I am now into my second week of speech therapy but actually, it really hasn’t been much other than trying to determine how much I can hear without having to lip-read. The therapist reads from a list, three words at a time. Then she covers her mouth and repeats the words and I try to repeat after her. It all boils down to one thing – matching the word to the way it sounds so that the brain knows what the word is.

Then she uses the word in a sentence. First I am to determine which of the three words she is using and then try to repeat the sentence. That didn’t go too well but after a couple of times, I was able to start formulating the sentence. For instance, one of the words was ice cream. Then after a couple of times, I was able to understand that she was saying one of the flavors – vanilla. How? I have no clue or maybe it was because I had it in the back of my mind since that is my favorite flavor. Then she said the flavor raspberry but I didn’t get that one.

Obviously, its going to take practice…AND LOTS OF IT! So far, I am booked for the next 2 months, twice a week. In the meanwhile, I took out a book on CD – The DaVinci Code and borrowed my son’s portable CD player (don’t tell him, but he won’t be getting it back any time soon!). My CI is equipped with a direct connect which means I can plug the CD player directly into it. That’s like plugging the CD play directly to my brain…neat huh!!?

The first time I turned it on, I was expecting it to start at chapter 1. Well, it didn’t. I had no clue! Everything sounded gibberish. My wonderful teenage son donned his trusty $30 earplugs and was able to find the starting point for me. It was the prologue. That was all I read and believe me, with all the concentration I was doing it can be exhausting. The therapist did warn me about this which I am glad she did or else I probably would have been discouraged.

Anyway…time for din-din and also, tonight is the beginning of the Sabres’ quest for the Stanley Cup!