Just had a tune up!

CI audiologist came up from Denver this past weekend, yahoo!  I was so worried she was going to come up towards the end of April, while I was in Washington D.C. with the Wyoming deaf academic bowl team for the nationals.  Whew!  Saw her at about 9:30 in the morning and made some adjustments to both processors.  We were able to significantly increase the higher frequency levels on the right processor (they are still a little low but we're getting there!), and increased the volume all across the levels a bit.  Ahh, much better.  More higher frequencies turned up means I will be able to pick up on more speech sounds that uses the higher frequencies.  We turned things up a bit with the left processor as well, and did Program 2 on both with UltraZoom and ClearVoice High.  Audiologist also enabled the setting so that I can just push a button on one processor and both Naidas will chance settings at the same time.  Much better!  Couldn't do any testing, for some reason the speakers in the sound booth weren't working.  Maybe next time I see her.  Still using just 3 program slots on my Naidas, which I'm happy with.  Program 1 is usual everyday program, 2 is for noisy situations, and 3 is 100% compilot.  Could have added 2 more, but it takes a while to cycle through the programs on the Naidas (there's a delay when changing programs, which I do not like).




Yesterday, I went to get some lunch for mom and myself.  We agreed on Dairy Queen, so off I went.  I didn't really want to get out of the car to get the lunch, so I decided to give the drive-thru a try.  First time I've ever used the drive-thru at a fast-food joint, and it was a success!  I was able to understand the speaker with no issues.  I was giddy when I got back to the house with our lunches and told mom all about it.  Yay!  Usually I just park and go inside to order to go.  But not on Monday!  I may start using the drive-thru more often at certain places.  Probably not McDonald's, they have 2 lanes for the ordering process and that just seems confusing.  Mom says she has a hard time at McDonald's because of the 2 lanes (speakers are loud so it's hard to tell which speaker is going off), so I'll avoid their drive-thru.




WYHI is this coming Friday.  Except, I won't be at WYHI.  The Wyoming deaf academic bowl team will be gathering at the library to practice for the nationals (we leave NEXT weekend for D.C.!), so I'll be at the library since I'm a co-coach (will do a write up about DAB in a separate post).  I'm pretty excited about going back to D.C., as I've been wanting to go back and visit, and appreciate D.C. more now than I did the 2 times I went as a child.  Wyoming Families for Hands & Voices is also doing a Family Fun Night this coming Thursday evening as well, and I'll probably go after ASL class, since I'm on the board.  Why not?  Might be fun!  Don't plan on going to the open-caption movie Friday afternoon for WYHI.  Not a movie I want to see, and I have 2 appointments that day so I'd be better off going to work for the afternoon and going to my 3 p.m. appointment.  Friday shall be a busy day!

deaf academic bowl

Well! The Western Regional Gallaudet University Deaf Academic Bowl went very well! It was held in Riverside, California, and I was the Wyoming team captain this year. Anyway, we did pretty well for Wyoming's 2nd year of being part of the competitions. This year we have won 3 matches and lost 4. Last year we won 2, lost 5. Not bad not bad! Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind won first place (YAAAAAAAAY!), University High School (somewhere in CA) in 2nd place and Rio Mesa High School (in CA) 3rd place.

I had a LOT of fun in California. I WANT TO LIVE IN CALIFORNIA! Man it's just beautiful in Riverside! The matches were fun, I made new friends, saw some students that had competed last year, etc. It was just a blast, and I'm extremely happy Wyoming got to compete again. Sadly, I won't be able to be part of the team next year as I am graduating June 3, and the competition is only for deaf and hard of hearing high school students in grades 9-12. I've had tons of fun, but am very happy to be back home. Just not happy about coming home to 12 inches of snow though