Anyway so what has happened in the last 10 years since I was switched on in November 2008?
I've had numerous (lost count) of how many visits to the YCIS to chase the upgrade of the cochlear implant as was supposed to be upgraded after five years but that didn't work because they had a backlog of patients on the waiting list so I had to wait a bit longer.
I still continued Guiding in Mirfield doing Rainbows and Guides and worked at Norrishthorpe J&I School as a lunchtime supervisor. I have once again travelled to Australia on my own to see family in Melbourne for a month whilst Howard and the boys (James and Conor) attended the World Scout Jamboree in Japan.
Still the hearing wasn't that good as I kept going back after my best friend Carole kept saying to me............. isn't it time for you to be re-tuned? LOL!
Years and years later till sometime in May 2017 when I took my husband as I was getting frustrated with my hearing whether it was the cochlear implant or the hearing aid on the right side so YCIS looked up on my record and said "you should have gone on the upgrade list".. I knew it but nothing had been done! Anyway they wrote back saying "it all depends on the funding from your area"... I thought ....... that's going to take a while!
Come round September, I had a letter from YCIS asking me to attend an appointment - didn't think of anymore until about 2 or 3 weeks later I received another letter saying "which colour would you like?". I hadn't got the clue and why would I know about it... so hunted for the other letter... whoops, I had actually got a date for the next upgrade!
Quickly asked people on Facebook to find out what colour would I like as there was so many colours to choose from!
Tuesday 7th November.
My husband and I travelled to YCIS and was seen by the Clinical Scientists (Audiology) and there was a huge bag waiting for me with my name on it!
After a few tests with the new model Medel - Sonnet and switched on again and it was wonderful. Much much better than Medel Opus 2 (2008 model!). So it was unbelievable as I could hear properly again. Went to see the Technican who went through so many items that connects to the new cochlear implant........... wait for it... BLUETOOTH!
Came home and tried the bluetooth and it was amazing as I spoke to my brother who really hadn't heard from me on the phone for years and I had a message from his fiancee saying that he's in tears because he was surprised to hear from me.
Later that evening I thought I'll have a play more with the bluetooth and skyped my best friend Carole who was on holiday in Lanzarote and we spent nearly an hour talking and it was amazing as the conversation was so clear.
This implant also comes with waterproof cover so I tried this in the hot tub but sadly the battery didn't last long 😢 so I ignored using the cochlear implant whilst in the hot tub - we think it was because the temperature outside was under 4 degrees whilst in the tub and may have caused condensation in the cover.
To date - March 2018, the cochlear implant is still going strong and am now on rechargeable battery - which is so expensive as we tried to see if we could buy some privately.... £144 for one small rechargeable battery!!!!
And also I've now got a new job (thanks to Clare) - working in the Doctors Surgery as an Administrative Assistant and loving it.
Will keep this blog up to date!
