cochlear implant surgery

I know I said I'd get back to you when I got back, but I just haven't really felt like blogging lately. Anyways, I should tell you what's going on, I guess.

I went to Lexington to have some tests done to see if I could have a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant is a device that is implanted inside your ear to bypass the damaged parts and send sound signals directly to your brain. It's very different from a hearing aid because of that and the fact that a hearing aid only amplifies sounds.

Anyways, I'd already had an evaluation, where I was approved as a candidate, but I had to have a CT scan before I could be approved for surgery. Luckily, my CT scan came out well and they approved me and scheduled surgery. I will be implanted with the newest cochlear implant out this year, the Nucleus Freedom, on October 14. I'm really excited about it, because I have read so many good things about it, and also have read about alot of people who've had it and it worked extremely well for them, so wish me luck or if you're religious, say a prayer for me!

out of town

Well, I won't be here for the next 2 days. I'm going out of town for tests and to see a doctor. I'll definitely fill you all in when I return. Hopefully, I'll return with great news! Everyone wish me luck, and if you're religious, please say a prayer or two for our safety in traveling, and that I get good news! See ya soon!

my interview

I have chosen to be interviewed by Carolyn. She has read my blog and after careful consideration (or maybe just plain old curiousity), she has come up with 5 questions for me to answer here. So... here goes! (Oh yeah, if you want to play along, click on her name above and it will take you to her blog.)

1. Is there anything you left off your 100 things list? Oh gosh, yeah! Lots of things! There's no possible way to cram almost 26 years of life into a list of 100 things, at least not my life.

2. Do you ever regret dropping out of school to follow your son's father? That's a good question. There are many different aspects to this. On the one hand, I'm sure my life would be much different if I hadn't dropped out and instead had continued on and got my degree. But, on the other hand, I learned alot of valuable life lessons from that. And if I hadn't done it, I most likely wouldn't have my son now, who I love more than anything in this world, and that alone is worth more than anything else to me.

3. Do you have any plans for your days now Ty is at school? For right now, not really. Probably catching up on lots of housework, enjoying doing the grocery shopping alone, and hopefully more blogging. Eventually, I'll have surgery (I'll tell more about that later) and after that I'm going to try to find a job and maybe go back to school.

4. How did you choose your son's name? Actually, his father chose it. Long before I even got pregnant, he told me that if he ever had a son, that's what he'd name him. He'd always liked the name Tyler and his and his father's middle name was Dwayne, so we named him Tyler Dwayne. Of course, I liked the name too, or else I wouldn't have named him that. ;)

5. What are the best and worst things about your hearing loss? I wouldn't say there are any good things about my hearing loss, really. I suppose it has made me more sensitive to others with a disability or impairment. There are lots of things I would consider bad about it though. It was the number one reason I had to drop out of school. Because where I live, the schools were just not prepared to deal with it, so they pretended like it didn't exist. Also, it makes all interactions with other people extremely difficult, making any sort of personal relationships I had more difficult than they should've been. The number one bad thing, is that I really miss out on alot of things in life because I can't hear.

is it just me?

So, today isn't looking like it will be a good day. First thing that happened this morning, was I walked into the living room to find playdoh everywhere. You couldn't even walk into the room because it was covering the floor. What is it that motivates a kid to do that sort of thing? Does anyone else's 5 year old do these kinds of things? Or is it just me? Sometimes I truly believe that he's planning new ways all the time to drive me nuts, seriously. Hopefully everyone will have a better Saturday than me!

teacher time-outs?

My little deviant child got his first note from the teacher already. She claims he was in the bathroom, peeing "everywhere". Now I say "claims" because he wholeheartedly denied it, and was so upset he was crying. Now, I know there are times when it's hard to tell if your child is lying, but this was not one of those times. I just knew, like in my gut or something, that he was telling me the truth. He was so upset about it, that I almost started crying too. Which brings the obvious question, why would the teacher lie? Now I don't think she was lying but maybe she didn't actually see him and it was another kid. I really don't know what to do... any ideas?

He also informed me, while we were discussing his day, that "Noah" sleeps on his napmat. To which I obviously replied, "Who is Noah?". Noah, apparently, is a "kid", according to Ty. Yeah, that helps! Anyways, I then asked why Noah the Kid was sleeping on his napmat that Mommy had just bought him, and made sure to write his name on, in permanent ink, on both sides. He said he didn't know, and that the teacher was trying to find his mat. Now I know this lady's a teacher, and obviously she's not a total idiot, as she had to get a degree to get this job, but I have to wonder exactly how hard it can be to find a napmat that clearly has his name emblazoned on both sides? I mean, come on! It's starting to sound as if maybe Ms. Teacher needs a little time out?

nothing

So now it's the second day of school. I've put Ty on the bus and come back home to... nothing. Yep, nothing. Nothing to do, nobody to talk to, nobody to ask me 200 questions an hour, nobody to go behind me and spill kool-aid on my freshly mopped floor. What on Earth am I going to do with myself?

