Today was mapping session #5 and this was with Michelle alone since Joanne was with another client. The focus was on the involuntary facial twitching I was (YES, WAS!) experiencing. The twitching was being caused by what Joanne finally described as “impact noise”. Noise created by clapping hands, rattling loose chair handles, banging on metal cabinets, etc. Poor Michelle…she spent the better part of 45 minutes tinkling with different settings and testing by clapping her hands or banging on the cabinet. If her hands hurt…she got what she works for!

To anyone outside the room, it probably sounded like torturing going on. THEN, she finally hit the nail on the head but it seems like I might be more sensitive to sounds that are in the low frequency range so rather than cut those out completely, she balanced them out by increasing the gains on the high frequencies. Let me tell ya…whatever the heck that means, I couldn’t give a flying bleep but she got the volume cranked up as high as comfortably possible and the twitching went vamoose!! Now all of a sudden, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers are beginning to sound better. So next time you see Michelle and Joanne, be sure to give them a hug! And to all of you implantees in the various groups that I am a member of who rave about their own audies, uh uh….I would never give up mine for yours!

Anyway, the next mapping session is April 27th. In the meanwhile, I will be starting speech therapy/ hearing rehabilitation on April 3rd. These will be twice a week, half hour sessions designed to help me hear without having to rely so much on lip-reading. The ultimate goal is….to be able to use the telephone, UNASSISTED! For me, that would be the ultimate dream come true. In the meanwhile, I’ll be looking at alternative means such as books on tape where I’ll be able to read a book at the same time it is been read to me. I actually hope to do this with my younger son, Dan, who needs to get his butt moving with reading in school.