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Hey guys! Wow, long time no updates! I apologize for being so quiet lately I have just been so intensely busy! Juggling work full time at Penn Medicine with teaching part time at Rowan University and taking two classes a semester towards earning my MA in Writing for the past year has been no joke! I've really been enjoying everything I do though. None of this stuff would have been possible if it weren't for getting my cochlear implants (or at least not teaching) and it has all been so incredibly rewarding.
School has especially been an interesting experience for me. I am never shy from discussing my cochlear implants with anyone that will (or won't…as is the case with at least some of my sleepy, bored students…hey I do teach at 8am afterall…) listen from students to classmates, professors, and really anyone in between. One of my students even mentioned that she wants to be an art teacher for the Deaf and learn ASL and hear more about my story.
On the student side of things, well I'm continuing to work towards completing God Granted Me Hearing which will serve as my MA in Writing Master's project. I have been doing significant research for this project especially on Deaf culture and ASL. There's definitely a lot to learn and I'm really loving this journey I've been on.
But enough about school, the real thing I want to talk about with this post is my hearing appointment I had at Jefferson yesterday morning. This appointment was one of the rare times in my life when I scheduled an appointment kind of "just because". I mean I guess there was kind of a point to it – I haven't had a hearing appointment in over a year and haven't really followed up with anyone as much with my right ear post-activation as I did with my left. I guess it's because I kind of knew what to do and expect and things have been going well for me. Also, I'm just so busy it's hard to get around to scheduling appointments like that these days, but with my summer hours allowing me to have off on Fridays I thought it would be a good time to schedule a checkup just to make sure everything is working as it's supposed to.
I'll be honest – I was pretty nervous about this appointment. For once though I wasn't nervous because of my hearing abilities or how I'd test, but I was nervous because I'd be getting a new audiologist. I loved my last two audiologists – Dr. Louisa Yong Yan Liang and Alyssa Lerner (who was an extern when I had her, but I really liked her). Louisa left Jefferson to go to Chicago since her husband is a doctor and took a job there. Alyssa was in a similar situation where her boyfriend finished medical school and matched with a hospital in St. Louis so she left to be with him. This left me without an audiologist.
With all of that being said, I was happy to hear that there was another audiologist I could see, Laura Somers. However, I was still nervous at the prospect of meeting someone knew and gaining a new audiologist.
Fortunately, all of my nerves went away the moment I met Laura and her extern, Shelby Weinstein. They immediately made a great impression on me. They were as sweet as could be. One of the first things that Laura said was "Were you in an article…something about talking on the phone?" referring to the article that I did with The Philadelphia Inquirer. This right away made a great first impression on me because it showed me that she did her homework to familiarize herself with my case and my history. She was very personable and friendly which helped me to relax and made me feel comfortable during the appointment. She had an extern, Shelby Weinstein, who was also very nice. She was more quiet but friendly and seemed eager to learn. Laura took her time with everything she did to make sure to show Shelby what she was doing and Shelby seemed really interested and engaged with it all.
The first thing that Laura did was check my settings and the volume on my right ear. The right ear was the main focus of my appointment since I've been doing so well with the left (which makes sense since it was the first ear I had implanted and it's really common for your first ear to be your dominant or preferred ear since you're more used to it and it's also kind of a mental thing – getting your first cochlear implant is such a huge, impactful thing (or at least it was for me) that you don't forget it. It's still big and impactful with the second one, but not as much since you have something great already to compare it to whereas with the first one you may be comparing it to nothing.
Laura explained to me that her main goal was to balance my ears out more. She played a series of sounds/pitches and gave me a "loudness chart" where I had to indicate if the noise was too soft, soft, medium, loud but comfortable, or too loud. Most of the pitches fell in the medium or too soft range. Laura turned it up a little bit. At first it was too loud and a bit overwhelming so she had to turn it down a little bit to make it more level. It seems pretty good now but I am still adjusting to it. I notice it the most when I put my processors on for the first time in the morning.
Next Laura and Shelby took me into the hearing test booth and they tested my right ear. First they did the beeps and I scored in the normal – above normal range. This will never cease to amaze me. I still remember when I'd be lucky to have any ranges or pitches listed on the chart. When I was first considering my first cochlear implant I told my surgeon, Dr. Willcox, that I would consider it a success if I could have about 30% of my hearing (at the time I had at the most about 7%) and he said my expectations were way too low – he wasn't wrong! Now I probably have around 80-90% of my hearing.
Here's where my hearing was on 6/29/2017 on my right ear…quite a difference!
This test was from January 28, 2016 – a little over a month after having my left ear activated. The red circles at the bottom were for my right ear. This is almost a year before I had it implanted.
Next, Laura tested me for word recognition with my right ear. I was a little bit nervous here because the last time I was tested for this in my right ear was on March 25, 2015 I didn't do very well – earning on a 68%.
I didn't do too well on my first word recognition test back on March 25, 2015…
However, I ended up doing just fine. I knew I was doing well – you really can just tell with these things if you're doing well or not. The more I felt I got them right the more confident I became. In the end I performed even better than I imagined by earning a 90% – quite a big difference from the 68% I earned the last time!
