2nd Xmas with my Cochlear Implant

14 days till Xmas and still I haven't finished all my Xmas shopping. University has kept me ever so busy - we had this big Science project, which was interesting but hard and finally we have finished it. Feeling positive about the overall project results. Just one more week left at university then finally we get 3 weeks off, which is needed.


So, what have I been upto over the past few weeks? well, I have had a few trip to Ropewalk Cochlear Implant centre; I had a slight problem with my cochlear implant - struggling to control the sounds and feeling uncomfortable in loud and quiet situation. Somehow when I'm in lecture and the room is quie, it feels like my teacher who is talking to the class that is stand about 5 metres away voice sounds as if she is right next to me and when the voice is loud, I tend to feel it more. Not only that, sitting in a canteen at university the loud background noises got over the top and I got so uncomfortable feeling and hearing it.


So after seening my audiologist about it, it finally got sorted and now I have some new setting and some loudness has been clipped and have a programme where the volume is on lock to stop it turning it up itself which now after 2 weeks with the programme, I have felt so much better and is not seems to be having an problems at all - no more trips to the Implant Centre till my 2year appointment, I hope.


Recently I went to the Ear Foundation Xmas Social and for the 2nd time I've been on the microphone again doing the Xmas Quiz. I could see the different in myself from last years quiz and this years quiz - I felt more confident and I didn't worry too much about my speech. My speech has improved alot - being at university and being surrounded by hearing friends all the time has really helped me though I do still need to work on the loudness of my speech and of course try and say all these biology words properly. Everytime I do a presentation and when I present it sometimes there a word that I struggle to say and sometimes I tend to stutter and give up quite easily and just say "that word" all my mates just laughs, which I don't mind becuase they all understand and my lecture is ok with it and it doesn't effect my marks which is a releif. I don't sign as much anymore so I think that maybe another reason why my speech as improved alot too.

I have added a few pictures of me on the mike and of course you may notice the rudolph on my coil that I created - everyone loves it and have asked me to make some for them. It was a brilliant weekend and It was nice to have Kezia from AB popping in to see us all.

I suppose some of you have noticed my last post "stolen bike" Still no news on that but is feeling positive that I will get it back. However sometime next year I'll be having a knee operation (sports injury) which I hope, the recovery time doesn't take to long - I don't fancy having another year out of sport like I did with my ankle and is hop-ing around everywhere in university on those horrible crutches.

Now Xmas is coming up, I'll be spending my xmas hoilday down in Scarbrough along with the rest of my family and of course go to the church and see If I can keep up with the Xmas song and this year do better at following the lyrics.

So thats it for me now, finally the weekend here and I am off out to see a few friends and enjoy spending sometime with my family and maybe to a bit of online xmas shopping If I have time rather than going out in the cold spending ages searching to buy a certain thing.

Enjoy the Xmas season everyone.

Styling Your Cochlear Implant (Getting Ready for Xmas)

Hey all,
Getting ready for Xmas?? I can't believe Xmas is just round the corner. Anyway, today I went to town today to finish off the last bit of Xmas shopping. Finally I got it all done and now I've gotta do the last part; wrapping them all up - I think I'd end up wrapping myself up since I'm not good at it.


Anyway while I went round town. I saw some Reindeers hair clips - I thought they look so cute then as I looked at them I came up with an idea - lets pimp out my processor into an christmassy Cochlear Implant. I knew I had a party to go to this weekend, so I thought, why not I'll just buy it and when I get home I'll see what I can do with them.

So, instead of wrapping up the xmas present - I decided to turn the reindeer hair clip into a reindeer coil cover. check it out


It is quite simple to make. All I did was buy the clips that has an xmas charactor on then cut down the clip where there is a small peice of metal left on the back of the reindeer, file the edges so it isn't sharp to either scratch or cut something and then just stick it on your magnetic coil. So after making it, heres the result.........

Now have fun and you try it.

Please Note that this does not damage your processor!

Merry Xmas everyone,
katie-louise

Stolen Motobike!

Note *This is not a CI related*

Last night I had my motocross bike stolen. Thoses that lives in the Derby Are, Please help and spread the word to try and find my bike!

STOLEN KAWASAKI KX125 (Team Green with Gold petrol cap and black pannels with the number "7" ) Stolen in Chaddesden Area (Derby) between 7:30 - 9:30pm

If anyone seen it please call crime number; 0345 123 33 33 or 07852157548. Please help and spread the word!

Questions and Unusual Coil Picture!

Afternoon all,

I just like to say sorry to thoses that has sent me an e-mail with your question about the cochlear implants in the past month or so and hasn't yet had a reply from me. I've been ever so busy at university working on a project and also had other things to do.

so, I'll try and answer you question as soon as I am free.

Anyway, thought I'd share this with you - I wouldn't say its a good thing, but everyone who has had a cochlear implant has bound to had something stuck on their coil by accident or someone would put it on, on purpose.

One night I was out at a friend house a few months ago and they decided to put a WKD bottle top on my coil -which made my coil stand out which to us WKD means WICKED to us! Enjoy the picture....


