I blame work

Work is keeping me busy, you'd think it'd be making me actually work or something :)

I can't do a whole lot of details, because I didn't write down thoughts when new things happened, which means I can't remember them anymore. So here are the basics:

Before my new mapping this past Wednesday:
I had no chance in heck figuring out what people were saying if I couldn't read their lips.
Everyone still sounded like they had colds.
I was starting to identify songs mostly by the beat of the songs (from a limited set of 170 songs on my ipod that I was familiar with).
I definitely could not discriminate mm and oo (food)

Mapping on Wednesday:
I hate having to try and count the soft beeps. It's so freaking hard, and I doubt myself A LOT. It's the part that tires me out more than anything else.
I got two new programs to focus on, and they are pretty similar, but I'm to go back and forth in between them to see which one I like better so we can do some more fine tuning on the 24th, at which point we will also do a sound booth testing to test the functional part of my hearing.
I have a preference for program 2 so far, but I've asked Bryan to pay attention to see if one is better than the other. Thus far, he's only really seen me on program 1, as my remote died and I had to charge it, and I hate messing with the buttons on the implants themselves.
Voices are MUCH better. No one sounds like they have colds anymore. I could discriminate male and female before, however, I can now discriminate a male from a male (I can tell they are two different people).
No one sounds like they have colds anymore. Awesome.
It is SO much easier to listen to kids now, there is no longer a screeching sound going on.
My last therapy session, I had to figuring out what the therapist was saying with the topic of dinner. I missed a couple of words (chimichanga is the one I'm remembering that I missed), however I did catch Lemon Pie Sundae (completely random), so that's good.
I find myself understanding people when I'm not looking at them from time to time, I still need visuals though to help with the majority of the time.
Things are still "loud". The clock bugs me now, it's no longer cool haha. However, the loud sounds are getting easier to "tolerate".
I haven't done much of my own therapy at home, I've been exhausted after work almost everyday, and just want to collapse (it's not the families exhausting me, it's the catching up to e-mails and paperwork that's exhausting me). And when I get home, I just need time to wind down, eat dinner with my family, spend time with my son, get him ready and into bed, and then...well I'm so tired I want to go to bed by that point.
I have been notching sounds are clearer though, that's a huge pro for me.
Oh yeah, today we used the blue tooth connection in our car to call my mom. She wasn't home, so my dad answered. I've always had trouble understanding him. I was able to understand everything he said with the exception of "Texas", so that was a nice thing :) No way I would've understood that two weeks ago when I first got the implants activated. Makes me realize more and more just how important some changes in a map can be.

I'll try to be more consistent, but like I said in the header of my blog, I make no promises :)

More training

So, here are the basic notes of what I'm finding through my training with the CD they gave me.

Pure tone test - Training 1: 100% 3 tones, 2 same, 1 different, choose the different.
Male vs. Female Training 1: 100% 3 samples, 2 same, 1 different, choose the different. (simply male v. female)
Vowel Discrminiation Training 2 step 1: 85% two words, minimal pairs, differ only in the vowel. The following are the common vowels I would confuse: eh v. uh, oo (book) v. er, ah v. uh, rat v. rot
Consonant discrimination Training 2 step 1: 96% Two words, minimal pairs, differ only in one consonant. k v. p was wrong every time I tried it.
Words: Animal: 100%
Everyday sentences: level 1: 100%
Music Appreciation: 82% Instruments: one sound, four choices, Trumpet sounds AWFUL, piano almost sometimes feels like it's cancelled out, and it's an absence of noise and absence is only in the right ear. violin and trumpet confused once, Clarinet does not sound like a clarinet, but a flute sounds like a clarinet to me, cello and piano and french horn confused
Music Appreciation: Melody: 81.3%
Amazing Grace, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Beethoven Fifth, Rock a bye baby
Confused: Amazing grace and beethoven Fifth, didn't do preview, but after hearing them after I got it wrong, I should NOT have gotten it wrong. Happy Birthday and Baa Baa Black Sheep: Happy birthday so does not sound like what I thought it would sound like. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Pop Goes the Weasel, again, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star did not sound like what I was expecting it to sound like.

End of August already?

I cannot believe tomorrow is September. The time has *flown* this past month and a half since my surgery.
I officially started back at work yesterday full time, despite the fact that I was working through my vacation :) And it has been somewhat tiring, but encouraging at the same time. I've had interpreters reserved this week for work, but I'm finding more and more that I do not need them for the most part, and am functioning much like I was before I had the surgery and was wearing hearing aids. So that's good news in terms of more work/paperwork/reservation/people in a home.
I'ms tarting to actually recognize the songs even faster when they come on in the car, as long as they are from the list on my ipod (approximately 160 songs), so I consider that a good sign. I'm also finding that I'ms tarting to tell the difference between vowels and can recognize a couple of them sometimes. I'm also recognizing words, common words, that are used in my home. Still takes some work though.
The biggest thing I've been noticing since I've been at work this week. The adults sound like they have colds still, but children are just an entirely different sound pitch/level. They sound much higher, and louder, than adults.

Outside of that, nothing else has really changed. I'm now on volume 7 on program 2, so within the next two or three days, I'll be on program 3. I am now about to go practice listening using my rehabilitation CD, and hope I don't fall asleep doing it from exhaustion! :)