New hearing aids...

June 25th 2013, New Hearing Aids:

On Saturday June 21st, at 2pm, I received my new hearing aids. I'll step back a bit, hubby had a men's breakfast that same morning, so I stayed home. I had breakfast, took the pup out, played with the pup, crocheted on a baby blanket, and read a book. It was a relaxing morning for the most part. It was a cool morning, where the temperature got down into the 50's. I thought at the time I should spend more time outside, but I wanted to read and crochet. With my old hearing aids, I could not sit outside; hear my audio book player from all the other noises. So I sat in our red chair, crocheting and reading away. I woke up thinking this was the day I would get my new hearing aids, this is the day I might once again hear again.

Hubby returned from his men's breakfast and we fell into our normal Saturday chores. Laundry, organizational duties, mail and cleaning. My father-in-law was going to call at 12:55pm to pick us up, so I was hurrying around to get the laundry finished as I had nothing good to wear. Hubby and I ate a lunch of left-overs. We each had a leftover of fettuccine alfredo, I had a leftover WaWa sandwich, and hubby had the rest of my calzone. We actually took too much time eating, so I then had to run upstairs to shower and dress quickly.

By this point I was no longer feeling relaxed. I was a bit grumpy and short. The anticipation was killing me. In all one breath I was excited but scared, okay very scared.

I'll say here on June 19th, hubby and I celebrated 3 1/2 years of wonderful years of marriage. We ordered out food from an Italian place not far from here from recommendation from a neighbor. . We got a Calzone and a plate of fettuccine alfredo, and split the food. It was a very nice and romantic evening with my hubby.

Also thank you god that my hubby can put up with my brief spouts of stress. I can run around the house like a mad woman, all stressed out, short, in a hurry, and anxious. On this particular Saturday I was certainly all of those things. Hubby helps out in all the right ways and makes things all better. He is my rock, and my hero, among many other things.

As just as noted, FIL called at 12:55pm. We headed out to Ben Salem, PA, which is about an hour from here, closer to Philadelphia. I later found while waiting for the audiologist to see us is that Bucks County is shaped like a rectangle sitting on its corner, with the long sides going north to south. We live in the middle of the county. And the audiologist we were going to was south and west of us. The rectangle is sitting on it end, with one corner more south, the western corner more south and the eastern more north. Here I have lived in PA for 3 1/2 years and didn’t know this.

The ride to the audiologist was quiet. We all caught up with events of the last week and plans for the weekend. I took my crocheting along. This particular baby blanket I was working on was yellow for a unisex or unknown baby. Lots and lots of babies being born at our church, no one can drink the water without getting preggos.

So we arrived at the audiologist about 15 minutes early. By the time we arrived, it was a fairly warm and sunny day. Waiting in the room, my stomach was in knots. Hubby and FIL talked about things I didn’t really hear. Not because I wasn't listening but there was too much noise.

Right at 3pm, the audiologist called us back. First was a hearing test. This was fun, as I was placed in a very very small sound booth room box. There was about enough room for a chair and me. It was so small my knees hit the door, and my arms were pinned to my sides. The hearing test took forever. The audiologist took my old hearing aids out, and proceeded to tell me all sorts of things. DUH, you take my hearing aids I can't hear. I am not sure why it took so long. Once I figured out what he wanted me to do, of course I did. He measured my hearing to be better than the audiologist in Doylestown. But he was also still unsure if this was the correct hearing test, or that the test showed the correct results. It seemed like I was in the little sound proof box, for forever. I had started to sweat and be even more nervous than I already was. I am not sure why the confusion on the hearing test.

It’s frustrating to have hearing tests. To raise your hand or finger whenever you hear a sound. First, I guess a lot. I raise my hand or finger at the first sound I hear. I understand the need for accuracy but geesh! I do the best I can; I can't make myself hear any more than I do.

Once I was done with this hearing test, I was brought out. Then the audiologist started taking out all the different hearing aid components. I had the hearing aids, the FM system, the streamer, all the cords, and all the cases. It’s a lot of equipment. He, the Audi, put the new molds on the aids, and then placed them into my ears. The new molds are made out of silicon instead of with vinyl. The silicon is much softer, much squishier, and much more comfortable. They were not the canal molds that we had been hoping for, but they were not as big as the old molds.

So after the Audi was done, hooking up my aids up to the computer, rustling around the room for different things. He started to make some adjustments. It took a bit, as his computer crashed. When he did make some adjustments, I could not tell much difference. I question still a few days later, if this Audi knows how to make the necessary adjustments, I guess we will see. For example right away, one of the sounds I needed to be adjusted was how sharp sounds were. Like when he was rustling around the room, making quite a bit of noise, it was very sharp. It’s still that way a few days later too.

He showed us most of the components, but ran out of time with us as he had other patients. So he packaged us up for all of my new equipment and sent us on our way. He told us that he only knew about the hearing aids, not about the FM system or the streamer.

