Implementation

We went live with a site a week or so ago. It happened to be a public holiday, so I was not at work while the site was brought up. Like all IT implementations, this one was quite frantic - things going wrong at the last minute, small issues back and forth. Phone calls here there and everywhere. Mobile phones ringing, calls back and forth. SMS popping up every few minutes.

Then it dawned on me - these things are actions I couldn't have dreamed of just a short year ago. Now, it's easy enough to take these things for granted, but not then - the idea of making a simple phone call even to my wife was such a distant dream.

Sounds of joy...

My cochlear implant and I have become firm chums, but few things can be considered as more beautiful as interacting with your children. I found communicating with my daughter, Maria, very difficult before I got my implant and she was one of the main driving forces behind me obtaining my implant. Maria is now almost 4 and my implant is now as part of her life as it is my own. When she's annoyed with me (teasing her for instance) she removes the headpiece from me. The other day I shamefully kept my implant plugged in onto the TV when I was listening to a TV programme while I was playing with her. She was pretty angry with me and she cheekily told me to remove the cable right now and almost made me take my processor off too - so it was a matter of negotiation to be allowed to leave my headpiece on!

But.... something even more special happened a few days ago... I guess it's about time to mention to all and sundry that Mandy and I are in the family way again and are expecting our second child in a month or so (yes she IS 8 months pregnant!!!) and... I was so overjoyed to hear our baby's heartbeat - I never heard Maria's so this was especially special for me. The fascinating sound of the frantic bleeps of the heartbeat of that small child yet to be born was something very emotional and particularly moving for me.

A year on.

A year ago right now, I was sitting in my hospital bed, waiting, waiting waiting. I still remember the thoughts going through my head - the fear, the anticipation, the terror that something would go wrong, the firm conviction that I was doing the right thing. I still remember sitting listlessly in my armchair, watching Argentine football on Five.

What a year it's been. Would I have anticipated that I would be using a phone, listening to music, following meetings? Would I have expected that my family life would have changed so much? What about the career boost that renewing my hearing would give me? Not in a month of Sundays. So today, it's really two birthdays - Mandy's (who is 31 today) and mine - the day I was reborn.