Today I woke up with a sore throat and some tiredness! I find that when I have a sore throat or a cold, my hearing from my cochlear implant is affected and sometimes seem a bit quieter than usual or a bit funny… When I am tired or have a cold, i am m…

I know Ive been a terrible blogger lately, but Mom and I have been in Dallas for Mamaw’s 89th birthday party and a nice visit. I wanted to keep myself out of trouble by reminding you to set your DVR tonight to record my episode of “The Doctors” on Thur…

The holidays are over and the presents are unwrapped. Now… how do you get the most “bang for your buck” when it comes to building speech, language, and listening skills through play?
 
Rachel has long listed The New Language of Toys: Teaching Communication Skills to Children with Special Needs by Sue Schwartz, Ph.D. in the AUDITORY-VERBAL [...]

 
It’s now official. I have just been diagnosed with depression for the first time in my life. Simply because of the frustration I’m having with lack of hearing, and lack of action in terms of ACC funding my new implant. 
ACC is our Accident Compensation Corporation.  When you have an accident in New Zealand, ACC [...]

I have been absent from blogger for quite awhile. My brother suddenly died at the beginning of December and that has taken a major toll on my whole family. We went to Florida and Walt Disney World for 9 days and that helped a lot but today we had to ge…

Today I had to take Eva to her ENT appointment, I get her off the bus and feed her lunch real quick to drive the hour and a half to the Children’s hospital in Milwaukee. I brought Eva’s walker and she walked the whole skywalk and did great with alittle…

Hello all….Just a quick update, the representatives of the motion picture industry are meeting with the pre-filer of the House companion bill tomorrow to voice their concerns/issues regarding the captioned movie legislation here in Kentucky….This w…

It’s now official. I’m have just been diagnosed with depression for the first time in my life. Simply because of the frustration I’m having with lack of hearing, and lack of action in terms of ACC funding my new implant.The hearing loss I’m d…

I didn’t mean to imply that once a person gets a hearing aid brand, that person should never switch. I’ve switched brands before — from Siemens to Widex, back in 1998.
I will say I think it’s good to try out multiple brands. Sometimes, something clicks, like sliding on a pair of shoes that don’t need [...]

Here we are, 22 days before I’m scheduled to go in and have our little girl, and we STILL haven’t finalized a name. Our friends and family know that last time with Christian, we announced his name well before he was born. In fact, we knew his name pret…

A 90-year-old deaf and partially-sighted woman chased after a robber who attacked her in a supermarket car park in Greater Manchester. The man jumped on the woman’s back, spun her round and grabbed her bag in the Asda car park…

We’re going to try a different medication for Riley. After talking with our counselor and understanding that she definitely does need meds, I feel much better. Seeing the difference in A-V therapy in early December when she was on meds and yesterday wi…

That’s right! It has now been over 18 months since Drew’s cochlear implants were activated. Time flies when you’re having fun!

Drew is an amazing little boy, and we could not have scripted this 18 months any more perfectly.

There was a great write-up about ASL classes at two high schools in Yakima (about 40 miles from us). I’m thinking of contacting these two teachers to see if they know of any recent graduates who might be interested in being Evan’s Aide…Language popu…

Hey!lol I hear very strange sounds :p!Let me tell you from the beginning of my switch on till now! .. At 9 o’clock in the morning I had a meeting with the programmers. When the device has turned on I said “THANKS GOD! MY COCHLEAR IMPLANT IS WORKING WEL…

Jackson with his Tennessee grandparents!Here are a few pictures from the holidays! Steve and I flew to Texas to be with our grandson, Jackson, and his mommy & daddy. He is growing so fast and we miss him already. I loved hearing him “talk” and m…

We’re officially back into the swing of things (hence the early morning wake up). Today is Rob’s birthday…..it just comes so soon after Christmas, I never am fully prepared for it. This year, I’m not prepared at all. So, today Jake and I will get e…

Is deaf.read using bias on our blogs again ? a recent ‘good news’ story about an CI implantee was ‘relegated’ to deaf.read extra, while an anti-CI blog from G.O.D. Was not. While opposing views are to be welcomed, let’s ‘hear’ both sides. What is the…

All:The Commonwealth of Kentucky has finally begun to pull back the "Iron Curtain" on state spending of our tax dollars, making it far easier to see who is spending how much, and on what.  And I’ve got to tell you, with just a few minute…

… this is on a coffee cup I drink from every morning. One of my fourth graders gave it to me my last year of teaching right before my dad passed away; right before Aiden was born. She gave it to me as a Christmas gift in 2007. I didn’t realize at the…

Drum roll please…daddy! My wonderful aide, Jess, graduated at the end of last quarter. The school has been looking for a new aide to sign to me, but so far no luck. There is a substitute aide lined up for next week, but no one for this week. Evan…

in the next day or so. For some reason, the holiday went by WAY too fast this year, so I guess I’m just not tired of it yet. But, I know you all probably are. So, my promise to you is no more Christmas/holiday music as of tomorrow. I’m assuming at t…

Okay…where to begin. First of all, I shouldn’t even be posting, I should be in bed. But I am afraid that I won’t have time to do it in the morning before I have to run out.So…Christmas was not our best. Mikaela woke up from her nap with a fever of …

Little Ears and DreamsHearing aids in the littlest ears, I’d ever seen.With them died, all my hopes and dreams.A little baby boy, too young to talk.Wearing hearing aids, before he could set up, or even walk.The anger the sadness, it all came and went.A…

Random note for today: Danny’s new babbling is “buh buh buh” - his first consonant!

Off and on I talk about my FM system, a Phonak Zoomlink. It has the microphone and settings (surround sound or omni-sound, partial focus, and very focused (directly aimed at the speaker’s voice or object I want to listen to). This new receiver is custom-made for the Cochlear Freedom. It really puts the sound of the speaker, who may be thirty feet away, directly in my ear, as though as if I am

I went for a mapping today and as soon as I walked in Susan took me to the sound room. I was a little apprehensive about that because usually when I go for a new map, I do better in testing AFTER the map than before, ya know? I go in to have sounds fil…

Keen golfers are being warned by doctors that they could be risking their hearing for the sport. The BBC reports today that players who use a new generation of thin-faced titanium drivers to propel the ball further should consider…

There were two lessons waiting in store when I was fitted for new hearing aids recently.
Let’s start with lesson one: Brands are important. Well, brands aren’t usually important to me. I’m the person who buys the store brand just so I can save a few bucks here. If there’s a sale on toilet paper, I’ll [...]

Here I am writing my first post for 2009. Since I had my monthly tune up, there have been some small improvements with my implant and surprisingly, little noises have crept up on me! I have been told by some people that my speech has improved and that …