An FM system is an external microphone that someone can wear around their neck or wear. It is then transmitted into my hearing aids. In the past my hearing aids have required boots on the aids themselves to receive the FM signal. With these new aids, I no longer need the boots. I would use the FM system for classes, for church, or meetings, or when we go out I can ask hubby to wear it so I can hear him better. It works for larger crowds, large meetings, or in noisy situations. The FM system has a range of 30 feet. The receiver connects into my streamer.

The Streamer is like a remote looking device that hangs around my neck. It has several buttons for phone, television, and a built in microphone. The streamer is a Bluetooth device that I can use to Bluetooth into my IPHONE and other devices. I no longer have any cords going from my hearing aids, and my aids have Bluetooth in them too. So like when I have my streamer and IPhone paired, that sound from my IPhone goes directly into my hearing aids. I can make calls and receive calls this way. I can also use the Voice Over on the iPhone as I have always normally done. We can hook this into the TV and the land line phone. Technology has advanced so much in this regard.

So we left the office, not knowing much at all about my hearing aids. We did have the booklets and manuals. I wish he had spent more time with us, had shown us more. One of the first sounds I heard was hubby's tummy growling. Once we were outside, I heard a truck.

I have several, 3 programs on my new aids, one is normal, two is a noise reduction setting for extremely noisy settings, and the third was the T-coil. The T-coil is for talking on a landline phone. He mentioned in his hurry to package us up that he could add other programs or settings. And like I said when he did make adjustments, I could tell no difference.

On the way home, for the first time I heard, my FIL's GPS talking. Through all of the noise of the road, the car noise, the wind noise, I could still hear conversation going on, clear and loud too.

Our ride home went fast, as we talked a lot. Once hubby and I arrived home, we fixed dinner. I heard for the first time again my foot steps on the tile floor.

I'll fast forward, as the rest of the evening was just us having dinner, listening to a movie, and going to bed early. By the time we did go to bed, I had auditory overload. It was great I was hearing new and different sounds for the first or again, but it was overwhelming.

All of the anxiety and anticipation that had been building up all day was finally gone; I think that is what zapped all my energy. While getting ready for bed, I removed the new aids, and used the old ones. Such a difference, dramatic and totally different.

On this night our pillow talk was about my identity. We talked about how there was a continuum, one side was deaf blindness, on the other side was normal hearing. With my old hearing aids, I was more on the deafblind side. With my new aids, I was still on the deafblind side, but slid over more to the hearing side. I was having trouble with this change. With the fact that I even needed super powerful hearing aids. I also was feeling so much pressure for these new aids to work out; so much was going into this, into these little computers in my ears. With all of us going on, my decision or lack of there, to go to HKNC has not changed. And my need to learn sign language. In all reality I can't honestly say that I am completely comfortable with that deafblind word. It is what I am, politically at least, just as I am blind. But I guess more than that, these new aids are more of a reminder that I truly do have a hearing loss, that it’s not going to just up and get better overnight, that this is reality, and this is my reality, my life. This is who I am. I am not ashamed of it, yes scared of the unknown, but fighting one step at a time to figure this out. I won't let myself say it’s going to get worse, my hearing, I won't even go down that road. For me, it’s one more step into adjusting and accepting.

Sunday June 22nd:

We attended church just as normal. The remarkable thing about this time at church was that I heard the pastor's sermon for the first time in months. I have sat in the church on a many Sunday, and not been able to make out a word the pastor was saying. Even though we only were seated two rows from him, he would either talk too quickly or too loudly to understand. It was nice to hear the sermon. The worship music was loud, louder than I had ever heard it before. I could hear the music but not understand the words. It was very cool that people came up to me to ask how the new hearing aids were working out, and even though there was a considerable amount of noise, I could still hear a majority of what they were saying.

After church FIL, Brother-in-law, BIL's friend who happens to be a girl (long story on that note), and hubby and I, went to Ruby Tuesday’s for lunch. We were seated in a booth. Old hearing aid days I would not have been able to hear the people across the table at all, would not have been able to keep a conversation going. New aids, on this day, I kept a continuous conversation up with everyone across the table from me. Even with other diners talking, the waitress making noise, and the noise of dishes, and music playing. I will say that I asked the restaurant to turn down the music as it was super loud, and they did. I was so happy I could talk with family and be included in this. Afterwards we retreated to my FIL's house, for relaxation and A/C. While at my FIL's house, I gave his IPhone a try. With my IPhone I could only have my streamer Bluetooth into my IPhone. With his IPhone, I could have my streamer and my Bluetooth keyboard going into my IPhone. I have been on the fence for several months on whether I should upgrade to an IPhone 5.

I also use a braille display called an Apex, and with my IPhone it will not stay connected. With my FIL's IPhone, which is an IPhone 5, it will stay connected. Another reason to upgrade. I am disappointed in the respect that I cannot type on my APEX, and use this as not only as a braille display, but as a keyboard too.

The rest of the afternoon and evening were pretty relaxed and boring. We were in bed, ready for sleep at 9pm.