I am happy to report...

another controller arrived this morning. Best part? IT WORKS!
Thank you guys for all of your supportive messages and comments. I'll reply to them individually when I don't have a desperate need to get some sleep.

I'm leaving for Illinois in the morning. A lot of unexpected stuff has gone on this past two days...Yesterday I woke up sick, and couldn't manage to stay awake for more than a half hour at a time. My parents were convinced there was no way I'd be able to go on this trip, but the human body is pretty amazing (and I'm sure Tamiflu helped!).

And, on top of that, there's supposedly an ice storm coming to IL tomorrow? I know, my luck just follows me  wherever I go. ;) We rescheduled to an earlier flight, which  has led to a mad dash of packing- I'm still not done getting everything together. And no, I did not procrastinate (okay, maybe I did..) but I had good reason! Yesterday I never got out of the bed except to go to the doctor, and today my parents were saying all along they weren't going to let me go. They finally decided to make the right choice this afternoon/evening.  I'll post when I get back on Sunday!

And, I've realized that some people are probably more comfortable contacting me privately for one reason or another. For those of you who would like to email me, feel free to send an email to:
pinklam94@yahoo.com It's the best way to contact me if you would like a fairly prompt response, and I know that not everyone likes to post things publicly, so I think it's a good alternative.

Looking forward to hearing from y'all :)

Clearing the Air+ An AWESOME Lights Show

After rereading my last post, I realized it sounded a little harsh. I feel like I come across as regretful of choosing Cochlear, which was not my intent in posting at all. My equipment rarely breaks, and when it does, 99% of the time it is replaced promptly with a functioning piece of equipment. The thing is, I don't blog about those times-who wants to read about something going exactly as it should? I've gotten so used to such a high standard, I was pretty shocked with the way things were handled last time. I'm hoping it was just an isolated incident. I was annoyed when I wrote the post, and therefore left out how satisfied I have been with Cochlear the rest of the time. I also picked Cochlear because of their superior reliability (so far, so good!) of their implants and their great reputation of making their processors backwards compatible with older implants (which I will soon be taking advantage of). I think the real reason I wrote that post was
A) because I wanted to vent my frustration
and B)I was hoping that I would be proved wrong, and that someone from Cochlear will apologize, or at least make it right. I really hope to be able to write another post expressing my satisfaction with how the situation was resolved.

Besides, these people gave me my hearing back- how could I not be grateful? I think every company makes mistakes at one point or another, and this is definitely a minor thing in the scheme of things, especially when I hear all these stories about companies recalling implants. As in, the internal part- I can assure you I am happy with my choice! As one person commented, the controller could have gotten damaged in shipping, for all I know.

Now that I've got that cleared...

On Friday evening, I babysat three of my cousins with my sister. They're neighborhood is RIGHT next to this neighborhood famous for their amazing Christmas (and Hanukkah, surprisingly enough) lights. We didn't finish babysitting until late at night, but we felt like we'd regret not stopping to look at a few houses. We were aimlessly driving around, when we saw a house with TONS of lights flashing. As we got closer, I spotted a tiny sign "Turn to FM 97.5 to listen to the lights!" My sister and I frantically started fooling with the car radio, until we found the station. What we found was truly amazing. Such a sensual experience- the lights went along with the music. The lights were cool on their own (as was the music) but together, it was just astonishing.

We stayed for a couple of minutes, but then decided to go back home as it was starting to get pretty late.We vowed to return the next night, which we did with one of my sister's friends. We drove around looking at a lot of houses that had elaborate light displays, but we could not find the same house! We drove around for an hour and a half, and my mom started texting us saying we needed to come home. No way, not until we found the house! We were getting desperate, and finally decided to put on the radio station, since it becomes clearer as you get closer to the house. Between one of the songs, they said the name of the family who did the lights show. I quickly googled it on my phone, and, alas- an address! My sister shouted for her friend to get her GPS out of her purse. Her friend looked, only for us to realize it had been left at home!

