"The milk is in the kitchen."

sooo... today i had my six-month mapping appointment and i must say i am quite pleased with myself.

at first, i was a bit "nervous" because i forgot to bring my SPrint body-worn processor (bwp) with me. you see, i haven't worn it in almost a month -- since i started my new job, actually -- so it didn't occur to me to take it to the mapping session. it's not like i thought i would get in trouble or anything... it's just that this is the first time ever since i was hooked up in February that i did not have my bwp with me.

well, Judy (my audiologist) was totally fine with it and said that she would just map my 3G, the ear-level processor i've been wearing all along. there were no problems -- things happened the way they have in the past -- so the mapping process was uneventful. because the implanted ear is supposed to get "used to" the sounds and eventually stabilitze at a specific threshold/comfort range, it isn't surprising that not much has changed.

although...

now that it has been almost 6 hours since my mapping session, i can really hear a difference.

i have 2 programs in my processor -- Program 1 (the volume setting) has today's new map; Program 2 also has today's new map, but is set for sensitivity. before today's adjustment, i would use Program 1 at about a 3-4 volume range. i would usually find it getting softer at the end of the day, so much so that sometimes i'd have to turn the volume up to 5-6 or higher.

well, right now, i have Program 1 set at a volume of 1 and it sounds GREAT! wow... the difference a "little" adjustment makes!

after the mapping session, Judy then tested me in the sound booth using a sentence recognition CD. the first set of sentences i scored a 100% -- yay, me! the second set of sentences was "harder" because the narration was set to background noise. this set i had a score of "only" 98% BUT!!!

i corrected myself.

how, you ask?

i heard -- and meant to repeat back -- "The milk is in the pitcher." too bad i didn't trust my CI to say so in the first place.

Judy gave me the 100% anyway.

:o)

just a quick one

i forgot to post this when it happened, so i'll just do it now.....

last weekend, my husband and i were hanging out with a bunch of our friends at another friend's house. since this was around 9 o'clock at night, it was dark outside, which is where we were all sitting. it's nice to enjoy the warm, summer weather while we still have it.

anyway, there was a porch light on and a couple Citronella candles burning, but the light was pretty much non-existent. to make things even more challenging, a radio was playing in the background.

for anyone who doesn't recognize the dilemma here:

POOR LIGHTING + BACKGROUND NOISE + MULTIPLE PEOPLE SPEAKING = a lip-reader's nightmare.

i did not hesitate to ask one of my friends to turn the radio down because i did not want to strain to read everyone's lips the whole night. i knew that if the music in the background was quieter, i could actually hear people speaking.

as soon as my friend turned down the volume on the radio -- without hesitating, thank goodness -- i was in HEAVEN: it was so much easier to follow along with everyone's conversation... AND to be included in it!

this cochlear implant is absolutely awesome.