SHHH Meeting

God continues to place people and circumstances in my path on this CI journey! Tuesday night was a wonderful evening with some new friends! I met Susan and her husband, Mark, at McAllister's at Turkey Creek. Another CI implant user soon joined us with his wife. We had a nice meal together. I don't remember eating the salad I ordered because I was so excited to be with these people! Jerry shared with me his CI journey and said that he was implanted by Dr. Merwin. He said that Dr. Merwin is really wonderful and has been doing implants for 21 years. I asked a lot of questions! Both Mark and Jerry's wife shared with me from a spouse's point of view that it is so amazing to see and experience first hand the joy of watching their spouses (Susan and Jerry) have their hearing restored. They say that it is "all good"!!

I drove Susan in my car to Baptist Hospital for our meeting. When I first started my car, I asked her if my music was too loud and it was. She called her husband on her cell phone and asked him to pick up some Chai Tea Lattes for us at Starbucks. She had no trouble with her phone at all! Will I be able to do that?

The SHHH meeting was great. The representative from Cochlear talked about the Cochlear company and their mission statement and did a presentation on the New Freedom Implant that just came out. Again, I asked lots of questions!!! I got to see and hold an implant in my hand and compared the processor with my hearing aid. It isn't much bigger than my aid and holds four programs! The neat thing about this processor is that it adjusts itself automatically just like a brain would when an implant user moves from one environment for another. I have the most trouble with background noises and this would help me with that.

I also met some other CI people who had their implants done by Dr. Merwin. Maggie sat next to me and her situation is very similar to mine. She was implanted four years ago and says that it changed her life for the better. She is still hearing new sounds all the time.

Jerry let me borrow a book called "Hear Again" bye Arlene Romoff. This book is about her CI journey and I've already started reading it! I'm doing as much research that I can before I see the Dr. for the first time. I'm really getting excited now!