Here we go again...:)

Hi all,

Well, my CI surgery is in about 2 more hours and I am READY! I will send out an update (or perhaps Matt will) when I get home.

Someone recently asked me about my thoughts about going bilateral…specifically getting CI #1 vs. CI #2.

CI #1
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- I had nothing to lose at 0% discrimination essentially in both ears (i.e., couldn’t understand speech without lipreading cues)
- Despite having limited benefit out of my hearing aids, I still noticed what a difference it was with only 1 hearing aid and waiting for hook-up
- I had NO idea what to expect

CI #2
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- Much more calm this time around
- I’m looking forward to still being able to hear with my “old” CI until hook-up
- I have to make a decision about how hard I want to push myself with my new CI…force myself to use it alone, or allow the assimilation to happen while wearing my “old” CI at the same time
- I am fully confident that the new technology will allow me to hear things I haven’t heard in a while
- Sandy called me the “living test head” when I commented that I will have access to basically all of the devices – C1, PSP, HiRes, HiRes 120 – I look forward to participating in research and hopefully helping others
- I promise to “stay away from squirrels” J

I’m hoping to set up some kind of “blog” which includes my comments from my first surgery. It should be an interesting comparison.

Thanks for all of the support, good thoughts, wishes and prayers!!!

~ Tina ~