Goodbye Cochlear America's!

After a year and 3 months, I have completed a total of 17 trips to Denver for Implant studies at Cochlear Americas. Yes, you counted that right...not all of those trips were made once a month!! This study was to take about 18 months, a once a month trip, for 2 full days of testing. I managed to work my way through and coax the people I work with at Cochlear America's to help me get finished sooner so I could be done by the summer!! (Lake Powell, here I come!!)

What an experience this has been!!! I looked into getting an Cochlear Implant several years ago. I still remember the day I got the email from the U of U asking if I was interested in participating in a study of Cochlear Implants with the Cochlear America's in Denver. I was so scared, so unsure of what to expect from it and wasn't sure I wanted to dedicate 18 months of testing in Denver and not be able to go swimming for that long! I took a month to think about it. I finally made a trip out to Denver, and met the people I would be working with. They answered a lot of my questions that I had concerns about. Pretty much, making that trip out there helped me make the final decision to follow through on getting the implant. That, and my co-worker saying to me, "Don't you want to be able to hear the sweet nothings in your ear from your sweetheart?!" Granted, I had no sweetheart, but the thought of that definitely kicked it up a notch! ha!

A year and 4 months later, here I am. I have absolutely NO REGRETS doing this surgery, this study, and all of the above. It's AMAZING. It's been AWESOME. Words simply cannot describe how this has opened up my world. I completed this study faster than expected, and this chapter is closing. I find such a sense of accomplishment, happiness and I'm eternally grateful to the people in Denver for making this happen for me. I am indebted to them for as long as I live. NO DOUBT ABOUT IT!!!!! Surgery is next week for the permanent implant. This will be great! I'm excited! I'm looking forward to moving on, and seeing where this can take me. When I go to bed at night, I always think to myself, "Best thing I ever did, I should've done this sooner...." It's simply incredible.

Here are some pictures from my final trip.

I sat in this little hearing booth, from 8:30 in the morning til about 5:30 or 6 pm. That's the touch screen in front of me where I did all the testing. You can see the cord in front of me, and if you follow it, you'll see that I'm attached to the machine on my left! CRAZY!

This cracks me up, I had to take a picture of it. Above the touch screen, is this picture. I've looked at it every day I've been testing. This is a picture of the first man that got a Cochlear Implant. If you notice the big box the other guy is holding... THAT'S THE ORIGINAL IMPLANT!!!! It was that big!!! Had to include it. lol.

This looks strange I'm sure. This is a print of my ear! My sister in law does hand and feet prints of babies, little kids and even adults. I wanted to find a special unique way to say thank you to the people I worked with in Denver. While I was on one of the trips to St. Louis for the study, there was a big shadow box of 4 Ears made of Plaster. One of the guys from Denver was with me and we got talking about it, and he said his boss had given him a brass ear when he graduated from Grad school. And it hit me, THAT'S IT! That's what I should do, make a print of my ear!! Strange as it sounds... I asked my sister in law what she thought and she was totally willing to do it and try it out for me. Needless to say, it was the funniest thing to do, and my brother was totally grossed out by it and still thinks it's weird. lol. But here is one of them...

This is a poem that I gave them along with the Ear print. Really, I wanted to find something that expressed how thankful I was to them for making this miracle possible for me. If you read it, I love how it ended. "Anything can happen, child. Anything can be." Truly, it said in words how amazing this is...and how it's been made possibly for me to hear!!! I loved loved loved it.

When I gave them the gift bag, I told them, I wanted to leave them "with a piece of me"... and I was totally chuckling when I said that. They looked at me funny, and I said, "when you open this, you'll get it!" They were all laughing and thought it was GREAT!!! I had to take a picture of them all with it. I told them they could do whatever they wanted with it, and they all had suggestions of what they were going to do with it! Chris, is the main VIP guy of this group, he's in the center. I think he loved his the most if you can't tell my his smile. lol. They are awesome people, and I will definitely NEVER forget them.

So here I go! Surgery next week and it's all up from there. What a great experience this has been. I'm sad to close this chapter in my life, but excited to open another. I have a lot to be thankful for, and I've had great family and friends that have been the greatest support. THANK YOU!!!!!!