I only got about 3 of them wrong and I wasn't off by that much on the ones I missed!
For the final test Laura tested me with full sentences and she added in a high level of background noise – the highest level possible – to make it harder. She admitted that a lot of people with normal, natural hearing struggle with some of these. Honestly I think what makes this hard sometimes is how WEIRD the sentences are. One time I got a sentence that was something along the lines of "The monkey is using sign language." This time I got "A camel is not the most comfortable animal on which to ride" and "Could you speak up a little?" which isn't a weird sentence on its own, but when you say it in the context of a hearing test it becomes a little awkward and confusing – Laura actually asked me to repeat it probably because she wasn't sure if I was saying back the sentence or asking her to repeat herself lol. #DeafProblems – right?
I scored an 84% with this test. I thought that I got about a 70 on the sentences last time but I don't see a record of it (I keep everything) so now I'm thinking this might have been the first time they did full sentences with my right ear? Either way it would be an improvement and I'm quite happy with these results!
126/150 or an 84%? I'll take it! It sure beats my pre-cochlear implant scores of 0!
My appointment concluded with Laura calling me a "Rock star" and telling me I was good to go until next year when I should come in just for a checkup unless of course something is wrong. She told me to keep her posted on my book and everything else. I was definitely impressed by both Laura and Shelby's care and I look forward to working with Laura more in the future and I hope that Shelby stays at Jefferson so I can work with her more in the future as well because she seems like she's going to be really good once she finishes her schooling.
Hey guys! I'm back! I apologize for the lack of updates lately. I have been meaning to make this post for a couple of weeks but I've been crazy busy with writing my book, God Granted Me Hearing (which yes, is based on this blog and my cochlear implant experience!) :). Also, I haven't had a whole lot of news lately. My 2nd cochlear implant has been progressing well. I saw Alyssa at Jefferson around a month ago and everything was good but she didn't test me again so there's no update on that end.
I do have something else to share with you all today though — what it's like to get caught in the rain with a cochlear implant. I've written in the past about how getting caught in the rain was one of the things I was most looking forward to doing after getting my cochlear implant and I also wrote about what it was like to go swimming with a cochlear implant, but up until a few weeks ago, I never actually seriously got caught in the rain with a cochlear implant.
First let me say this was completely UNPLANNED. I live in Washington Township and I love to take walks. I knew that a thunder storm was on the horizon, but when I first headed out for the day the skies were still clear. It was one of the first days of spring so for once the weather was warm. I didn't want to walk to the gym like I normally do because I thought it might be too far of a walk and I wasn't sure if I'd make it back in time to avoid the storm. Instead I decided to take advantage of the fact that all of the basketball courts at the high school I live across were empty. I've always loved to play basketball but I don't get the opportunity to play nearly as much as I'd like. So I grabbed my bag with a couple of bottles of water, my jump rope (don't ask…), my basketball, and headed out.
I wore my aqua cases for this trip. I didn't wear the aqua cases just because of the pending storm, but to protect against sweat as well. I made the mistake when I got my first cochlear implant of going to the gym without the aqua case and almost broke it from all of the sweat and moisture I got in it. Ever since that incident I've made a point to wear my aqua cases every time I go to the gym, work out, or even go for a walk or do anything that could produce a sweat. I'd rather be safe than sorry.
It took me awhile to cross the street that afternoon. Traffic was busy in Washington Township, as always. When I finally managed to cross the street and make it to the highs school I took out my jump rope and began using it. I've had my jump rope for over a year and never used it before. I heard it was good exercise which is precisely why I bought it, but I always shied away from using it fearing I'd look like an idiot, which I totally did, but it was okay because no one was around to laugh at me. I still didn't have quite enough magnets in my headpiece on the cochlear for my right ear. I think the placement for that one is different than on my left which makes it not stick as well. When I used my jumprope it kept knocking my headpiece off until finally I gave up on it and took it off and put it in my bag.
I only jumped rope for about 5 minutes or so before switching to basketball. I know it doesn't sound like a lot, but when you haven't done it for 20 years, jumping rope is really intense! Plus I noticed the clouds were beginning to look a bit heavy so I wanted to stop and make sure I got plenty of basketball time in before it rained on my parade. I put my cochlear back on for this. It works out better for me than the jump roping did, but it still kept coming off my head whenever I jumped so I ended up taking it off again and putting it in my bag.
I played basketball for about a half hour or so before the rain began. I think this was my first time playing basketball with my cochlear implants. I noticed I was much more relaxed. I didn't have to worry as much about whether or not any cars were coming by the parking lot or if there were joggers running through or someone trying to talk to me. I was able to hear everything around me (and also there wasn't many people around anyway). It was very peaceful and fun.
After about a half hour I felt a raindrop hit my head. "Okay, that's my signal to pack it up", I said to myself. Within seconds of saying that, I found myself in a torrential downpour. The rain came down at the speed of light. I ran to my bag to check my cochlear and put it back on my head and to check that my phone, which was in my bag, was still working. Everything seemed good. Then I grabbed my bag, my ball, and headed on home.
