Oops...I'm in trouble...

I got in trouble with my parents last night regarding my late nights on the computer! Not just because I stayed up but because I locked the door of my room and i took my cochlear implant off and I couldnt hear anything while I was typing away at my computer! My mum went a lil mad because she doesn't like me locking the door at night in case there ever was a fire and she couldn't alert me because I couldn't hear! Not that i'd keep the door locked all night but I wanted some peace and quiet on the computer! Looks like i got the total opposite with my mum and brother knocking on the door at 3am...

When that didn't alert me, they resorted to using a flash light throught the cracks of my door and putting notes under the door which i finally got the message, literally, to go to bed and turn off the computer! Needsless to say, I stayed locked in the room til my parents went to bed again with me passing through a note under the door saying i'll go to bed but ooops! But i see their point of view with the locked door at night! so i wont be doing THAT again! My mum also reminded me that if im going to lock the door at night, at least keep my cochlear implant on in case she needs to alert me....

C.I Community...

I have set up a group on Facebook which is called The C.I community! The group welcomes all walks of life who have recieved a cochlear implant whether it be years ago or just recently! If you would like to join the group, just click on the logo! What are you waiting for?? Go join! :D

Little Whispers...

I lent my mum my mobile to borrow because I had free minutes and she wanted to call a friend! I carried on with my laptop browsing the net/ chatting and I could hear some whispering. I looked around to see what it was and it was coming from the mobile that my mum was on! haha the volume was on high so I could hear the person talking out of the phone even though I didnt have it near my ear or even holding the phone. It wasn't even on speakerphone where you press a button on your mobile so everyone can hear it! I was about a few feet away! hehe it always makes me smile when I hear whispers like that! :)

Not long left to vote...

Theres not long left to vote now peoplle! The voting finishes on 31st January 2009! Vote if you think my blog is worth a mention!! x

groovychik007 http://www.wellsphere.com/linkOut.s?link=http%3a%2f%2fwww.lozsmedicaljourney.blogspot.com

Louuuud noises & magnets....

I got up for volunteering this morning and went for breakfast WITHOUT the cochlear implant and I watched as my parents with their funny ways of mouthing things so I can lipread them when they are talking and trying to use little signs! In the end, sometimes they give up and just write it down for me ha! I have to leave my bathroom door open sometimes because if they need me or want to do something in the bathroom and they knock on the door, I cant hear them. I can sometimes though with their banging on the door vibrations... haha

Anyway, I chilled out on the latpop for a bit before I was due at volunteering then when it was time to get ready I would go to my room to put my cochlear implant on as when I first put my implant on, it can be loud then settle down. Except today... because my 3G esprit cochlear implant volume doesnt have a lock on it by choice, I put it on and it was sooooooooo loud! It was right at the highest volume you could put it on! So I ripped it off my ear and turned it down back to the normal 4 and a half volume. I saw it was all the way to 7!

I normally would check my volume before I put it on! Must have been a lil sleepy today!!

At volunteering at the school, we had a science lesson which I had to help one of the pupils write because his arm was in plaster as he had broken it. Imagine not being able to do anything with the hand you normally use! I would find it very fustrating!

I asked the teacher whether we would be working with magnets for science lessons and she said maybe next week, I let her know about my cochlear implant and the problems around magnets. It's always ok with little magnets such as fridge magnets but I cannot do electromagnets like they do in science classes. I was never allowed to be near an electromaget or static electricity experiements in high school so it was only fair to warn the teacher! She told me that she would let me know what magnets we will be using and I will be ok if they are just small ones! :0) I may even educate the kids on MY magnet in my head! hehe My external part of the cochlear implant sticks to somethings if it gets close enough! Such as an umberella handle when I'm holding it up and it used to stick to my bed when i had a metal bunkbed! Thankfully i have a wooden bed now! :0)

New Batteries, Please...!

Sometimes, I ask my mum to order my "Power ONE Implant plus" cochlear implant batteries but lately I have stuck to picking up the phone myself and ordering them!

