March! Gosh, It’s been 6 weeks since my processors were activated. It would take hundreds of words to describe how much my life has changed. Things I could never do before – talk with my friends on the phone, talk with my grandkids on FaceTime – I now enjoy. A pine warbler was outside the RV window and the sound was so interesting, detailed and rich. 

Covid-19. I am an immunosuppressed kidney transplant recipient – 20 years out – and this Covid-19 has me scared. I’m self-isolating to prevent exposure. I wasn’t able to do a huge shopping trip because the number of people in grocery stores. I normally shop at odd hours to avoid the crowds. Barb shops and we use bleach to clean packages coming in to the RV. Oh, yes. We finished renovating our house and it gets listed today. Our goal before the virus was to sell the house and move closer to our grandchildren. Now, we’re trying to decide what to do at all. Sticking in this lovely state park seems a good bet at least until the house sells. So not only have I been learning how to hear again, but the rest of life is topsy-turvy.

I’m still experiencing taste bud issues. A persistent metallic taste throughout my mouth and reactivity to salt and sugar that blow both flavors up to an intolerable level leave me not so hungry. 

Aural rehabilitation has been a blast. I use Angel Sounds, listen to audiobooks, talk on the phone, and was talking to anyone who would stop a minute when I was out – not now with the virus tho, I’m home. Barb reads challenging word sets to me – “P” Vs. “T” sounds are a problem. Pill – Till, pick one ‘fail’. It’s mostly interesting and funny. I’ve not been able to do the level of rehab I needed because of house renovations and Covid keeping me home. With hope there will be more time for more rehab now.

With hope you are all social distancing etc. I read a good thing, “Don’t do social distancing because you could get the virus. Practice social distancing as you HAVE the virus and protect others in your community.”

How things have changed! In this Covid-19 world, we are living in our 28’ RV. We got the house on the market and it sold in four days – we’re just waiting for closing now. We had planned to go west and to find a new home. All of that is put on hold since RV travel is restricted by private and state campground closures.

I am SO GRATEFUL I had a cochlear implant! Beyond grateful. Without the incredible improvement in hearing, isolation would be torture for me. I talk on Zoom with family and friends, big groups of us. Barb and I have started the Mindfulness based meditation, MSBR, eight week class. I meditate with my eyes closed, listening to the guide (that would have been utterly impossible before CI). 

Barb complains that I speak so softly now she can’t hear me!

I am still doing aural rehabilitation – even though my university based cochlear audiologist is no longer working. 

With hope, things will return to ‘normal’ in the next year or so.

Time keeps passing and having a cochlear system sure gets more interesting. I need to learn to locate the direction a vehicle is coming from and the direction a bird song originates!

Luckily the University near me has finally figured out the online situation for Cochlear training and rehab. I cannot wait. I have things I want to discuss with the Cochlear Audiologist who runs the group. For those interested, my taste buds continue dysfunction, at first I wasn’t bothered by it. Now, I cannot wait for those nerves to recover! I’m already super skinny and food tasting ‘off’ is no help to my appetite. Mean is 20 months to recovery per one of the studies I read. There is so much that is positive and that my cochlear adds to my life, it feels like things balance to the fabulously lucky side of the scales.