Anyway, i'd better be off - hope you all like the picture. I'll be updating my blog sometimes over the next few days on what I've been up to over past month. So, watch this space!

Playing sports with your C.I

Over the past few weeks, I have seen people asking about how do I wear my C.I while playing any sports !

Lets start with managing C.I - I do have small ears, and everyday I wear a small 'Huggie that attaches to my C.I which looks like this:

Wearing a 'Huggie' with my C.I has made a big different to me. Even though I had a smaller T-mic, the implant would still fly off. So, wearing a 'Huggie' with your implant to wrap round your ears should help you

Not only I wear a huggie while playing sports. With my huggie, I tend to wear a small sports material elastic band instead of those big headband. I place the band over my head by but putting the coil wire underneath. That also stops the implant from falling off and of course the coil doesn't come off as much as it used to. Placing the handband on top the coil wire doesn't affect the sounds coming through to your ears. I found that big material head bands tend to make a lot of rustling noise and it still made the implant falls off.

I wear the band in all the sports I play all sort of sports such as football, tennis, running, gym etc. I would recommend it to other C.I users that are playing sports to wear it.

Recently Advanced Bionics has been testing the new T-mic ear mould (pictured below) This can be another way to prevent your cochlear implant from falling off.



Sometimes while playing sports, you don't always hear the whistle even if your wearing your implant, as you too busy focusing on the game. There has been times where I was playing football and I had the ball, continued to run and the referee would blow his whistle and I am still running with it.

So, what should I do to prevent this?

To help me from knowing when to stop, or when its a foul. I ask my referee to hold up a flag which he hold throughout the match. Every time he blows the whistle he would raise the flag up in the air too.; that helps me a lot. Sometimes when they are behind you and you don't hear the whistle or hear the flag you would still continue to run. This problem, I manage to solve with my team mates. I teaching my team some deaf awareness and ask them, if I had the ball and the referee blows his whistle, all my team mates would stop and stand still. That way, I can see why the game has been stopped because no-one moving around.

playing as a team, you get players shouting my out my name when they want the ball, then when I don't hear it, it goes someone else. After I had problems with this situation. I taught my team mates to wave at me as they are shouting my name which made the teamwork much better.

I There are loads of issue out there that can be dealt with. if you have any question about this post. e-mail me, hopefully I'll get back to you

katie-louise x.

C.I actor wanted!

My mum has found this , great to know that they are looking to get an actor with a Cochlear Implant!

BBC searches for CI recipient to play lead role in new drama

The BBC is looking to cast an aspiring deaf (or hearing impaired) actress in the lead female role of new drama, The Silence.
The girl should be aged around 16 to 19 and does not have to have had acting experience, but should have a lively and outgoing personality and be up for the challenge of working with a film crew and professional actors in Dublin.
In the drama, the character has a cochlear implant and is learning to talk, so the girl should ideally have some speech.
Shooting will take place from mid November to early January 2010. There will be a break for Christmas and New Year.
The production is being made for BBC One by Company Pictures, who produce Skins and Shameless. It will be directed by Dearbhla Walsh, who has just won the Emmy Award for Little Dorritt.
If you or anyone you know would be interested in being seen for this project please get in touch with us, and we'll forward you everything you need to know! Email us at hello@thedeafblog.co.uk.

Summer Almost Over

Can't you believe it that ten weeks of summer is almost over. I have just two week left before going back to university! uh-oh!

I am looking forward to see all my uni friends again; missed them so much. I am certaintly not looking forward to the amount of work to be done in my 2nd year (lets hope it easy)

I'd a great summer so far, I've done soo much and have been sooooo busy! I spend the summer working and had at least 2 weeks hoilday.

I did alot of football coaching over the summer with young children and then spend a few weeks at a Deaf camp doing all sorts such as canoning, climbing, treking, cycling, swimming, visiting places etc. I have enjoyed it some much. Being a team leader gives you loads of responsibility and you can learn some much, looking forward to doing that again next year, but at a different place - I think next year I would be doing that in USA

Not only I have been working. Advanced Bionics/Manchester cochlear implant centre have asked me to join the football teens day that they had in manchester. Good time, it was great to meet the young teenagers that had C.I and also enjoys football too.I had a bit of a kick around with them and then visited Manchester City Stadium. Learnt so much about Man City!

Also, I was invited to a sports award and repesented Derby County for the 2nd time.

2 weeks of hoilday at Golden Sands with family and friends was awsome - It was nice to relax on the beach and enjoy the sunshine - the night entertainment was great too. Thanks to my implant, I am able to understand it more than I used to. I did have an accident with my implant - lost 2 batteries which fall out of Richard bag which had a hole in. Another call to the implant centre, grr.

There was one night were the was a party in the dark, so we all had these light things. I ended up putting one light on my coil - check out the picture!


Now I have only 2 weeks left, I have a few plans. I'll be visiting Advanced Bionics for a small meeting twice this month - and I'll be sorting out my university books (I really do want another 10 weeks off) and erm.... Get my self back at the gym, had 2 months off and I've missed my gym routine. I love the workout and swimming. Football season has just started so back in the game again!

Thats it for me now, check out the next post on how well I am doing with my ears