Wednesday, February 27, 2008

PEAKED OUT

Improvement with the implant has pretty much peaked. Still can't understand on the cell phone worth beans. Radio sounds different by the second and can't make much out of it. Asked the surgeons secretary to go forward with trying to get approval for the other ear but audiologists wants me to wait till 6 months after the first one to allow the first ear to get acclimated. Now I'm going back and forth as to whether I'm even going to do the other ear.
Audiologists submitted her first bill to the insurance company. $275 for the first visit. They paid $155 and I pay nothing. So that is a relief. I have 4 more mappings scheduled. Last one is in July. I'll wait to see if there's any more improvement before deciding on the other ear.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

TODAY SUCKED!

Got home from work to discover that Victoria, the alpaca in our kitchen, had lost control of her neck muscles which to an alpaca is everything. So a friend came over, helped me carry her outside and we put her down. She was 19 years old. They age like dogs, 7 years for every one human year so she was 133 years old. Crappy weather, crappy day at work, and then this.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

GOT MAPPED AGAIN

Went to audiologists today to get tweaked. Problem with phone program was it wasn't there. program slot was empty. It's there now. Haven't tried it yet. Tweaked two programs, improving sound and quality in both. Now I need to use both programs and next time I go back we will use the one I like best as a permanent program. She tried covering her mouth and saying whole sentences. I skunked it. Then tried saying part of a saying and I finish it. Got about 80% of those right. For example she would say "Little Bo Peep lost her _ ? Virginity is not the right answer.
It'd dam cold here AGAIN! Our oldest Alpaca, Victoria, is having problems. She hasn't been able to stand up. She lays on the barn floor (hay bedding) and tries but can't get up. She's very skinny and we think she's weak from eatinh poor quality hay and not being able to maintain her weight. She had hypothermia last winter and spen a week in our kitchen. Well she's back in the house again. Hopefully with a few days of being in the warm house she can regain her strength so she can get up on her own and go back out with the other Alpacas. If not, then I'll have to put her down. Not looking forward to that. We've had her for 10 years. She's the sweetest animal on the planet. So lots of oatmeal, good hay, and suppliments hopefully will do the trick.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Activation Video

Here's one of my videos from the activation day. Let me know if you have trouble running it.

Friday, February 8, 2008

HOLY MOLEY OLE!

Here's a good joke I got from a relative in North Dakota.

Ole and Lena.........Start Their Family

Late one night,Lena wakes Ole and says, "I
tink its time!"

So Ole fired up the Yohn Deere tractor and took her to
the hospital to have their first baby.

She had a little boy, and the doctor looked over at
Ole and said, "Hey, Ole! You yust had a son! Ain't dat
great! "

Vell, Ole got excited by dis, but yust den the doctor
spoke up and he said, "Hold on! We ain't finished
yet!" The doctor den held up a little girl.

He said, "Hey, Ole! You got you a daughter!" She's a
pretty little ting, too....

Ole got kind of puzzled by this, and then the doctor
said, "Holey Moley Ole, we still ain't done yet!"

The doctor then delivered another boy and said, "Ole,
you yust had youself another boy!"

Ole was flabbergasted by this news!

A couple days later, Ole brought Lena and their
three children home in the self propelled combine. He
was real serious and he asked Lena, "How come we got
tree on the first try?"

Lena said, "You remember dat night we ran out of
Vaseline and you vent out in the garage and got dat
3-in-1 Oil?"

Ole said, "Yeah, I do. Uffda!, it's a damn good ting I
didn't get the WD-40!

Have a good weekend all!

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

GOT MAPPED AGAIN TODAY

Went to the audi and got remapped again today. One program had a lot of vibration to it when people talked so she tried fixing it. She ended up expanding the pulse width and Bingo, no vibration. So I have two good programs to play with now. She added a 3rd for using with phone but it doesn't work or the phone isn't compatible. No biggie.
I do have a problem in that the processors are cutting off like the batteries are going dead. But I take the batteries off and put the same battery back on and it works. I had one processor do it many times so I switched to the backup today and it did it once and I was at the audi when it happened. She is stumped. I tried all my batteries and it does it with any of them so she wants me to change the power cord that the magnet is attached to if it happens again to see if that could be the problem. We'll see. Aced the first word test with: Airplane, Toothpaste, Bluebird, and 3 others. Then we went on to States, and I did pretty good, then we went on to weather or numbers and that was trickier but I did good on the weather but the numbers were harder since a lot of different numbers sound the same. I'm trying to wean myself from using caption on TV but I still can't understand enough to do that yet. A big problem is background music on programs makes it really hard. Going back in two weeks for more brain training.

Friday, February 1, 2008

DAY 3 AFTER ACTIVATION

Voices are becoming clearer little by little. Noises at work weren't as bad as I thought they'd be. I can understand some of what's being said on TV if I'm reading the caption. Without the caption it doesn't register. With it I find myself saying, hey I heard that word! In the morning I need to turn the volume down on the processor. After a while I can start turning it back towards the noon setting. As far as specific sounds, I heard a car starting clear as a bell leaving work thursday. First time in years. I can hear my Sheltie bark his butt off when I get home. Annoying little Sh*t! Car blinker, road noise, especially those mini speed bumps to alert you that you're coming to a stop sign. Music and the background music on TV are pretty confusing yet. All in all I'm doing pretty good. I like the Hires P program much better than the Hires S program so far. I did ok on some basic words from the audiologists but did terrible with colors and animals. Who know horse and mouse were so similar? After getting mouse wrong for the 3rd time I tild the audiologist I'm bringing a mouse trap next session and getting rid of that dam mouse!