Well, the "Force" was at work again. It's still in "prank" mode. No, not the alarm this time. The alarm went off fine, but I woke up 15 minutes prior anyway probably due to being nervous about that possibly happening again. No, this time the "Force" went for the other end. I don't get off work until about 3 am normally. That is if things go smoothly and we don't have a larger than normal workload. Since my 2nd Evaluation Day appointment was at 1 pm, again, obviously I want us to finish on time, get home and get my ass in bed. I do want to be rested for it. Well, "The Force" decided to have fun with the company database. It apparently involved dumping molasses on it because it was processing single command sends (such as totalling a sum) at about 1 per 10 minutes. Normally, it should be instaneous. Under those conditions, I was forgetting what I was doing by the time it finished processing. This kicked in at around 2.....when we had about an hour to an hour and a half's worth of work left. This type of thing doesn't happen with this system. In fact, it's only happened once before in the 7 months I've been at this job. My boss said if it didn't go up by 4, we'd just go home. It kept it up until 3:30. So much for going home on time. So we went back to work...then it did it again at 4:30, so we stopped. You get the idea? We've been going home on time regularly otherwise.
I did arrive exactly on time to my appointment, though. I was pretty rested and managed to grab some breakfast on the run, too. The Audiologist had the same demeanor as last time, she was pleasant yet professional. First she went through a power point presentation on the Lap Top in her office. Basically it went over the parts of the ear, the implants parts, where it goes, how it works...blah blah blah. Boring. There was nothing covered in that portion that I didn't already know. I do know there are people who will get all their information that way, though. So it's done one size fits all. I let her do the presentation as intended. Unfortunately, the tinnitus kicked in very quickly and early on in her presentation so I was pretty much unable to actually hear for the duration of the entire appointment.
The next part was what I was really waiting for, she showed me both the Cochlear Nucleus Freedom and Advanced Bionics devices. The Cochlear device was first. It came in what appeared to be a mid-sized steel briefcase. There was no BWP (Body Worn Processor) in the demonstration kit, just the BTE. She had me try it on. I was struck by the fact that it wasn't as heavy as it looked like it would be....actually it wasn't heavy at all, even with the three batteries loaded in it. She had me remove the battery case and work with the buttons to get a feel for it. Of course, nothing about viewing the processor made me want to change my mind.
Then it was on to Advanced Bionics. Both the BWP and Auria BTE were in the demonstration case. One of the aspects of the BWP that attracts me is the fact that nothing is on your ear at all (Cochlear's BWP has it resting on your ear looking more Borg-like). After 25 years of wearing a hearing aid on my right ear...I'd like a break. I had assumed that the microphone was on the box, but it's a little hole in the headpiece/magnet. Makes more sense. Incidentally, the appearance of the headpiece was another attraction to AB in my decision-making process (after considering the technical ability first, of course.) It is a simple solid button, unlike Cochlear's ridiculously clinical-looking dish. The Auria BTE is simple looking enough. It, too, is very light weight. She showed me the different sized rechargeable battery packs..which basically differ in weight, size, and length of power charge.
Next, I was asked what my decision was...which of course was still Advanced Bionics. What I hadn't anticipated is that I would then be picking out package components. I had to decide whether I wanted two BTEs or one BWP and one BTE. Obviously I went with the BWP/BTE combo. I had to decide what battery pack combo I wanted, I went with a mix of large and small. I had to pick out my BTE colors. My BTE will be black, which is officially named "dark sienna." For the accent caps (fits over the headpiece and a portion of the BTE) I went with the "Blending Colors" pack which is basically plain colors ranging from gray to black. I doubt I'll even wind up using them since everything is black.
Regarding my impression of her at this stage, she is basically a true professional. She does her job correctly. She maintains balance between being personable yet objective. I cannot find fault with that. So it's all good.
That concluded that portion of the appointment and the next bit was to see my doctor. I had to wait about 45 minutes. While waiting out in the reception area, I just watched various clinic staff coming out and calling names. There was one particular employee, another audiologist, the type that pretty much just do routine hearing testing, that I noticed. She's a redhead. Plain looking... really. I think she has done way too many of these. She is completely on automatic pilot, devoid of any emotion. She comes out holding someone's file and calls their name. Then she drones, while looking through the patient like they are a barely perceived object, "Hi, my name is ......." I saw her do this several times, and each time was the exact same deadpan delivery. She was like a Vulcan (Spock, Star Trek..for those who aren't nerds) on Prozac.