I ordered some over the phone last week because I was down to 2 6-packs but they never arrived! Luckily, we keep emergency batteries everywhere!! We keep some in my parents car, in my mum's bag, in my bag! hehe You can never be too careful if you're caught short and your batteries have just gone especially if you have somewhere to be and need to be listening! I hate it when you are somewhere and enjoying something and your hearing just stops dead because the batteries have gone! I mostly always change my batteries before they have the chance to run out though because I hate it when it just cuts out!!! it can be annoying when you are in the middle of a conversation too! My batteries usually last about a week depending how many hours Ive had my cochlear implant switched on as sometimes I have late nights which is always more battery time!

My batteries that I ordered didnt arrive! I was getting worried I would run out but I called up the cochlear centre again yesterday instead of asking mum to do it.

They sent some emergency ones via 1st class post and I recieved them yesterday, the rest followed today! I won't have any trouble with my cochlear implant cutting me out of conversations woop! :D

Funny looks of phones and headphones...

I have my own silly way of using the phone as maybe some other CI user's do too!

I can attract some funny looks from people when I'm calling up my mum if I'm in town or somewhere like that, as when I use the phone, I put it to the microphone on the cochlear implant which is at the top of the ear instead of the actual ear! So people look and they must think "why isn't she holding the phone to her ear?" haha

I do it at the top of the ear where the microphone is because that's where I get the best possible sound from the phone espeically if I'm in a busy place!

It's the same with headphones which isn't always good as when I used to wear small ones for the hour long bus journey to Bradford or long car journeys to Newcastle, when you put them on the front top of the ear, they tend to flop off over the front of my head because headphones are designed to go on the actual ears.I tried a few ways to keep them on like using headbands but my head is so damn small! haha I never really agreed with the music leads that go from an ipod directly to the CI because if someone wanted to tell me something, I wouldn't be able to hear them because while the music lead is on the CI and connected to the Ipod, the music on the ipod is all you can hear rather the surrounding sounds around you, which I was not a fan of! Which is why I like to listen to music from the laptop or the music channels! I like to play music when I'm doing something such as making things and I sing along which is probbably not the most attractive thing about me!!!! haha

A Lot Like Love...

"It's so easy, To think about Love, To Talk about Love, To wish for Love, But it's not always easy, To recognize Love, Even when we hold it.... In our hands."--Jaka

Love is like a river, never ending as it flows, but gets greater with time.

Life gets very alone for me at imes. Do you ever feel lonely even when you’re in the company of others? I do sometimes, I feel I want to meet people or that one person who clicks in my jigsaw puzzle of life and makes me feel worthful and never lonley because I know I have someone around.

I wish to have all those llttle cute guestures in life, little kisses and cuddles from a special someone.. Something ive not had in my life before. I’ve always been single, yes, not even a little spot of kissing! At school, I stuck to my work and my friends like the geek I was! I love that I had a great time at school and got the grades I wanted. Although I had more time on my hands during college, still nothing happened romanticly, had great fun with friends though!
I imagine being in love with someone must be magical but it’s the finding someone that’s hard!

Ive never had the pleasure of having a boyfriend so it’s not surprising I want to experience that. Everytime I like a guy, theres always obstacles in the way such as distance or work or they just plainly don’t like me the same way…

I can be a right flirt when I find the right person but somehow action wise, nothing happens such as first kiss. Sometimes it can be all talk and no action! Well, I want the action! I want everything thing love could possible bring! Cute,shy kisses, holding hands, talking and everyhing and anything til the wee early hours but also sharing dreams and what you both want from the future, lying on the grass cloud watching or even star gazing…

Being in hosptial following a life changing experince can make you want more from life and want to experience everything because life is short and anything could happen. My parents reminded me tonight how close to death I was (yes again!) , and that I had to be shocked alive again (as they always do during watching hospital programmes saying “you had that done ha””! ) I’m not saying I want to find someone and get marrried! I’m too young for that yet, I just want to find a lovley guy to be with and see what happens! I’ll certainly be dreading Valentine’s day when it comes next month if I’m on my own once again…

People often tell me it will come and im sure it wil, til then I will continue with my pottering around in life. It gets fustrating thoughs seeing couples and my heart melts because I’ve never had it happen to me. People who have a partner should consider themselves very lucky indeed.

