C'mon feel the noise!

Lately I've been noticing that the world has become a much more quiet place. I'm not trying to be a smart ass either; things just seemed to be harder than usual to hear. I scheduled an appointment with my audiologist to get my hearing aid, otherwise known as "The Babelfish" turned up louder.

My SSP picked me up and we drove to the appointment in his car. Laveau usually rides on the floor between my feet in the foot-space of the passenger seat. However when I ride with friends or my SSPs who don't mind, she rides in the back seat so she can look out the window. Laveau loves to rest her chin on the shoulder of the driver and look out the front window as we're driving down the road. I swear she is either evaluating the skills of the drivers. or she is learning to drive by watching. Either way, she loves watching over my driver's shoulders.

We pull up at the Audi's office, go inside and wait to get called back. Eventually my audi comes to get me and she has an audiologist in training with her. They fiddle around for a while and crank up the volume on ye old Babelfish. It is almost maxed out. Once it is maxed out, I'll have to get a more powerful babelfish. This used to be the most powerful one on the market but they are making one even more powerful now. I'm amazed at technology. I also needed to get my streamer fixed. A streamer is a small box I wear around my neck which can use bluetooth to connect my hearing aid to my iPod or computer. I broke mine so got a loner while mine is getting repaired. When the audi handed me the loner, she said "This one is white." I just kind of looked at her because I didn't know that the color was important. Apparently mine is black and she wanted me to know that this one was a different color, or something. The audiologist in training went to change my hearing aid battery; only she didn't tell me what she was doing. She just came over, took my hearing aid out of my ear and started messing around. I got a little grouchy about this because it is rude, especially when dealing with a deafblind person, to just start manipulating a person's body or objects on their body without first explaining what you are planning to do. Apparently they don't teach them this in audiology school so I had to tell her. It is common sense to me, but I guess people are just used to being able to see that they don't think about it.

After the volume on my hearing aid was increased, I was reminded once again of how noisy the world is. Not loud-- just noisy. Everything makes a sound. I don't know how hearing people stand all of the racket without the ability to just turn off their ears!

As we were driving down the road to the pharmacy, I kept looking around trying to figure out what all the noise was. I can still only hear out of one ear so although sounds are louder now, I still can't tell where they are coming from and it is very annoying. Also, everything makes noise! Cars, air conditioners, lawn mowers, people walking, and just lots of other sounds that I have forgotten about. It always takes me several days to adjust to all of the noise when I get my hearing aid turned up.

My loss is progressive and eventually a hearing aid won't benefit me at all. I didn't get a hearing test today but I'm profoundly deaf (it is the only way in which I am profound lol) and profound hearing loss is the highest grade there is, so I'm just becoming profounder and profounder (ok ok more and more profound) as the years progress.

After we left the audis, I went to the pharmacy and then rewarded myself with a trip to
<"Angelo Brocato's">

My SSP and I sat down to enjoy a cannoli with a cup of cafe au lait. It was amazing, as always! Then I got a quart of their lemon ice gelato to take home and share with Mr. Pawpower.

I think I'll spend the rest of the day with my hearing aid off and reading the newest Jean M. Auel book "The Land of Painted Caves."

ahhh, silence, ice-cream and books! This is the life.