Anything for C-Note

Forming a Hearing Impairment Group – To be or not to be?

Posted on the April 16th, 2011 under Support Group by C-Note's Dad

My wife and I have been discussing the need for a Hearing Impairment group here in the Roanoke/Lynchburg/Danville, Virginia area. My wife has an elementary school teaching background and currently teaches homeschool. I’m a project manager with an engineering background.

• Should we make it face-to-face only or do some sessions by web conference (consider rising gas prices or folks living too far from others with similar experiences/needs)?
• Where should we meet?
• How large or small would the group be?
• What are the needs of the hearing impaired community and their friends / family?

This is a perfect example of where we will need to “Connect to Create.”

Totally Worth It

Posted on the April 16th, 2011 under Day-to-Day Events by C-Note's Dad

We’ve been so busy enjoying the benefits of the implants that I haven’t made time to update this blog. Shortly after the second implant was healed up and activated, I landed a new job, requiring us to move 4 hrs away from UNC’s CCCDP. C-Note’s speech with two implants has skyrocketed. Her language is much clearer, she is now able to read (at age 6), and she doesn’t seem as tired at the end of the day from the technology. We were able to find a certified AV speech therapist nearby that really does a fine job with our daughter and have elected to home school her.

Our church in VA bought two receivers (miniature antenae) for her cochlear implants to allow us to use an FM microphone with her implant. Using this combination, we are able to speak to our daughter from 50 feet away, through walls, or across a store. The FM system worked so well that we bought a second microphone and often use both of them simultaneously to allow our daughter to hear us talk to her from the front seats of the car or in a very noisy pizza parlor.

The largest issues we deal with now are related more to rain getting on the implants or the implants getting erased from static discharge on playground slides. We’ve been so busy enjoying the relief of our daughter’s new access to sound that I often don’t find myself having much to say on this blog other than it was totally worth it.