Uuummm?

Um... My hearing aid's acting all weird. I'll turn it on or try to change settings and it'll beep, then silence.... then eventually sound will come around. But that's unusual for my hearing aid. Makes me wonder exactly what's going on with it. Is there something going on with the on/off and programs switch/button? Or is it just something internal? Hm. Just not sure if I'd want to contact the local audiologist... but what other choices do I have? Hm.

Wyoming Equalitycare

So I did some browsing around last night. I explored the Wyoming EqualityCare website so I could get a good idea of what I can use my card for in terms of medical/health care. Good for 1 preventive/cleaning dental visit, few cavity treatments, any tooth extractions, in patient and out patient hospital visits, some eye care stuff, up to 20 therapy sessions will be covered, etc. I also found the Rocky Mountain Ear Center, Dr. Kelsall and the audiologist Allison all in the list of providers on the website as well, so that's good to know.

Then I tried to see if I could find out anything about Wyoming Medicaid and cochlear implant coverage. This is what I found:

Wyoming Medicaid

Wyoming provides Medicaid benefits for cochlear implant services under its EqualityCare program according to FDA indications. Adults must be post-lingually deafened. Children may be pre-lingually deafened but must be over 12 months old. Coverage is limited to a one-processor system.
Source: http://www.cochlear.org/sys-tmpl/wyomingmedicaid/

Interesting. Of course, I have no idea how old this information is, but it still is a bit of information. I am still going to work on finding out absolutely for sure though on what Medicaid/EqualityCare covers when it comes to cochlear implants.

Oooo!

Email of the day: I have interpreters lined up for the community classes I'm taking at the college. Excellent! One will interpret the dog obedience classes, starting on Tuesday. She's interpreted for me before from 9th grade up, even for some college courses and such. She's an awesome person and I really like her. I'll have a different interpreter for the photography classes on Sundays starting Sept. 20th. Also another great interpreter too. And the college is paying for the interpreters as well. Perfect.

Mail of the day: I got my medicaid card. I wasn't expecting to see it so quickly. Just yesterday I got a letter from the DFS office stating that I am eligible for Medicaid, and then today the card arrived. Whoa. Already I've emailed Rocky Mountain Ear Center to inform them I just got the card, and of what I should do next.

Crazyness

I emailed the person who is in charge of lining up interpreters and any other assistance one might need when taking classes at the college, informing him I was registering for a couple of community classes and would like to have an interpreter. His response? "You should contact (insert 2 names)!" Um, say what? So then I emailed another interpreter and told her of what was going on, and she got back to me, saying she had spoken with another interpreter. They both told me I did the right thing by emailing the college person, and that the one interpreter was confused over his response to me. Today, I got another email from the college person, and finally an interpreter is being lined up. I do have to sign a contract, and had to confirm which courses I was taking for him. Not a problem. I'm registering for Dog Obedience (my dog Bryan, boy he could really learn some manners!) and Introduction to Digital Photography. Now, I'm sure I'd fly through the photography class with no problems, but I thought it'd be fun to take. Gives me something to do on Sundays for about a month or so. And the dog obedience, that should be an interesting experience.

Still waiting to hear about medicaid. Since I did qualify for SSI, I should be able to get medicaid. But as to whether or not medicaid will cover cochlear implants, I don't know yet but I'll find out somehow. Seems like the auditory rehab is already taken cared of for whenever I do get the implant. Excellent! I am quite anxious to get things rolling, but of course, I have to be patient, and wait to get all the information in the mail and whatnot.

Word mix-ups

You know what? Once again, I have gotten 'chicken' and 'tickets' mixed up once again! I was sitting in my step-dad's office with my sister the other day. She was on her computer and had ordered some tickets for a David Cook concert, and said she was just ordering tickets when I asked what she was doing. Of course, I got the confused look on my face again. "Chickens?" I asked her. "No! Tickets for a David Cook show!" Oohh. Whoops. Chickens and tickets do really sound similar, and even look similar on the lips. I mentioned the word mix-up last night to my mom when we were in the backyard on the swinging bench, and she thought it was funny.



And hopefully, I am one step closer to getting the cochlear implant, but we'll see. I'm still figuring things out and trying to make sense of things.

stuff

Still waiting on SSI. My friend and former interpreter for so many years at school, she also received paperwork to fill out on my behalf from SSI (as did my grandmother, and perhaps some other people as well). She told me she read on the paperwork that once the office got her paperwork back, that they would expediate the process. Hopefully, this means something! We never got all this extra paperwork the first time I tried to apply (shortly after graduating high school). I just did the initial applying, sent in a few of my paycheck stubs and that was it. Denial letter came several weeks later. But this time around, everyone is having to fill out some paperwork for me. I really do hope this does mean something. But we will find out soon enough I suppose.

Today, I think my ear is plugged. I put my hearing aid on and didn't really notice anything sounding funny at first. But when I put the ipod on and start playing some music, it sounded different and odd. Checked the hearing aid and earmold and tubing, no blockage or moisture. So there's something funny going on with my ear. Experiencing tinnitus today too. Sucks! But since I'm at work right now, I can't do anything. Ipod and hearing aid both sitting on the desk, I'll just suffer through the tinnitus as I get my work done.

Chat at HearingJourney.com tonight. Yay! I completely forgot the chat last week, as I was still in shock over the news of Michael Jackson's death. Yes, his death has affected me. I've loved his music since I was a little kid. He was the first real musician I started to listen to and really got into (long before the days of Hanson). I used to sneak into my parents' room just so I could borrow my dad's copy of the Bad album and listen to it for a while. My sister and I used to watch his Moonwalker video quite a bit. I remember just watching Moonwalker and being really fascinated with his dance moves, wondered how the heck he could do the leaning dance moves in Smooth Criminal without falling onto his face, the bizarre video he had for Leave Me Alone and loving the fact he had a pet monkey! Even today I still enjoy his music and videos and dance moves. Michael Jackson was a music genius, that's for sure. I will definitely appreciate his music more now than I ever have.

SSI, Airport, etc

Last Thursday, my aunt and I flew out to Mississippi. Flying out, I had no problem. On Monday as we were going through security check at the Gulfport airport, I had my hearing aid hanging in front of my ear instead of resting behind my ear. Some of the security personnel noticed this and pointed it out to me, wondering if it was a bluetooth device. "No, it's my hearing aid." "Oh, ok, come on through then." That's the first time I ever encountered security questioning whether I had a bluetooth device or a hearing aid on. It kind of made me laugh.


As for SSI, well, we got more paperwork to fill out! I myself have to fill some out, my mom does.. As do my counselor. So I'm sure Dr. Kelsall and the audiologist at Rocky Mountain Ear Center are having to fill out some paperwork as well too. Fun stuff, all this paperwork to do. And my mom's been trying to get a hold of a local disabilities lawyer who specializes in SSI/SSDI processes or whatever. It's possible that he just may be out of office for a while, who knows. Mom's left a message on his machine though, so hopefully we'll hear something from him.