Bad Hands...

The cold weather and combination of washing my hands a lot is taking its toll. Since I began having OCD in 2004, it has progressively got worse. My hands have got very rough despite trying various hand creams. They, at times go very red and blistered especially in winter when the cold gets to them! They can be painful too at times. Even though they are red, I just can’t help the washing of my hands at many times of the day…

This fustrates me because it’s so hard to stop but I cant stop long enough for my hands to get better! My hands are fantastic is the summer when it’s warm and the sunshine gets on them and they go a bit more softer than they are in winter! Sometimes, to my parents, they say it looks like I have red gloves on sometime makes me feel bad about them!

Here are what my hands are like at the moment: you can see how dry they are. They feel so old and crinkly like when you’ve been in a bath too long!! Which dissapoints me because I love them when they are all soft and pinky normal skin colour! I am trying a sterile cream at the moment now so see if that helps them!

Bad Bad hands!!! :(

CI's and colds...

Today I woke up with a sore throat and some tiredness! I find that when I have a sore throat or a cold, my hearing from my cochlear implant is affected and sometimes seem a bit quieter than usual or a bit funny... When I am tired or have a cold, i am more likely to have tinnitus or the CI hearing sounds a little werid and fuzzy! I guess it's unavoidable since the throat nose and ears are all connected. i even found a change in sound when I had my tracheostomy in 2007, it sounded almost raspsy like I was a dalek from Dr Who! I lost my speech for a few days and relied on a white board to write on. It also took a while for my voice to become strong again, I could just about whisper but I had to talk to get it back! I was always worried about the hole in my throat but docs always reassured me the voice would get stronger as time goes on and it did. I am quite good at a screaming match when I have one i can tell you now so I can be used to my voice being loud at home! Whereas, in the big wide world, the voice goes quiet as I get to meet new people and do new things...

BUT I am gaining confidence and learning to ask and interact with people as thats what volunteering in a school is all about! It's great fun along and I gat a good sense of acheivement in myself! Which comes to the point, that I think 2009 may be the making of Laura??

Who knows!

2008 was a fantastic year for me regarding confidence and learning to how to be more comfortable around people rather than being shy & I did my best to get stuck into whatever I planned to do n enjoy it!

I have volunteering this afternoon but looking forward to getting back into it! I also rang the Cochlear implant centre and ordered me some batteries like it was nothing! haha

I hope everyone else has a good start to the new year! if not, then as the saying goes...

Things can only get better! X

New Year, More confident me...?

The New Year 2009 has started off great for me so far so I hope it continues! Im glad my new year’s started off better than last years! I enjoyed the night at my friend’s house! There was wii game fun and I brought my Wii fit board along! :D I have been trying to over come my balance problems with it! There are programs on it to try and make ur balance better and it makes it fun such as the step one where you have to follow the beat of the music and do the steps. I rock at that one haha

It was nice to spend New Year’s Eve with my friend because normally I’m with my parents and generaly people their age. I don’t have a problem with that but I get so bored because it’s my parent’s friends rather than my own and I just feel isolated around them sometimes! My life is mostly around older adults rather people my own age so I always keep trying to find people my own age and make new friends. Either way I was pleased to go to my mates and celebrate with them! I had a lot of fun! I can see my confidence growing even more since I got out of hosptial in 2007 and with the weight gain, I have recieved lots of comments all positive! On New Year's Eve, my friend's mum commented how much better I look with my weight gain and that I was looking happier in my self, which I am! :0) Although, i know my social life could be better and go out more and making new friends etc...

But I know this... I know I can't change a lot and I like to stay home a lot. I have never really liked smoking or going out getting drunk! I can go to a nice pub for a meal or to chat but clubbing NO THANK YOU! It may be boring but I like to socialise with my friends as a group or on a one to one basis, going to the cinema or going to town, spending time at each other's house's and having fun! I do wish I could change slightly and go to some of the places my friends go to, knowing me though, I would be moaning a bit to go home as I am tired so I don't go with them as I dont want to spoil their night but oh well I can still have a good time at home :0)

You can't change who you are and what you llke & not like! :0)