Audiogram

deafdude asked what my audiogram looks like...so here it is! It took a while to get it into chart format as I only had numerical data. (many thanks to a computer geek for his help!). Although I was born deaf, quite a few years ago now, I DID previously have better hearing ..but the best was in around 75-90 dB loss until 1990. This level of loss didn't affect my achievements - I am a qualified Physiotherapist and have been a manager in the past - both of a Physiotherapy Department, and also the Scottish branch of a National Charity. However, I missed my contact with patients so went back to Physio at a lower grade - but with much more job satisfaction (even if no less stressful!)

This latest audiogram shows what my hearing has been like since I took that fateful plane journey in April this year. The red line is my right ear, the blue, my left ear.

I wear two digital hearing aids which help up to a point with my lipreading - my speech recognition with the hearing aids alone is 6%, but with both aids plus lip-reading this goes up to 54% accuracy. (lip-reading alone is 34% accuracy). I am hoping that the Cochlear Implant can improve on this. Even a little more hearing seems to improve my communication ability by a lot.

My brother is excited at the thought of a bionic sister - while someone else thinks its 'cool' to be able to directly plug an iPod 'into my head'!! I know that I will still be deaf as soon as the CI is disconnected but its also nice to get a bit of peace and quiet sometimes......

Some news

Some news - not a lot - but better than nothing. It's been nearly 4 weeks since my Cochlear Implant assessment and I have been waiting to pounce on the postie (for the mail you understand) every day for the past two weeks, to find out if I am even suitable for an implant. Still no news by today, and patience wearing thin, we finally phoned the hospital this afternoon. "Oh yes, she is most likely to be suitable for an Implant and is on the waiting list - we are just waiting to see if the MRI scan is of good enough quality or if a CT scan is also required" So, when were they going to let me know?! At least its good news - and there should be light at the end of the tunnel yet. The waiting list is anything from 12 to a maximum 18 weeks - this year's Christmas present?

Otherwise, we are having an Indian summer here - there is yellow ball in the sky which has been missing for quite a few weeks and now it is even warm up to 20 degrees C. Apparently it had been the wettest August in some areas since records began - I fully believe it. Another sign of Global Warming? At least I have now been able to catch up in the garden and potting up plants ready for the move to our new cottage - not that there has been much happening in that direction either lately. There seems to be a distinct lack of communication from whatever source at the moment - hospitals, solicitors, and our local council (that's another story). It's like trying to get blood from a stone. Not good for someone who likes to be organised weeks in advance - I like to plan ahead, you see. They say that patience is a virtue - it's definitely being tried at the moment.

At least I can sleep tonight - and the postie is safe for the moment......

Caption?

Not a lot has been happening here lately - other than I've been signed off work for another 3 months. I've still to see Occupational Health next week, in relation to work, but hopefully by then I will know if I am suitable for a Cochlear Implant (CI). I know I'm going to be terrified when I get the envelope from the hospital, expected this week sometime - it will be just like getting exam results except that this time I have no control over the outcome.

It has been very wet here, weather wise. The rain does stop from time to time, but then the ground is too wet to work with, and the grass too wet to cut. I'm itching to get my green fingers out there! At least some more baby plants arrived so I was able to get my 'green fix' today by potting them up. I'm mindful that I'm going to have an awful lot of pots to transport when we move house - just as well we recently bought a trailer on ebay!

I came across this picture when going through my albums.

This is Belle when she had her first encounter with a dog that a friend brought over to visit. It looks like she is pretty disgusted with the situation - but I thought it was a good pic for someone to make up a caption - do YOU have any ideas?