But I couldn't simply go home; I had to walk back which meant walking through the torrential downpour and trying to cross the dreaded intersection again. It also meant having to pass a bank and drug store while sporting soaking wet clothes and hair and dribbling a basketball. That's not something you see everyday…
This is something I could never do before with my hearing aids. My hearing aids would have broken in seconds and I would've been having a major panic/anxiety account over getting caught in a torrential downpour with them. And my mother would want to kill me for destroying my $3,000+ uninsured devices.
But with my aqua cases on, my cochlear implants were 100% waterproof. I had nothing at all to worry about.
I dribbled my ball through the rain until it began to fill with the water and become too heavy to bounce. Then I carried it. I watched the people flee the bank to their cars as if they were afraid the rain might make them melt. As I waited at the crosswalk by the drug store I noticed the people in their cars looked at me like I was some kind of a freak because I was standing at a crosswalk for a busy intersection with soaking wet hair and clothes, a basketball, and the biggest smile on my face.
I didn't care about being wet. I didn't care that my clothes felt like they weighed 1,000 pounds from the rain. I didn't care about my basketball session being cut short. I didn't care about the fact that I was getting pretty cold. I didn't even care about the fact that my contacts were getting blurry from being drenched in rain.
I was ecstatic. I was having one of the best days of my life.
When I got home I didn't have to worry about anything being broken. I did take my cochlears off and put the aqua case parts and those specific batteries in the dryer just to be on the safe side, but I didn't really have to. There was no panic attack. I didn't have to take out the hair dryer to try to air them out and to get them to work or nothing at all.
I simply did what any normal person would do…I changed out of my wet clothes, got a hot bath and made a hot cup of coffee to warm up, and went on with my life.
You don't realize how much these little things in life like getting caught in the rain can really mean to a person until they get to not just experience them, but ENJOY them without any kind of fear at all, for the first time ever. It's surreal.
Getting caught in the rain with my cochlear implants may not have been everything I hoped it would be. Larry and I have been broken up for over 6 months now. There's no one new in my life to give me that Notebook-style kiss in the rain. I didn't even have anyone there to have a conversation with or to go puddle jumping with.
But you know what? It wasn't what I wanted it to be because it was BETTER.
It was all my joy for the taking. It was all on me. It was all about me, having my moment. I didn't need anyone else to be there for me. I just needed that rain and to be off in my own little world.
It was one of the best days of 2016 thus far.
I can't wait to get caught in the rain again sometime soon.
A few weeks ago I went to a cochlear implant support group. I've had some mixed experiences with these support groups. After attending my first one, I vowed I'd never come back. However, I since changed my mind and even had some pretty good experiences since then like the time I went to the cochlear implant support group about hearing preservation (and met the incredibly attractive Dr. Pelosi…but that's another story ;)).
Since they have been getting better, I decided to make an effort to go to them on a more regular basis. The topic for the January 7, 2016 meeting was on training your implanted ear (or in my case, ears). Med-El was sponsoring the meeting and presenting and discussing their new training cds and books. Since I was just recently implanted with my second cochlear implant, I thought this would be a great meeting for me to attend.
I've always been a little skeptical of Med-EL to be completely honest. When it came to choosing a cochlear implant brand I narrowed my choices between Cochlear and Advanced Bionics. Med-EL was the only brand I was sure I DID NOT want because I felt they were too outdated. I always leaned more towards Advanced Bionics. Jefferson didn't give me a choice so I was glad they chose Advanced Bionics for me, naturally, as it's what I would've chosen anyway.
I had some faith in Med-El for this meeting though. I mean, aren't all speech therapy training supplies essentially the same? How could you mess that up?
The presentation was given by a woman who worked for Med-El and who I believe was also a licensed audiologist at John Hopkins. She had one of her patients with her who was upgraded to a new processor and/or had a new mapping done that morning. They went through some words and she tried to demonstrate how the cochlear implant is a process and it's not perfect, he might still mess up. It was a nice presentation, pretty accurate.
She also took some time to go over the new Med-El training book, cds, and online resources. She had a copy of the book. It was very expensive to buy (like $70) but said she'd leave a copy with the group and that we could make copies if we wanted, which my mom and I ultimately did. The book has been incredibly helpful/beneficial for us. That alone made going to this meeting worth it.
Towards the end of the meeting she went back to her earlier point on how cochlear implants help deaf individuals, but it's not a miracle cure. We're still deaf. She then used one single word to refer to us all that ruined her entire presentation for me:
She told us we were all handicapped.
I was enraged. We are DEAF but DEAFinitely NOT Handicapped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I didn't just let this go, either. I made sure to talk to her at the end of the presentation to let her know I didn't like that she told us we were handicapped. She apologized and said she knew and that she was really referring to children with multiple disabilities like those who are deaf-blind, deaf and autistic, etc.