Seeing my doctor was quick. All he did was sign off on moving forward with surgery. I asked him if we could skip the gas for anesthesia, explaining that when I had surgery as a child, it caused unpleasant hallucinations along with a host of other subtle side effects that lasted for months afterwards. He assured me that I would be able to just use the IV drip.
Then I was sent over to the Surgery Counselor who basically just told me they would move forward with getting insurance approval for the surgery and would contact me with the surgery date after that had been done.
So now it's all about waiting for it to really happen.
In perfect isolation
Here behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come
Waiting for the Worms - Pink Floyd
I did arrive exactly on time to my appointment, though. I was pretty rested and managed to grab some breakfast on the run, too. The Audiologist had the same demeanor as last time, she was pleasant yet professional. First she went through a power point presentation on the Lap Top in her office. Basically it went over the parts of the ear, the implants parts, where it goes, how it works...blah blah blah. Boring. There was nothing covered in that portion that I didn't already know. I do know there are people who will get all their information that way, though. So it's done one size fits all. I let her do the presentation as intended. Unfortunately, the tinnitus kicked in very quickly and early on in her presentation so I was pretty much unable to actually hear for the duration of the entire appointment.
The next part was what I was really waiting for, she showed me both the Cochlear Nucleus Freedom and Advanced Bionics devices. The Cochlear device was first. It came in what appeared to be a mid-sized steel briefcase. There was no BWP (Body Worn Processor) in the demonstration kit, just the BTE. She had me try it on. I was struck by the fact that it wasn't as heavy as it looked like it would be....actually it wasn't heavy at all, even with the three batteries loaded in it. She had me remove the battery case and work with the buttons to get a feel for it. Of course, nothing about viewing the processor made me want to change my mind.
Then it was on to Advanced Bionics. Both the BWP and Auria BTE were in the demonstration case. One of the aspects of the BWP that attracts me is the fact that nothing is on your ear at all (Cochlear's BWP has it resting on your ear looking more Borg-like). After 25 years of wearing a hearing aid on my right ear...I'd like a break. I had assumed that the microphone was on the box, but it's a little hole in the headpiece/magnet. Makes more sense. Incidentally, the appearance of the headpiece was another attraction to AB in my decision-making process (after considering the technical ability first, of course.) It is a simple solid button, unlike Cochlear's ridiculously clinical-looking dish. The Auria BTE is simple looking enough. It, too, is very light weight. She showed me the different sized rechargeable battery packs..which basically differ in weight, size, and length of power charge.
Next, I was asked what my decision was...which of course was still Advanced Bionics. What I hadn't anticipated is that I would then be picking out package components. I had to decide whether I wanted two BTEs or one BWP and one BTE. Obviously I went with the BWP/BTE combo. I had to decide what battery pack combo I wanted, I went with a mix of large and small. I had to pick out my BTE colors. My BTE will be black, which is officially named "dark sienna." For the accent caps (fits over the headpiece and a portion of the BTE) I went with the "Blending Colors" pack which is basically plain colors ranging from gray to black. I doubt I'll even wind up using them since everything is black.
Regarding my impression of her at this stage, she is basically a true professional. She does her job correctly. She maintains balance between being personable yet objective. I cannot find fault with that. So it's all good.
That concluded that portion of the appointment and the next bit was to see my doctor. I had to wait about 45 minutes. While waiting out in the reception area, I just watched various clinic staff coming out and calling names. There was one particular employee, another audiologist, the type that pretty much just do routine hearing testing, that I noticed. She's a redhead. Plain looking... really. I think she has done way too many of these. She is completely on automatic pilot, devoid of any emotion. She comes out holding someone's file and calls their name. Then she drones, while looking through the patient like they are a barely perceived object, "Hi, my name is ......." I saw her do this several times, and each time was the exact same deadpan delivery. She was like a Vulcan (Spock, Star Trek..for those who aren't nerds) on Prozac.
Seeing my doctor was quick. All he did was sign off on moving forward with surgery. I asked him if we could skip the gas for anesthesia, explaining that when I had surgery as a child, it caused unpleasant hallucinations along with a host of other subtle side effects that lasted for months afterwards. He assured me that I would be able to just use the IV drip.
Then I was sent over to the Surgery Counselor who basically just told me they would move forward with getting insurance approval for the surgery and would contact me with the surgery date after that had been done.
So now it's all about waiting for it to really happen.
In perfect isolation
Here behind my wall
Waiting for the worms to come
Waiting for the Worms - Pink Floyd
posted by David R at 5:09 AM
1 Comments:
Hi. I am researching Cochlear Implants for myself. I am going to save your blog in my favorites so I can refer to it. Keep me updated. I love having access to this information!
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