Cochlear Implant Update

Thought I'd post a quick update on the CI progress.

I won't bore you with the details of the "S" program and the "P" program and thresholds and fidelity.  And while they've improved, I don't have any test scores for you.  We won't discuss an audiogram or decibels.  But I do have a story.

Tonite at one point while we were getting ready for bed in Evelyn's room, Heidi went into Lydia's room.  Evelyn however insisted Lydia, Barley, and I all stay in her room with her.  She proceeded to shut the door, move her stepstool to the light switch, and turn the lights off.  Not all that uncommon really.

But here is the weird part.

Evelyn and I had an entire conversation in the dark.

We mostly talked about the dark, and how hard it was to see.

"It's dark."
"Yes, Evelyn, it is dark in here."
"I can't see."
"That's because it's hard to see in the dark."
"Uh huh."

We talked about where Barley and Lydia were, etc.  There was lots of giggling too.  You know, things folks in a dark room normally talk about.  I would assume that, but I wouldn't know.  It was the first conversation I've ever had in a dark room in my entire life.

It's been the longest journey, and sometimes still is.  But in that one moment all my struggles disappeared; the frustrations, the confusion, the tinnitus, they dissolved into nothing at all.  It was worth all that and more.  I would do anything, to talk about dark with Evelyn.  To answer her questions about dark, to help her find and hug Lydia, to help her pet a dark Barley.

I don't have any pictures to share of that moment.  It's an entirely different kind of memory.