It was a nice try, but I didn't buy it because there wasn't a single kid there and 90% of the adults lost their hearing later in life. I'm pretty sure none of us had multiple disabilities…it was just her cover.
There are few things in life that infuriate me more than being referred to as being handicapped because I am far from being handicapped. Most of us deaf individuals are always labeled as being handicapped and for most of us that couldn't be further from the truth.
Deaf individuals like myself face a lot of hardships and much discrimination. We have to fight on a daily basis to have our voices heard and to be viewed as being equal to our hearing counterparts. We get denied employment, entrance into public schools and universities, and most of society tries to exclude us on the grounds that we are "deaf and dumb".
I am a lot of things in life. I am far from perfect. I have done dumb things in life, but I am not a dumb person and I am far from being handicapped. I have NEVER once allowed my hearing loss to get in the way of my success in life.
I'm really not that much different from a hearing person. I don't know ASL. I used to lipread (I still do, but I don't HAVE to anymore). I speak pretty clearly. While I did attend speech therapy as a kid, my speech has never been that bad to begin with. I went to public schools growing up (which my parents and I had to fight very hard for as the school thought I was handicapped when in reality I simply couldn't hear…). I played on many sports teams and was involved in many clubs. I attended a public university and earned an associate's degree and later two bachelor's degrees. Now I am employed for a digital marketing agency as a manager. I have had this job for 2 and a half years. I speak on the phone on a regular basis for work. I have no interpreters or special accommodations. I am really no different from a hearing person.
Society is constantly trying to put a label on deaf individuals and make us feel like we are broken or flawed or not worthy of the same opportunities as hearing individuals. "Handicapped" is far from being an innocent mistake or simply "just a word" used to describe us; it's become a nice way of telling us that we're "not worthy", "not normal", or "not good enough".
Deaf individuals fight the stigma and the misinformation and all of these stereotypes on a daily basis. It's rarely an easy fight. And one thing we absolutely don't need is audiologists and representatives from cochlear implant and/or hearing aid companies fighting against us and feeding into the stigmas and stereotypes.
These individuals should be fighting alongside of us. They should understand us more than anyone and want to work to show people how the deaf really aren't that different than the hearing.
Also, as is the case for this woman from Med-El, if you're trying to sell us cochlear implants, you should speak in a way that gives us hope. Training your cochlear implant and your ear to hear is no easy task, as you've seen in my last blog post. It can be frustrating and discouraging. Labeling us as handicapped isn't going to help matters at all, but it could make things worst. When you call us handicapped you remind us that we're different, but if we have a cochlear implant it's most likely because we want to hear and be like those that can hear, at least to an extent. Calling us handicapped can put a damper on all of that because you're saying we're different, we're not able of doing something the hearing can do — we can't hear. But the goal of the cochlear implant is to gives us what we don't have that they do have — the ability to hear! Calling us handicapped is basically a nice way of telling us to not work hard and to just give up because we'll never be like them anyway.
The idea that the deaf are handicapped is a lie. It's a myth. It's a diversion of the truth. It is not at all right.
To quote King Jordan, the former president of the famous deaf university, Gallaudet, "The Deaf can do anything but hear."
We're deaf, yes, but DEAFinitely NOT handicapped.
Got that, Med-El? Good.
Hey guys! Happy New Year! I hope you all enjoyed your holiday!
I had a pretty enjoyable New Year's with it being my first New Year's as a bilateral cyborg! I didn't have too crazy of plans. I always just stay in with my family and we eat 7 different types of Seafood at midnight as the ball drops and make predictions on the year to come and reflect on the year that passed. I also enjoy a drink. I'm not much of a drinker and don't like bars, so staying in and just making one drink is more than enough for me.
Last year was my first New Year's living in the condo in Washington Township, so I knew from last year not to expect much in the way of sound. Our neighbors are pretty quiet and boring; there's no running out with pots and pains and noise makers at midnight like there was back in Pitman and Woodbury where I used to live. There's not that much noise to hear on NYE's at all, so I knew not to get my hopes up too much about hearing different kinds of sounds.
But overall I've noticed a huge improvement with my progress with my 2nd cochlear implant over the past week and a half. I moved on to program 2 on Wednesday and it sounded much more comfortable, so I'm gaining sounds with that. I have been practicing words with my mom and playing with Angel Sound diligently. I am almost on level 2 for all programs on Angel Sound now. My biggest struggles have been vowel and consonant (especially consonant) recognition so far, but they are arguably the hardest programs and I still feel like I'm making good progress on them. I feel much more optimistic with it now than I did when I was first activated. I am seeing that this is a progress that takes time.
Pastor's oldest daughter, Jessica,has been coming to our church with her husband the past few week. Last week she played the flute during service. I have mentioned previously how I wanted to hear a flute with my cochlear, but this is one of the first times I've been up close and really able to hear it. I could distinguish it from the other instruments pretty well. It was so beautiful. I was completely mesmerized by it just as I was the first time I heard a violin at church after I was activated with my first implant.
