December 6, 2013

Noise and the Cochlear Implant

December 6, 2013

It happened again.  I was too tired to finish this post last night.  I feel asleep at the computer in the middle of the second paragraph.  Oops!  I will now finish what I started last night.

There are some days I hear better than other days.  Today (Friday) was a bad hearing day.  I have no idea why there is such a variation, but today, I had to ask people to repeat almost everything.  Our oldest grandson was at the office with us until 2:00.  He does tend to mumble a little, but today was bad.  We had a great visit; he just had to say everything twice.  The same thing with my husband; I had to have him repeat often.

The day was rather uneventful at the office.  I worked on a deposit, waited on some customers, ran off a stack of my Christmas cards, supervised as my two oldest grandsons got out the Christmas tree for the shop, set it up and decorated it.  Once the boys left, I went to the bank, did a little bookkeeping, and got ready to leave.

The two oldest of the grandchildren were going to a Boy Scout camp out for the weekend - in the COLD!  Jeff and Barbara were attending an awards ceremony for city employees where Jeff received his 15 year recognition plaque, so we were keeping the 5 youngest children.  They arrived full of energy and excitement.  They had not been at our house for a while and of course had not seen the Christmas tree.  The youngest ones had not seen the rotating Christmas tree.

They were delighted with the decorations and only the youngest felt a need to rearrange the ornaments.  She didn't have down the concept of "hanging" them.  She would remove one and then try to set it back on the tree, not understanding the need to hang it back on the tree.  She loved looking at all the different ones and in finding stuffed animals to "care for".  She is a dedicated little mother, caring for every doll and stuffed animal she can find.

When I fixed supper I was again faced with the limitations my arm presents.  I fixed macaroni and cheese as per their request, but when it was time to drain the macaroni, I realized I could not lift the pan safely and had to call on Ron for help.  Even pouring the cheese sauce over the macaroni was painful for the position my hand has to go in while holding the pan.  It was discouraging and that continued with a couple of other chores.  We had fun at the table, but the overwhelming chatter, giggles, and other sounds got to me after a while.  It was all a low rumble through the Cochlear Implant.  At one point I took it off for about 5 minutes and then returned to the sounds.  The sounds were all happy, fun things, but they were all at once.  That is hard on me.

After supper we made cookies.  I decided against the sugar cookies.  They were going to take too long.  Instead we did Spritz cookies.  Our oldest grand daughter helped me mix them up and decorate the first tray.  Then the next three of the kids helped with the second tray.  They were so good and so much neater than a year ago.

The cookies were beautiful and delicious.  We had cookies and milk and more giggles.  They love to bake cookies at Grandma's house!  And this Grandma loves to have them in the kitchen with me!

 The baking brought out another arm problem.  When I tried to take the cookies off the cookie sheet, rotating my wrist to hold the cookie sheet with my left hand was painful.  I told Ron that the two hobbies I enjoy most, quilting and baking, are difficult.  This is frustrating, but it doesn't keep me from doing them.

The children played in the toy room and in another room the older ones kept the baby out while they built with the Legos.  There were protests when it was time to go home and they managed to stall their parents for about an hour allowing Ron and I a chance to visit with Jeff and Barb.

The girls are always interested in what is going on in the quilt room and for the first time the baby really studied the fabrics in a quilt in progress on the design wall.  It was a great time with the grand children.  My frustrations with the arm and the hearing are just going to be a part of my life and I will have to learn how to compensate and work around my limitations.  Time with the grand kids reminds me why I will learn to adapt - to have fun!!