We drove around and finally found the street, and followed the line of about 20-30 wanting to see this awesome house. I got quite a few videos and pictures on my phone, but they're not very high quality. Luckily enough for you ;) the house has it's very own website complete with plenty of videos. Right now the videos are not yet up for 2009 (they change the songs every year) but the ones from 2008 are just as cool! Here are a few:
*NOTE: PAUSE THE MUSIC AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN BEFORE PLAYING!*
We Wish You a Merry Christmas- Highland Pipers:

Gordon Lights 2008 - We Wish You a Merry Christmas from Gordon Lights on Vimeo.


Wizards in Winter- Trans-Siberian Orchestra:

Gordon Lights 2008 - Wizards in Winter from Gordon Lights on Vimeo.


And I'm leaving for IL in 2-3 days (depending on how you think of it). Imagine my excitement when I went onto weather.com and saw this:

OH YES! Snow angels, here I come!

Happy Holidays to all!

Dear Cochlear,

*warning: slight rant ahead*
When I was picking my implant company, I did lots of research. Part of the reason I picked you was because of the continued support and customer service after being implanted. Nearly everyone I talked to raved about your prompt response when there was a broken piece of equipment.This was pretty important to me, since once you pick a company, you're partners for life. And I found that they were right about you, until now...

Two weeks ago, I went to turn ony my processor on my right side and it would not turn on. I tried and tried, changing the batteries and everything, to no avail. I determined that the controller was malfunctioning. No biggie, my mom could just call Hear Always and they'll replace it. (I was in a rush to get to school). I put on my back-up controller, and went on my merry way.

When I got home, my mom told me we'd have to wait for them to send a box for me to send my controller back in, and then you wouldn't send a replacement until they received the broken part. I asked my audiologist why you were doing this, and she said you'd been having trouble with people not sending back broken equipment, and some people even wanted to get their same part repaired and sent back, rather than get a different refurbished part.(in your defense, this is only if the patient has a backup) Okay, that's fair enough.

We got the box to send my controller back in a few days later, and promptly sent in back. Then we waited..and wait.. and wait. Finally, on Thursday (thirteen days after calling and asking for the replacement) we called you again. You hadn't sent me my controller back, and promised it would be shipped out that day. Alright, I get you've been busy and all, so I guess better late than never.

The controller arrived on Friday afternoon, just like you promised. I decided to wait until today to start wearing it, since I didn't want to have to go through the hassle of changing out the batteries. So, today I put on the replacement controller, fresh out of the box, and put in batteries. I also put in the batteries on my other side, since I like to turn on both of my processors at the same time. I held down the buttons on each ear, and waited for the sound to rush into my ears. I heard it on my left side, but on the right side...nothing. I pulled the processor off my head, and tried again...Once again, nothing.

I pulled out the battery rack, just to make sure I'd put in all the batteries. Yep, A-OK. I tried another pack of batteries, just to be sure. I tried again, and it still doesn't work.

Seriously, Cochlear? Seriously? I know there's been a lot going on with the release of the Nucleus 5 and all, but could you not take the 5 seconds it takes to test out equipment before you send it back?

Today, you're closed, so there's nothing I can do. I'm leaving town on Wednesday, and if my back-up that I'm wearing breaks, I'll be stuck with just wearing one processor. I'm pretty annoyed.

I hope you get this resolved soon, because if you figure it out, you will be forgiven. We are partners for life, after all.

Love always,
LAM

Just a Minor Annoyance

As you probably already know, I have Freedom processors by Cochlear. Picking out a brand is an extremely hard decision, and there really is no "right" choice. No matter what they say, one brand is not going to give you better hearing than another. Even people who have a different brand of implant in each ear are not a reliable source of knowing, because as you should have learned from my other blog posts, no two ears are alike! Some brands have better track records on reliability, which is what influenced my decision. One of my closest friends with a CI has a different brand, and we occasionally talk about our envies in each other's implants. She was implanted many years ago with a Clarion, and while the company has come out with a BTE, it just doesn't work for her since the battery only lasts a couple of hours. So she uses a bodyworn processor. She often gets jealous when I start talking about walking in the rain, or running through random people's sprinklers when I walk my dog. Her processor can't get wet at all. I get jealous that she doesn't have to deal with a bulky processor constantly falling off of her ear(s)! We both hear really well, and are both happy with what we have, we just wish that both of our companies would come out with completely waterproof processors! Everyone is different, and what is right for one may not be right for another (which is why you shouldn't bash other implant brands or try to shove your personal brand down someone else's throat!--just sayin') I have been more than happy with my Freedoms, and really feel like I made the right choice(for me!)