On New Year's Eve I went to the liquor store to pick up some drinks for the holiday. I went to Hops and Grapes in Glassboro and if there's one thing I learned about this particular liquor store over the years it's that you're almost guaranteed to run into someone you know. First I ran into my childhood best friend, Zach. We were very good friends growing up; he was like a brother to me. This was my first time seeing him in about 10 years so that alone made my night.
Next I ran into someone from one of the cochlear implant support group meetings that I talked to a few times before. My mom spotted him first and said "I just saw another bilateral cyborg! We got to find him and talk to him!" because that is apparently what bilateral cyborgs do. I mean, we're a rare bunch so when we run into each other it's like "Hey, sup, bro?" lol. But no, seriously.
As we were looking for him he ran into us and pointed out my cochlears. I didn't immediately recognize him from the meetings, and I'm unsure if he recognized me, so we kind of both played it off as having not met before. We talked about the progress with our cochlears. He received his 2nd one last March and his is also from Advanced Bionics so he was able to tell me about his experience and he said he had a bit more trouble training his 2nd ear as well but that it's pretty much there now so that made me feel a lot better. I told him about the Q90 processor and how I like it. He's due for his upgrade soon, probably in Spring. It was definitely a nice little conversation!
Thinking of the cochlear implant support group…I'll probably be seeing him again this week! There's a support group meeting on Thursday. Med-El is going to be talking about their new listening/auditory program which could be a huge help for me training my 2nd implant. I look forward to possibly seeing him again and attending the meeting!
I noticed on New Year's day I was really starting to make progress as well. The weird thing with my 2nd implant is that I feel like I'm getting music quicker than I did with my first one. Sometimes I think I'm making more progress with music than I am with general words and sounds. However, as a huge music lover, I'm definitely not complaining.
Every year my mom watches at least part of the Mummer's Parade. One of her relatives (I think her uncle?) used to be a member of the South Philly String Band, so she watches to root for and support them. I always kind of ignore it because I think it's kind of boring (sorry, mummers!) but I noticed as she had it on this year I could hear the music better than ever. It sounded amazing. I watched Fralinger's performance and could distinctively pick out the bongos (or whatever kind of drum that was) and the banjos they were playing. It sounded amazing. I don't think I have ever been able to really hear and understand marching band music like that before. It was so exciting and made me want to hear more band music. I have to get to a Philadelphia Orchestra show after both my cochlears are fully trained — I have a feeling it will blow my mind!
I'm doing much better now with my 2nd cochlear implant and it's starting to become a very exciting time for me. I go to program 3 on Wednesday and then there's one more program left after that and then I go back to Jefferson for another mapping. I can see that I am progressing and I know that the best is yet to come.
Reflecting On My 2nd Cochlear Implant Surgery: The Actual Procedure, Recovery, & Complications PLUS My First Impression Of The Naida Q90 Processor And An Update On My Novel!
Hey guys I apologize for the lack of updates. Been a bit crazy over here lately since my surgery, but I'm finally starting to get back into the swing of things today.
I had the surgery for my second cochlear implant for my right ear on November 30th. The procedure was almost identical to how it was with my first one with just a few minor differences. I had to be there a bit earlier for one. I had to be there at 6 in the morning which meant leaving my house by 5. I was pretty tired since I stayed up late that night watching what turned out to be an incredibly disappointing Patriots' game. After the game I couldn't fall asleep because I was way too excited.
My mom and I barely slept at all the night before… we were both too excited!
I got to the hospital at 6am on the dot and everything moved very quickly at that point. I had some paperwork to fill out/sign and was taking back to the Emergency room fairly quickly where I changed into my gown and had to answer a series of questions. All of the questions were identical to the ones they asked last year and the answers were the same. I had to give them a urine sample and then they fitted me with my IV. I can never just simply get an IV though. You may remember from my first surgery they had trouble finding my veins and I had to have multiple people try to stick me. They got it in on the first try this time, but might've gotten a little too close to the vein. I bled all over the place. For the next two days after the procedure I was trying to clean up dried blood from my IV. I swear I think I bled more from the stupid IV than I did from my actual procedure…
I was really, really excited!
Dr. Willcox's surgical team and all of the nurses and everyone involved introduced themselves to me and explained what they would be doing. They didn't need to go into as great of detail as they did last year though since I already knew what they were going to do and I saw many familiar faces. Some of them remembered me, too and were very excited to see me which made everything all the more exciting. I really liked Dr. Willcox's assistant/the guy who was doing his residency with him. He had a great smile and was pretty attractive. My parents laughed at me when I told them this and said that I "must've been pretty high from the drugs they gave me" since he was apparently a lot older than me and "Not that good looking" haha.
I feel like I fell asleep much quicker this time around than I did last time. I don't have much of a memory of everything before the surgery because I just feel like they put me on the table and I went to sleep. Which makes a lot of sense since I really didn't get any sleep the night before so I quite tired. I feel like there was less machines hooked up to me, but that could just be because I was asleep and didn't notice them. I had my cochlear on until I fell asleep at which point Dr. Willcox removed it until after the procedure which made things much better for me. Since I could hear I was able to relax a lot more and they didn't have to keep telling me to lay down because I wasn't all anxious to see what they were doing like I was with the first surgery lol.
