Yupee!

Just got the news from Mandy, I got an all-clear to do the implant in EITHER ear. I'm relieved because I prefer to preserve the hearing that I have in my left ear - little though it is.

My doctor called Mandy and she immediately SMS'ed me. Wow, things are actually moving, it's getting more and more real for me now. I guess I'd better prepare my passport!

What's next for me now? I get referred by my specialist to the UK Hospital where my implant will hopefully take place. I then go to the UK for my review, to see if I qualify for the implant programme.

Stuffat tal-Qarnit (Octopus Stew)

Ingredients
900g octopus, cleaned, cut into 3cm cubes
4 tbsp Olive Oil
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 red chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped (optional)
5 anchovy fillets
2 tsp capers
8 olives
2 tins of tomatoes
125ml Dry White Wine
1 bunch Parsley finely chopped
1 pinch Salt to season

Method

Heat the olive oil in a heavy, deep, frying pan over a moderate heat and when hot, add the garlic, chillies (if using), anchovies and capers. Stir and fry for about 30 seconds.

While still on the heat, tip in the octopus pieces, followed by the tomatoes, parsley and wine. Simmer on a very low heat for about an hour, or until the octopus is tender. Season with salt and serve over spaghetti.

Yum!

Mandy doesn't like this Octopus very much, but I'll try and tempt Maria - who likes eating as much as her dad does!

Still waiting

I'm still waiting with bated breath for my CT scan results. I've been told by someone on the Cochlear Implant Users Group that people rarely fail this part of the assessment so I'm quite confident it will go through.

I've been getting lots of information about cochlear implants recently. There are three major manufacturers of implants:

Cochlear

Advanced Bionics

Med-El

They're broadly the same for performance, although there are slight differences between how they process sound. I'm currently favouring Cochlear Freedom for several reasons (no this isn't an advertising plug!):

• The manufacturers are currently the market leader
• The new Freedom sound processor works with a new sound software called SmartSound which sounds (no pun intended!) pretty cool!
• Another implant firm's implants were withdrawn from the market after problems to do with moisture
• It's water resistant (it gets HOT in Malta!!)
• They're Australian and Australians make great beer. A country that makes such good beer can't be all that bad!

My first step towards the implant

Today I took my first, tottering, hopeful step towards obtaining an implant. I went to St. Luke's Hospital in G'Mangia and had a CT Scan. Basically, I went to St. Luke's with Mandy (and parked inside for 30c yipee no circling for ages anymore!), went to the X-Ray area, sat down for maybe 2 minutes -and to my utter amazement I was called in immediately.

I went in with a little trepidation - I'd had a CT scan 20 years ago when I first went to hospital when I lost my hearing. That time, the process took something like 30 minutes, I froze half way to death - and since I'm deaf it was a bit of a sensory deprivation thing with my eyes closed, not hearing a thing and not being able to move. To cap it all, I was injected with a special radioactive dye to make my brain show up a little clearer (am I that brainless?!)

Anyway, THIS time, a very friendly nurse sat me down, braced my head so I wouldn't move - and the whole process took 30 seconds. Wow, talk about advances in technology.

Now my scan is to be interpreted by a consultant radiologist so we can see if my cochlea is suitable for an implantation. Fingers crossed.

What I'm reading right now

I'm reading King of Torts, by John Grisham. Actually, correction - I'm re-reading the book. I read it a couple of years ago, but I like to read a book again. One of the problems that I meet is that when I'm enjoying a book I jump ahead so much that I miss clumps of it, so when I reread the book a second time sometimes I get to know why a certain character acted in such a way 'Oh, that's why he thumped the living daylights out of him - so he wasn't a psycho after all!).

Oh, for people in Malta - there's a wonderful second hand bookshop in St. Paul's Bay called Tommy's. It's behind the 2 petrol stations that face each other in St. Paul's. You get great books for half the normal price at times - or even cheaper if they're a little dog eared.

What is a Cochlear Implant?

A Cochlear Implant is a device designed to help severe to profoundly deaf individuals who gain little or no benefit from hearing aids. With their cochlear implant they gain awareness of environmental sounds, most can understand speech without lip-reading and some can use the telephone. The cochlear implant system converts acoustic sound waves into weak electric currents, which are delivered to the immediate vicinity of the auditory nerve in the inner ear or cochlea. The auditory nerve is stimulated by these electric currents and transmits nerve impulses to the brain, where they are understood as acoustic sensations.

(BCIG, http://www.bcig.co.uk/professional/allprofs_faqa.htm)

Hello, World!

I guess I'm talking to myself at this point but who cares! I've started off this blog to keep track of my progress towards obtaining a cochlear implant. I might not post much - this is really for me to keep a diary more than anything else. It's a long process towards obtaining this implant but I've been deaf for 20 years, a few more months won't make that much of a difference.

I guess people in the computing field will find the title very apt. Most programmers learning a new programming language write their first program to get the computer to say, Hello World! Since implantation effectively turns us into a part computer (apologies to Michael Chorost for pinching the line but it's a good one!), if I get the implant I'm determined to hear my own voice say those words first. From what I have heard, if I'm lucky I'll hear a quasi Chip and Dale kind of voice, but that's even more apt I guess!