natural sort of oil, and it helps with dry skins, and even helps with reducing scars so that they aren't as noticable in some cases. Definitely does help with the itchyness in the ear. Just put a bit of miracell onto a q-tip, and swish the qtip around in the ear a bit to get the miracell on the skin (just don't stick the q-tip too far in the ear!).

Hopefully my Hatis device arrives today. According to the tracking info on UPS.com, it should arrive today. We shall find out when I get home from work.

Hm, what to do?

Well, with the transmitter being broken, it sure sucks not being able to listen to much music. I do have a neckloop, but the music sounds too quiet, even with the iPod/DVD player AND hearing aid volumes turned up to the max.

I was looking at the Hatis products, so I might consider one of those. I did email them, asking for more information. Also, I'll see if it's possible to use a Direct Audio Input cable. I already have a shoe/boot for my hearing aid, and the FM receiver is removeable. I'll discuss this with my audiologist on Wednesday when I see him about the dang transmitter that apparently likes to die at least once a year. I know, Phonak has newer transmitters out there now, and they no longer actively sell the T-Mics, but I can't really afford a whole new FM transmitter. If I can use a DAI, perhaps I'll just start using that more than the FM system.

Success!

I have found it! The missing Claro! It was in a small plastic bag (in which my T-Mic plug-in cord came in) on my computer desk this whole time, covered up with papers and candy. Nice huh? At least it's been found. Put in a fresh new battery, and tested out the T-Mic transmitter. 'Lo and behold, it's the transmitter. Guess I'll have to resort to using alternative solutions to listening to music and DVDs until the transmitter is fixed. Wonder how much this will cost me though.

Gotta love FM issues!

Today, I was gathering up my stuff, getting ready to leave the house to go to work. I saw my iPod on my desk, and thought I'd take it with me to work to listen to some music. So then I started gathering up my Phonak T-Mic FM, and plugged it into the iPod. Grabbed the MicroLink Reciever boot and attached it to my hearing aid. Then I pushed the FM button on my remote control and started messing with the iPod. What the? I'm not hearing music? What the? Made sure the receiver was on the right setting, made sure I had pushed the FM button. Hmm, I'm just hearing staticky sounds, or just... weird scratching sounds of some sort. So then I started playing with the transmitter. Switching to different settings, I heard bits of this and that of my voice when I tested it. Oh great, something's not working right!

What could be wrong? The whole FM system was working just fine 2 nights ago when I watched a movie on my portable DVD player. It worked great! And I hadn't touched the FM since that night. So what went wrong? I decided to leave behind the iPod and FM and just go to work without.

Then, an idea popped into my head! Duh, I have another digital hearing aid (Phonak's Claro) with an FM receiver on it... Why not find that hearing aid and test the FM with it? Then I could figure out if it's the receiver (I just got the receiver problem taken cared of last summer), or if it's the transmitter (which has been replaced 2-3 times since I first got it in January of 2000). Back to the basement I go, in hunt for this hearing aid. There were 2 hearing aid cases sitting on my dresser and I checked them both. Nothing in 1, and earmold tubings in the other. What in the world?! I ALWAYS keep the old digital in one of these cases. Geez, now where to look next? I looked all over the top of my dresser, in various collector's mugs and boxes, went into the computer room and looked around (oh hey, found the size 13 batteries! but no hearing aid). I even checked my jewelry boxes, even though I never use them, the box in which I keep old earmolds in, the box that holds the earmold/tube airblower and unwaxed dental floss, backpack, camera bags... nada.

I'm baffled! How could I lose an expensive hearing aid? Good news, I now have BOTH purple analogs found, and put away properly. But there's the Claro? Oh this is not good at all.

I remember I did use the Claro once several months ago. I had some ear sores, so I got out an old earmold to see if that would help with the problem. But the current Supero is just too powerful, all I heard were squeaks and squelches. So I pulled out the Claro, as it had less power and that worked. Now what could I have done with that Claro since then? It might be in 1 of the 3 storage tubs in the utilities room from when I cleaned up the computer room and moved my desk around. Maybe not. I just may end up having to clean my messy room (I need to clean it anyway, if I want to get my new bed in there).

I did make an appointment with my audiologist for March 13 to have the FM looked at. But until then, hopefully I can find the Claro and test out the transmitter again, see if it works. The transmitter sure does get beat up quite a bit. Accidential drops to the floor (usually on carpeting but still...), gets pushed and shoved around, goes for rides in my pocket with I'm listening to my iPod and am on the move... I'll have to keep on pondering of what I could have possibly done with the Claro.