They took me in for the procedure at 7am and I was back in the recovery room around 11am. I think I woke up around 11:30-12. I was very sleepy and struggled to stay awake. They kept telling me they were waiting to take me back to another room. I asked for my parents and they said they'd bring them up but that they knew I was done and that everything went well.
I felt much better after my surgery aside from being tired compared to how I felt after the first procedure. I didn't have a sore throat, probably because they used a smaller breathing tube after hearing how I had a sore throat the first time around from the larger breathing tube. I also only felt slightly nauseous and dizzy. I did feel a bit of pain though. At first they only gave me a little bit of pain medicine. They gave me more after making me eat the worst-tasting saltine crackers in the world (seriously why do the crackers at the hospital always taste so bad? That thing was straight up cardboard…staler than stale…yuck!)
After successfully eat the sucky crackers, walking a bit on my own, and having the IV removed (which meant more blood all over the place), I was permitted to change back into my clothes and go home. I'd say I was home around 4 or 5pm. The whole procedure and everything didn't take long at all.
A Post-Op selfie!
Overall I felt much better and had an easier recovery the second time around. I think the fact that I had 1 cochlear and could hear made things much easier, too. I could watch movies which was a great way to relax.
I did have a set back on the 2nd day post-op though. I had to go back to Jefferson to upgrade my processor from the Naida Q70 to the Naida Q90. It was the last thing I felt like doing and my family and I didn't think it was a good idea at all to go all the way to Philly 2 days affter surgery, but Advanced Bionics was going to be there since it was an early upgrade limited to very few people (I was one of the lucky chosen ones) and it was the only day I could go and do this, so I didn't have much of a choice in the manner.
I did okay at first. I was dizzy, so I held my mom's hand a lot. We took the car rather than the bus because we thought it would be easier/more comfortable for us. I did get pretty tired and didn't want to be there, but I tried to make the most of it. The Q90 looks and works almost identically to the Q70. It is a little smaller and feels lighter though which I like. One of the biggest differences with it is that the programs are almost all automatic (the exceptions being sound relax and the aqua mic) which I like the idea of. Changing programs can be really annoying. I haven't been in an environment too much yet where I can really see how it works, but my mom did vacuum and I noticed it blocked out the noise a bit (although I could still here it) and I could carry on a conversation and still listen to music and hear everything with it on which was cool. When the programs switch I can hear it switch over, too. I am excited to go to a crowded, noisy restaurant or something so I can really see how it works. Also, once the other ear is activated I'll be able to unlock many more features that will allow both ears to work together which will be awesome.
Louisa, the woman from Advanced Bionics (I forget what she said her name was) and Dr. Willcox (we saw him in the hallway) all said I looked great considering I was just 2 days out of surgery. By the end of the appointment I started to get weathered and worn out and very sleepy though. It was an important appointment, but very stupid to go out and do that much so soon after surgery…
I felt okay afterwards, but very tired so I took a nap shortly after getting home. It wasn't until after dinner when I started to get into trouble. After dinner when I stood up to throw my trash away I suddenly got very lightheaded and everything started to go completely black. I immediately sat back down and had my parents give me a drink of Coke. I took my blood pressure and it was only about 55 for a top number! To give you an idea of how scary this was — it was about the same range as my grandmother's blood pressure right before she died. My parents were scared of course but we were nervous about calling an ambulance and going to the nearest ER since that for me is Kennedy in South Jersey. Most South Jersey hospitals are awful, and that one is definitely one of the worst. We were afraid to go there and have them mess up Dr. Willcox's work, so we decided to wait it out and just keep monitoring my BP. I drank more soda and high-sodium energy drinks and put my head down for a bit. We did get my BP back in the 100-range which put me out of the woods, thank the Lord!
After that episode I took it easy for awhile barely doing much of anything besides sleeping, watching movies, coloring, and reading. I wanted to go back to work, working from home, that Thursday but decided it was best to just rest up so I took off for the rest of the week.
By last Saturday I was beginning to get a bit depressed. I felt useless. I wanted to go outside and do things and interact with people, but I knew I had to recover, especially after the whole BP issue. My depression was much better than it was after my first implant though, probably because I could at least hear this time around since I had one cochlear already.
I went back to working from home on Monday. It was a busy day back but it felt so good to be back in the swing of things. I did pretty well being back to work. I just got tired after lunch from my pain medicine and antibiotics, but I took a nap after work and I was fine.
I had my stitches removed on Wednesday. I was supposed to get them out on Thursday with Dr. Pelosi, but my surgeon decided to come in and do it on his day off instead because he really wanted to see me. My BP was a little low at 94. They don't believe it was due to the surgery, but rather that I have been too relaxed. Dr. Willcox told me to be more active and that should help. I have been more sedentary than normal because I was afraid I was doing too much. Figures haha. I'm anxious to get back to the gym and taking long walks and doing more though! Getting the stitches out hurt more this time than I remembered from last time, especially the areas with the knots. There was one stitch that got my hair caught in it and that one really hurt to have taken out. I was glad to get them removed though!
