Tour Day at HKNC...

Monday June 10th 2013:

Monday morning began at 6:30am. Neither I nor hubby slept well, so getting started was slow. We showered and got dressed, in time for breakfast at 7:30am. I left pup in our room, while we ate. Breakfast on this morning was pancakes and sausage, with an assortment of cereals, fruit, and coffee or hot tea. We didn't take long to eat, as our meetings started at 9am. After breakfast we went back to our room to grab our things. I fed the pup and we headed out to break and go over to the training building.

Once we stepped out of the building, it was raining, not a gentle sort of rain, but a rain like cats and dogs. Pup did her thing, and we were on our way. We met Allison, in the lobby of the training building. She took us up to the Active Executive Director, Sue. There we got an overview of the program and just the HKNC as a whole. Sue gave us lots and lots of good information about the programs and the different departments. She also mentioned that HKNC has now reinstated there SSP coordinator position. She explained that the program was inter-disciplinary team, made up of a person from each of the departments in which a student would be involved in. there is one case manager that coordinates a student’s classes and services while there at HKNC. That team meets once a week and the student can call a meeting any time they want. It was also mentioned that when reports are written up about a student’s progress, the student takes part in writing up that report. Sue also mentioned that within the evaluation period, students are assessed at their abilities. But students have the right to not do something. Like for example, because I am a braille reader already, I would not spend time on that particular skill. Those students very much determine what they learn. There was much more that we learned with Sue, but I can't remember it all.

After our meeting with sue, Allison showed us around the training building. The training building is two stories, with several different elevators. Oooops, I lied, the training building does actually have a basement, but I never went down there. The elevators had the same popping buttons as the residents building does. On our tour Allison showed us each of the classroom or areas with the departments. We went around so many different hallways, I got lost. The building is shaped like an Ü", but on the 2nd floor the floor is shaped like an ö"; in other words the top of the u is connected. The lobby is in the middle of the building.

One of the most interesting things on our tour was the library. HKNC has a whole library for normal consumers, professionals, families, scholars, or anyone who wants more information about deafblindness. Within that is a resource called DB-link, which is an even bigger database of information, services, and research on Deafblindness.

On our tour we saw a class in progress in the communications department, we walked through the IL kitchen, we saw the creative arts room, and we briefly saw the gym and work out areas, walked by the O&M room. I learned that there were 4 case managers for a typical student population of 28 students.

Next on our tour was the admission department. We spoke to Dora, who answered all of our questions about potentially coming from training and the application. We were told that if I wanted to go for training, the earliest I could get in is October or November. I was learning that this facility was very much in demand.

Next on our tour was a visit with the social worker. This is truly like I was equal. We talked a lot, she told me a lot about what specifically she does, services she provides, and how. We met with Lisa, who told us about where she went to school, what degrees she has, how long she has been there and so on. We talked about the different programs in the area that if I went there for training I could potentially get into. I explained briefly or not so briefly about my vision and hearing loss and the struggles I have been. Up until this I was finding the tour interesting but meeting with Lisa, made everything fit. The one thing is that I am not the only one going through the grieving process losing my hearing. And although I know this, it can be hard to remember this on a day to day basis.

Every meeting we had up to this point was running over, running late, as hubby and I just had so many questions. We then met with Peggy from the communications department. We talked about effective communications and how I need to learn more techniques in this matter. We learned a few signs, and got a lot of good information from her. It was a brief meeting, but very informative.

Then we headed back to the residents building for lunch. Still by this time 12noonish, it was still raining hard. But we made it back without getting too wet from the rain.

I stopped in our room to let the pup rest while we ate. For lunch we had hamburgers, salad, dessert and fruit.

I had help going to a table, and I happened to sit near a person I knew from an email list. It was nice to finally put a person with a name. There were several other students there at the table. This person and I had a good talk about many things, including his time there as a student, and the difficulties of being a deafblind person. Again, I was reminded that I was not the only one to have the same difficulties. One funny thing that happened while at lunch. There was someone across the table who was talking to me, he could not hear me, nor could I hear him. So the person who I met from the email list was on my left, hubby was on my right. There were about 6 people at the table. At one point, someone said something and none of us could hear or understand what that person was saying; we were all going "what did you say?” It wasn't necessarily funny that none of us could not hear the other person, but that we were all going "What did you say?" at the same time. Another example it’s not just me, I am not alone. It also made me think of that in a completely hearing world, this would not happen. If I were just blind, this would not happen. But this is me now, and I felt like I belonged in a sense. I have told that story several times now.

