An interesting encounter

Has it really been two weeks since I last posted? It sure is crazy how my days and weeks roll by so fast now! I’ve been meaning to blog about a gentleman I met a couple of weeks ago when I was out of town but I’m just now finding the time.  Anyway, during my trip, I noticed that the driver of our hotel shuttle had a CI. He wore a CI in one ear and a hearing aid in the other. It turns out he had lost his hearing suddenly as an adult and has very little residual hearing left in one ear (the aided one). He received a CI about a year ago in the profound ear. As you can imagine, I had more and more questions for him each day when he arrived to take me and my colleagues back to our hotel. I'm sure he was glad when the week was over! ;)

My biggest question was about the difference in the way he hears. Throughout our journey, this has been described to me many different ways and I’ve done my research and listened to simulations, but I’m still a little uncertain. My new friend described hearing with a CI as “fine-tuned” and “incredibly clear”. He went on to state that he can hear things now that he would have never heard before and actually said that he prefers to hear with a CI. Wow – really?! Interesting, to say the very least. I know this is only one person’s experience, but it was very encouraging to hear. It just makes me even more certain we made the right choice for Sophie.  I’m sure I was walking around with a silly grin on my face right after he told me that. :)

Not too much more to update, other than Sophie is continuing to do great! She has a growing vocabulary and is saying more each day. Today, she just blurted out “flower!” I was picking her up from the sitter and she was pointing to a picture on the wall of a flower. Of course, I thought nothing of it until we got home and I started showing her pictures of flowers and she kept saying it. “FLOW-LER!” Clear as day, just with two l’s. Super cute, though! Seriously, isn’t that a pretty tough word for a 14-month-old to say? She just continues to amaze me. Silly girl.