I had a few stitches…
Once my stitches were removed I met with Louisa's assistant who's completing her residency, Alyssa, to test the equipment and to make sure the electrodes all worked. It was just like last year. I was able to hear all of the beeps which seemed like a good sign. They seemed louder this time around, too. It was pretty exciting. I got to see my new silver processor, too. It looks really cool! I can't wait for my activation so I can actually take it home and wear it!
Thinking of my activation, there's a chance that we may be moving the date up a bit. I have it scheduled with Paula on the 24th (Christmas Eve) but Alyssa will be there on the 23rd so we're trying to move it up to that date. The only thing is that Alyssa doesn't have her license yet and isn't normally allowed to do activations on her own. But my mom and I don't have a problem with it at all. Honestly, I like Alyssa better than Paula and Louisa. I do like both Paula and Louisa, but Alyssa has a great personality, is very professional, and seems to really know what she is doing. Even though she isn't licensed yet, I trust her and I know she's helped with activations and knows what to do. They said they'd have to ask the board of directors for permission and would get back to us on what they say about it.
I finished my antibiotic and pain medicine yesterday. I was also finally allowed to wash my hair for the first time in 11 days which felt amazing. It was definitely getting pretty nasty lol. It didn't really hurt to wash it. My ear feels completely numb still. I tried to avoid really touch it or rubbing around that area/the incision though. I have a lot of dried blood behind my ear too which I'm struggling to get off.
After my shower I took a look and tried to find my incision/where they shaved my hair. They were so neat with it that I really can't even take a picture of it because you can't see it lol. It's kind of underneath my hair and completely invisible. Dr. Willcox is like an artist with how he does his cuts. It's amazing.
The first post-op shower is the best feeling ever.
Today was the best I've felt in nearly 2 weeks. I was still working from home, but much more with it. I didn't take any pain medicine at all or even a nap. I cleaned the house when I finished working. I'm also back to eating completely solid food (that took awhile, even though I didn't have a sore throat, it was hard for me to bite down/chew things for awhile because of the pressure it put on my ear).
I will really be back to my self on Monday. On Monday I'll be back to working in the office and depending on how well I'm feeling, back to the gym as well.
I took a break from working on my book with my surgery, but I'm pleased to announce that it is almost complete. I met my goal of writing over 50,000 words in November during NaNoWriMo and have a total of over 90,000 words. I will of course need to update it with everything since going bilateral, but overall I've made great progress with the first draft and I'm excited to see it complete soon.
That's about all I have for now. I'll update after the 24th (or 23rd) after my activation! What an amazing Christmas gift and blessing this will be!
Last night I attended Advanced Bionics' online webinar that was all about the new Q90 processor. This was really important for me since I recently found out that I am eligible for an early upgrade to trade in my current Q70 processor for the new Q90.
The webinar was very informative. The Q90 looks almost identical to the Q70 but it is smaller and thinner. It also comes with a few new features to help you to adjust to different sound environments and to block out distracting background noise better. It comes with the option of using a smaller battery that is about half the size of the smallest battery used by the Q70, but all of the sizes used with the Q70 are still compatible with the Q90 as well. The battery life is the same in the Q90 as it was in the Q70. One of the biggest advantages with the smaller battery size option (other than the obvious comfort) is that it will fit inside the AquaCase better.
The three new programs offered in the Q90 are the AutoSound, SoundRelax and EchoBlock.
The Auto Sound feature adapts automatically to the environment you are in. It helps you to better manage noise for more comfortable listening. Sound Relax makes sudden sounds more comfortable to hear. Advanced Bionics gave the example of a golf club hitting the golf ball or dishes clanking together. These sounds can be a bit annoying for a cochlear implant user, so with the automatic Auto Sound feature, this noise is softened a bit to be more comfortable. It doesn't affect alarms or safety sounds though, so you won't have to worry about missing something important with this feature. Lastly, EchoBack is the one program that is not automatic. EchoBack allows users to hear better in noisy environments.
The Q90 makes me really excited about going bilateral in less than 10 days. I liked hearing about how there were some features that would be only available for bilateral cochlear implant recipients like the StereoZoom feature. There will be features that will allow users to stream sounds through both cochlear implants. They will work simultaneously together to support each other. This will help to create an overall better listening experience.
I asked one of the women doing the webinar if I would be receiving the new Q90 when I received my second implant on November 3oth (It's not widely available yet, I'm just lucky to have been chosen to upgrade my Naida Q70 from my first implant for it ahead of time) and she said yes so I'm very excited about that.
Overall the webinar was very informative. I'm excited about the new Q90 processor. It doesn't sound like it will be drastically different from the Q70, so it should be easy to adjust to.It sounds like it will help to give me clearer sound and an even better listening experience (if that's even possible).