The great thing about the Freedoms is that they have two battery options- disposables and rechargeable. I started out on both sides using rechargeable, but it turns out that I am a power junkie. My MAPS require a LOT of power, plus I have thick hair which means it takes a little more power to transmit the sound through to the implant. On my first side the rechargeable only last 6 hours, which just does not work for me. I could be in the middle of a playing test in orchestra, or listening to an important class discussion, and it was just inconvenience to have to change them. That's why I use disposables, which usually last me a full day, unless I get up really early and stay up late or in an excessively loud environment (whenever we have pep rallies, my batteries die as soon as I get home from school). I've become a pro at changing batteries quickly and can change them in a matter of seconds. I go through a pack a day (of batteries, not anything else!) with having two ears, so being able to change them quickly when I get a bad batch of batteries, or when they die without reason is important to me.


So what's my point, you're wondering?


Not too long ago the little cover over where I plug in the accessory cables and FM got ripped off of the controller on my old side. It was probably due to me trying the FM at a camp for kids with hearing loss that I recently attended, and the FM just does not work with my old side (whole 'nother post with more details coming soon), which was discovered after many times of taking the FM boot in and out of the accessory plug-in thingy (what's it called?!) and replacing it with the normal battery rack. Combine that with me listening to my iPod for 10 hours each way on our road trip to New Orleans, that probably wore the poor little rubber cover out! This kind of thing is a pretty rare occurrence, but thankfully Cochlear was able to ship me another controller in just 2 days, even though the one I had was technically still working, and I had a back-up.


The problem? The new controller arrived, and I inspected it. I noticed the battery rack looked a little different. I took out the one from my left side and compared them.

The one on the left is the new battery rack that was just shipped to me, and the one on the right is the kind I'm used to having. Please excuse my lack of photography skills and my deodorant in the background . :)

The main difference I noticed was the gold strip was now just a straight line instead of turning at the top, and the little battery outlines were changed from black to gold. I figured it was just cosmetic, until I went to put batteries in. It felt odd, like I was putting them in backwards, and you really had to push to get the battery in. I figured it just took some getting used to.

The next morning I went to go change my batteries. I started with the right side. I pushed the two top batteries out with little issue, just had to push them a little bit harder than usual. Then I got to the bottom battery. I could not, for the life of me, get this thing out! I pushed and I pushed, and it would not budge! I then resorted to using every object I could think of to try to get it out, to no avail. Finally, I handed it to my mom and pouted. After spending a couple of minutes, she was finally able to get it out using her long, acrylic nails. The end result? A waste of ten minutes, the loss of my battery-changing independence and the ruining of my brand-new hot pink manicure (I say this at the risk of sounding shallow. Really, I'm not!)

It's become pretty much the same routine every morning. Try, fail, resort to random household objects, fail yet again, make my mom do it. It seems that the gold strip is not the only difference.


The one on the left is new, the one on the right is the original kind. Don't see a difference? On the old ones, the bottom battery always stuck out. It wasn't because it was broken, that's just how they're made. On the new kind, it seems they've decided to forgo this, and it has caused me some serious battery-changing issues!

Today was the first day I managed to get the bottom battery out on my own. It took a while, but I did it. I think I may just use some old battery racks I have if this doesn't get any easier.


Just a tiny annoyance compared to the joy I get from hearing the world around me. Today I heard what sounded like an Ice Cream Truck for the first time! A little battery trouble is nothing compared to the delight I get from hearing a friend whisper a secret in my ear, or foiling my dog's plan of trying to sneak up behind me with his nails clacking on the floor with each step. The pleasure of listening to and making music always brings me joy, and I will forever be grateful to Cochlear and everyone involved in my journey through bionic hearing. Even if they had to go and change something that was working just fine before! (Cochlear, are you listening?!)