I went to finish up my evaluations for the Cochlear Implant on March 16th. They did a balance test which was very weird. They had to put a video camera on one of my eyes and look at the movement of my eyes while they put hot and cold air in each of my ears and water in one of my ears. I also had to move in different positions too. Strangest test i've ever done in my life lol but it wasn't bad.
After that, I went to my therapist that I will be seeing every two weeks after surgery and the activation. She was very nice and helpful in my understanding of what I will be able to hear.. hopefully. She did some testing to see where I am in speaking and listening to people without lip reading. She said that I do very well in speaking and that she was very impressed with me. I didn't do very good on the listening part because I depend on lip reading now. She said that I will hopefully be able to hear almost as good as a "normal" person does and showed me the chart of where I am hearing now where the Cochlear implant "can" help me hear and it will be a dramatic difference but I do have to work hard to get there. She made me that much more excited and not so much nervous.
Then, we went to the psychologist. She pretty much just asked questions about my life and where I am. She had to make sure that I was able to handle the stress and changes that I will be going through once I get it. She also had to make sure that I had support behind me to help me through it. She said that I was a perfect canidate and that she had no doubt that I would benefit from it.
I passed all the evaluations and testing. Right now, we are STILL waiting on approval from the state (DARS). I am hoping to hear from them this week. We ended up having to call the supervisor of DARS to see what was the hold up and it was just a big mess. It's very stressful and i'm so ready to just KNOW and plus it's getting in the way of school because I am trying to figure out what summer classes to take compared to the fall, but I think we are finally getting closer to getting a surgery date. I will keep you guys updated and hopefully the mess will be sorted out SOON! Here are a few pictures of our trip and you can kind of see what the hospital looks like:
The morning after we came home from Dallas (March 17th), I got the sad news that my great-grandfather, Gampie, passed away. He was such an amazing man with a great and HUGE heart who could just make anyone smile even if he didn't know you. He was a successful man and I only hope to become a great person like he was. I'm glad that he is at peace and he is smiling down and watching over us with Gammie. I do still get sad when I realize he isn't here anymore and I cry over the smallest things that remind me of him, but mostly I remember the good times with him and i'm so blessed to be able to know my great grandfather for as long as I have. Here is a picture of us:
Well I think that's enough updates for one blog post. I will update the rest about Maddie and Warrior Dash tomorrow on another post! And again, I thank all of you guys for the wonderful support that I have gotten from you and all the prayers, thoughts, texts, emails and facebook posts that I have got from from you guys. All of you guys are seriously the best!!