text:
When disaster strikes, it's a siren call for a community of helpers to rise. Faith-based organizations by their nature are pillars of support in a crisis. When people of various faiths come together, a sacred encounter takes place that is a source of hope and resiliency for those who are suddenly vulnerable. This spiritual unity is also an inspiration to serve our community in ways that we could not do ourselves.
This month's theme: Sacred Encounters
Speaker: Michael Solomon
The first guiding Principle of Unitarian Universalism is the inherent worth and dignity of every person. UUTC welcomes all—persons of various ages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, theological and political beliefs, socio-economic status, educational backgrounds, abilities and ethnicities. Services are at 9:15 and 11:00am. The building is wheelchair accessible, dress may be casual and visitors of all ages, races, gender identities, sexual orientations, abilities, and beliefs are warmly welcomed.
Infant care is available during both services.
Join us for coffee between services at 10:30am!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
YouTube has produced its share of celebrities: Lonelygirl15, the lip-syncing Chinese teenagers known as the Back Dormitory Boys, and Tyson, the skateboarding bulldog, to name a few.
But no single video by any of these user-generated superstars has ever attracted as many viewings as a clip of a little girl wearing a "Princess" T-shirt, reciting the Bible's Psalm 23. That video has been viewed more than 3.7 million times--not on
Godtube, a user-generated content site that focuses on Christian-friendly videos and filters out profane or sexual references, became the single fastest-growing site on the Web just after launching in August, according to comScore Media Metrix. Chris Wyatt, the company's founder and chief executive, says the site attracts over 3 million unique visitors a month.
The idea for Godtube was sparked two years ago, when Wyatt read a Pew Internet survey saying that only 35% of Christians would regularly attend church in 2025, compared with 70% today. Wyatt, a former television producer who had only recently begun to practice Christianity seriously, spotted an opportunity.
"If that kind of statistic had come up in any commercial industry, it would have set off bells and whistles and fireworks," he said. "A young generation of Christians is adopting technology quickly, and they want streaming video."
Today, popular videos on Godtube include Christian parodies of Apple's
"We apply Web technology to the gospel in a way that appeals to young people," Wyatt says. "We call it Jesus 2.0."
Other sites have also spotted the surging potential for attracting traffic from churchgoers. Mypraize.com bills itself as a Christian-focused social network. MyChurch.org mimics Facebook's model of school-based groups, but instead clusters users around the 10,000 churches that have already registered on the site. Conservapedia.com offers right-wing Christians an alternative to Wikipedia, which it sees as overly liberal and secular. And Jesus isn't the only deity going online; Muxlim.com is trying to tap into a parallel market with a site that offers file-sharing, streaming video, search and social networking, all for a Muslim audience.
Muxlim's founder, Mohamed El-Fatatry is the Muslim equivalent of Mark Zuckerberg, a fast-talking 22-year-old based in Finland with visions of tapping a largely untouched Muslim user base around the world. "If I wasn't a Mohamed, I would still want to target this market," he says. "There are 150 million Web-using Muslims that have yet to be unpacked. And the fact that I am a Muslim means I know what they need, that I have an edge."
But El-Fatatry is careful to distinguish his "Muslim" site from what he calls "Islamic" sites. Muxlim helps Muslims avoid offensive content, he says. It doesn't offer purely Muslim media targeted at religious fundamentalists. In fact, El-Fatatry says, the site is constantly policed to remove any hate speech or threats of religious violence. Other social networking sites, like Google's
That targeting of moderate Muslims has helped Muxlim's network of sites attract more than a million unique visitors a month, El-Fatatry says. Muxlim's streaming video sister site, Muslim.tv, and its social network, Muslimspace.com, are growing quickly, but the majority of the portal's visitors are drawn by its file-sharing service, which El-Fatatry says is largely used for sharing videos like documentaries, faith-centric lectures and ceremonies.
While Muxlim and other sites may be riding a new surge in online religion, targeting users based on their faith isn't new. Online dating site Jdate.com, for example, has been linking Jewish singles for about a decade. Jdate's 72,000 subscribers each pay around $40 a month, and that healthy revenue stream has inspired the site's creators,
Spark Networks spokeswoman Gail Laguna argues that religion has a real power to pull together a niche market online. "When people share a faith, it means much more than when they share a love of golden retrievers or something," she says.
Stephen O'Leary, a professor of communication at the Annenberg School for Communication, traces the interplay of religion back even further. In 1992, he observed a group of pagans who met and even performed rituals in Internet chat rooms. But he says that until recently, religious Web sites have been primitive attempts, mostly churches posting transcriptions of sermons or other Web 1.0 offerings. Even God.com--undoubtedly a hot piece of Web property--hosts only text and links to .pdf files.
Today's highly interactive Web offers a chance to go much further, O'Leary says, taking religion out of the hands of physical churches and making it a more democratic affair. "Gutenberg's press allowed the Bible to be distributed to everyone. It broke the Catholic Church's monopoly," he says. "Down the road, the Internet has just as much of a potential to change the way people worship."