it's all my fault

Oh man! I am SOOO glad today is finally over. I thought Ty was going to explode from being so excited about starting school tomorrow. We had to go buy last minute school supplies that the teacher told me he would need while at the Open House last night and I had to threaten to leave his Spiderman backpack at Walmart. Then we had to go to a different store, because Walmart was all sold out of watercolors and erasers. There he was alright, until we got to the register. Then he started demanding gum, and kept throwing it on the counter. It took all my willpower to calmly make my transaction and keep my patience with him. After we left there, I had to stop by the grocery on my way home to pick up some poptarts, cereal, and milk for breakfast and he started crying because I actually had the NERVE to get the off-brand cereal! Gasp! He's going to be damaged for life now. When he grows up and becomes a serial killer, they'll say it's all my fault for buying that horrible generic cereal for him when he was a child. Ah well... I could be the perfect parent, and still get blamed for whatever goes wrong in his life, so I might as well save a few bucks while I'm traumatizing him.

lack of creative energy?

I haven't written a thing in here since Friday. Not for lack of trying though. I suppose I must have spent what little creative energy I had elsewhere... not exactly sure where though.

I suppose I could tell you about my weekend, although nothing terribly exciting happened. Let's see.... Saturday morning, Ty and I got up early and decided to go for a little walk. We walked around the neighborhood some, but pretty soon it got hot, so we headed back home to the blessed air conditioning.

Then later on, we went and picked up Chad and went out to lunch. We decided to try something new. Actually, the place really isn't new, it's been here for quite awhile, but neither of us had tried it yet. It's a buffet-type restaraunt, that has a combination of American food and Chinese food, a little something for everyone I guess. Chad heaped his plate full of Chinese food, but I chose to eat a small salad and some American food. Not that I don't like Chinese, I normally love it, but I just wasn't in the mood for it really. I really wasn't impressed with the food I ate, although Chad said his Chinese was really good. After that, we headed over to WalMart, where I picked up book number 3 in the Harry Potter series, "The Prisoner of Azkaban".

Then we left there and headed over to the mall, because Chad wanted to look for some new work shoes. As we walked up to the doors of the mall, my stepsister, Jolee, was coming out to smoke a cigarette. She was ranting about her pre-teen daughter, Jade, who was there to get her ears pierced a second time. Jade apparently was throwing a major fit, and was scared to go through with it. I thought maybe Jolee was overexaggerating a bit, until we walked into the mall. There was a large crowd of people standing in front of the store that Jade was in. I guess they had come to see who was dying. After we walked in, she finally let the girl pierce her ears, and then she says, "Wow, that didn't hurt at all!!!" I was pretty amused, myself, having pierced my second holes by myself at the age of 14 with a couple of ice cubes and a needle.

After leaving the mall, shoeless, we came back to my house where I laid down and took a nap while Chad used my computer. He's fascinated with anything to do with motorcycles, and can sit for hours looking at different websites that have nothing but motorcycle stuff on them. Right now, he's decided he's going to lower his bike, and is trying to find information on doing that himself. My opinion is that he really shouldn't try to do anything like that, since he doesn't know what he's doing. But that's my lowly FEMALE opinion, as I know absolutely nothing about bikes, lol. How often does the fact that a man has no idea what he's doing stop him from doing it anyways? All you ladies out there with various household appliances in pieces, let's hear your voice!

After that, we took Ty down to my Dad's house to stay the night, which is where he usually spends his Saturday nights. Then we went back to Chad's house, where we talked to his Mom for awhile before she left to go to Walmart. We laid down and fell asleep, and about an hour later, I dragged myself up and went home.

Sunday was... well Sunday. I usually go to church on Sunday mornings, as was the case this Sunday morning. Nothing spectacular to tell about there. Ty went home with my Dad after church, and I came home until Chad came over when he finished with work. Then we went to his house to pick up his a tool he needed, because he wanted to go to his storage building and measure his bike, because he is seriously considering doing this. After standing there watching him measure his bike every which way he possibly could, he finally had enough measurements for whatever he needed, and we left. Then we went to have lunch at our favorite Mexican restaraunt, and then went back to his house where I watched TV while he napped before time for church again.

After church, we came back to my house so that I could put Ty to bed early, as he needs to start getting into his school routine. Chad looked around on the internet some, while I started on my Harry Potter book. Then it got late, and he went home. I stayed up pretty late talking to my sister on Yahoo IM, and then went to bed and read some more before falling asleep.

So... that's about it. And now, after writing what was supposed to be a short post, because I supposedly had nothing to write about.... I have to start getting ready for Ty's school Open House tonight. We're going to meet his new kindergarten teacher, and look around the school. I went to this school for awhile as a child, but they've renovated it since, so I'm also curious to see what it looks like now. So... maybe I'll post more about that later.