Activation Day!

*late Post*

Hey all,

Sorry didn't post yesterday on the "activation day" It was a long day and it worn me out quick!

Anyway the day went great, arrived there at 8:35 yesterday morning. Handed in the appointment letter to the receptionist and sat down with my sister etc waiting (I was very nervous) . 10 minutes later my interpreter arrived which I've met before so we were chatting away which has help me from getting more nervous. About 8:55 Ellen my Audiogist came into the waiting room and look directly at me, she smiled and said "are you ready"

My legs felt all jelly as i was walking to the room where I was gonna get switched on. Sat down on the chair, as soon as I sat down I saw my implant on the table all connected up and ready to attach to my head.

firstly she asked how my operation went, and she checked the scar area which was almost invisable already. I said it all went well and glad it's over and done with.

Ellen then took the implant off the table and place it in her hand and said right all we gotta do now is find your magnet area - there she was searching for it which didn't took long, actually didn't feel it going on as I thought I would feel something which i didn't which it felt strange.

finally I was all hooked up and ready.... she started off with some stimulation thing what ever it called to see how my nerves etc are responding. So, she said i can start talking to my sister etc for a bit while she readining it. She didn't say there would be sounds etc but as I was talking all the sudden I had this weird sound going through my head, it was something like clicking or tapping) I stop talking and said was this ment to make a sound, Ellen said "yes" I was like ooo my god! my sister cried which made me cried for some reason, she was shocked that I heard that and that it worked.

after 10-15 mintues doing the stimualation thing, I had this card given by ellen which numbered from 1-10 and I had to listen for beeping sound and tell her her if it too soft or to loud or confortable. finally we did all that and she was happy with the level of loudnes etc. Ellen the said right i'm going to switch it on now. I was like ooooooo. She switched on, all I can hear was a load of beeping sound everytime ellen, the interpreter or my sister talk. It felt strange everytime they talked. so, there i was switched on can't really hear anything but beeping sounds. Ellen asked me to take a break and go into the cafe for 20 mins. So i sat down in the cafe, same again I heard load of beeping sounds everytime something make a noise. it kinda sound horrible to me and was slightly disappointed with it. went back into the audio room, and she asked what did I hear. I couldn't really say much as I only heard beeping sound. Ellen showed me this big box which has good the C.I goodies in it - I was so interesting in all the colours she gaved me, I think i got about 14 colours which looked good also she showed me how the implant worked etc. and explain to me what will happen next week one 1 week tuning! so, finished with the audio and had to go back into the waiting room for the next appointment with helen (speech Therispt)

Helen called me and went into the room, she asked how I'm feeling right now, I didn't know what to say as I don't really know what I'm listening for because all I could hear was beeping. She said that was completely normal for the first day. Helen and I went through some test... I had to identify the different between AH, EE, S, SH with lipreading which I manage to do get 2 right. while she were saying it the beep sounded different so it was easy to tell which one it is. After going through that I then had to do that test without lipreading. It was hard but I was please I had a few right again. Can't belive the list of homework she has given me. can't wait to see how many boxes I could tick and decrible when I heard the sound.

That's it for me at the C.I centre, started to make tracks home on the bus. all I could hear was loads and loads of beeping. When I arrived home, the firs thing I did was I went to play with the new things that was in the box that they have given me and of course watched the Dvd which was so interesting.

So that's all I could say for the activation day. I do have photo's etc will post them up as soon as I uploaded them on the laptop.

c ya for now.