After lunch we had a tour of the residential building. This is where I found out more about the building. On the third floor there are several apartments for those students who have that in their plan to live in an apartment. We were able to see a room. They were much bigger than the room we were staying. I was also told that they have handicapped accessible rooms on the first floor. During this tour we got to go into the kitchen, where there is a refrigerator, stove and oven. In the kitchen there is a video phone too. The residential building has a computer lab, 3 laundry rooms, and two lounges. We got to see where students sign up for activities that they have at night and weekends. the most interesting thing about this tour was that we learned for a deafblind person, in order to tell them that the fire alarm is going off, and that they need to get out of the building, the staff will make a “x” on their back. There is 3 to 4 staff on duty at any given time.

From there we headed back to the training building for a meeting with the assistive technology department. Bill told us all of the things they can and have taught in the past. I told him what I knew already and would like to do. Never did he say they could not do that. He allowed us to see the Refresha Braille device. It’s a small braille display that has 18 braille cells. This would be a great device for me to use with my Iphone. He also mentioned that they could show me how to use InstantBird and IpRelay to make phone calls. This meeting was very informative. The person I mentioned that I met at lunch from the email list works in the technology department.

On to our next meeting was a meeting with the audiologist. Now this meeting by far was the best, besides the social worker meeting. Carol was awesome in all senses of the word. We asked a lot of questions and she answered every single one of them. We told her about the hearing aids I will be fitted for in a week or two, and she agreed that the pair that my audiologist recommend  is the best she would recommend too. She mentioned that if I come for training that she is a part of the team that she can go on O&M lessons. That I can try out hearing aids, after having an evaluation, that it’s an ongoing process. We also talked about ear molds. I explained that the current molds I have hurt my ears. She looked at them, and even took molds for canal molds. Hubby and I are hoping that the audiologist that we are currently working with makes the canal molds instead of the whole ear mold. We spent instead of 15 minutes with Carol, we spent like 35 minutes. One of my goals is to perhaps see if my OVR person will allow us to go up to HKNC for just the audiological services. Carol was very thorough and complete.

From this meeting we went to the creative arts department. Laura showed all of the different projects students were working on. And we were told all of the different things the creative arts department could help or let you do. Painting, sculpting, mosaics, macramé, and much much more. We talked about how that when students come for training that many of them use the creative arts as stress relieve. This would definitely be something I could get into while there.

This concluded the day of meetings, but we left open the next day morning for any additional meetings that we did not get into on this day. We headed back over to the residential building; we had a few minutes to rest and freshen up. I checked my email. The strange thing is that while at HKNC my cell phone continued to drain its battery. The reception was horrible as in cellular service. But the wyfi worked well.

Allison was trying to get us into see the O&M and IL departments. Unfortunately the O&M department was not available for our visit. We would wait to hear from the IL department for the next day.

For dinner, were fried chicken, mashed potatoes, mixed veggies, salad, fruit, and banana cake. There is definitely more students or people who come for lunch then dinner. The activity for the night was going over to the gym; we did not go along for this. Hubby and I hung out in the lounge area playing scrabble again. This time we kept score and I won. Not to rub it in, but I won, I beat my hubby who is the walking, breathing, living dictionary. I only mean that in the most loving way, my hubby is incredibly intelligent, so it takes a lot for me to win a game of scrabble against him.

It literally rained all day long, even after dinner it was raining hard. We went to bed around 11pm. By the time we headed to bed, I was both emotionally, mentally, and physical exhausted. Even though I understand the need for a facility such as HKNC, understand the need for training, and even realize that I need this too. So many variables, so much to think about, so much to take into consideration. It was overwhelming, informative, interesting, surreal, and depressing all in the same breath. The center has many many wonderful services, services that I can see myself needing, using. The center is a one stop shop for those who are deafblind, but it’s away from family, it’s away from my life. In the long run it will help me function better, I get it. It’s not so scary in my head now, but then again if I do go for training, then the fact that being there will be a reminder that every single day I have a hearing loss. This brings up many more emotions and feelings on the topic, but I won't go into them now.

More on the next day later...