Monday was my first audio/verbal session.

We mostly went over what sounds I've been hearing, etc.

So far I have heard the train, which is about a block away... what were beeps on the first day now sound like voices, but they are not clear yet.  I heard our cat Cracker meow yesterday morning. It was VERY quiet, but I heard it. It's not loud enough to get my attention, we were having a conversation.

The A/V therapist was very curious about the hair color of my birth family as she said she sees a lot of redheads in her practice... my birthfather (who I have never met) has red hair.I wonder if it is related to my LVAS, which was seen in my MRI.. also surgeon found some more deformity... my parents and aunt said I wasn't born deaf & that the fever I had when I was 2 made me deaf... I'm still not sure of the role of the LVAS...

We listened to sentences with different patterns like "Reuven is 13 years old" "my name is Jessica". I could mostly pick which one by the pattern and could only pick out the words because i knew what was coming.

She wants me to read aloud and also practice some sentences with my name and with mom. Right now, the only time that "mom" will get my attention is if I hear it in silence..and then it just sounds like a voice, not like "mom"...I know what mom sounds like, I just can't make it out (yet?)

I'm hearing sounds that most people tune out, like the dog scratching or shaking his head or the train a block away.  I love hearing the train right now and may go to the tracks to listen to it closer up...

Also, I was mapped yesterday: I got 3 new programs and am using the quietest of the new one and kept 4 and 5 of the old ones. Maybe next time I'll ask if we should keep just the old one I use most and get 4 new ones. I don't think I'll be going back to the old ones... just a security/crutch thing! OR I'll see what Leslie (the audiologist) recommends. I'm using program 3 right now, which is the quietest of the 3 new ones. Programs 1 and 2 are the old 4 and 5... 

I want to learn/understand how the mapping works. Basically yesterday she set up 5 tones and we adjusted each tone until it was comfortable. I would have loved for the highest frequency to be louder, but I could barely hear it... 

We also met the guy who had his surgery right before me. We were both talking in Cochlear Implant Experiences on Facebook a day after surgery, talking about how we felt, comparing notes. When I checked his profile, I noticed that he was in Dallas... we then realized that we had the same doctor, etc...

One other thing that I'm not sure if it is a concern or not, since surgery, my voice has felt weird... almost like it feels thick... I thought that might go away after activation... my voice seems somewhat deep to me... but I'll have to do some reading aloud to get more used to my voice. I mentioned it to the nurse at the clinic and she spoke to the doctor who said to wait until at least 2 months after surgery to look into it, so we'll see. I just want to know if this is a normal side effect from the breathing tube/surgery... it wasn't one of the ones listed.