"I can hear you now!"

I can even hear my own illustrious typing--huzzah!!
OK so we went to Dr. W's and first he checked the site to make sure everything was kosher...we were good to go. Beth says there's still a tiny bit of swelling but that's OK. Apparently roller coasters are kind of a no-go unless I take off the CI and secure it with someone else, but I think I can handle that (not all my friends are coaster riders). So anyway, I go back to see him in 3 months just to make sure everything is OK.

Then I saw Beth. First we checked all the electrodes (22) to make sure they worked, which they did (yay!). Then we did the first map which was threshold markers; basically soft and loud sounds. It's pretty crude, but whatever. So I had to indicate whenever I heard the random beeping in my ear. Now this can take a while to master, but eventually we got it done. Once we had this first map (which took awhile since there were 22 channels to check out), Beth activated the thing and let me try to understand speech with it. At first I heard Beth's voice and a lot of what sounded like radio static. Then her voice sort of merged with the static and I got this cartoony kind of thing, but it didn't really matter, because I knew what the heck she was saying. And I didn't have to slavishly follow her lips and guesstimate!! Huzzah! At first it's still sort of hard for me to understand you but the more you talk to me the more I get used to you. And everyone's voices sort of sound the same (Mickey/Minnie) in the beginning, until I get used to your sound. But the point is, even if it's sort of crude, I can freakin' hear you! Mom and I actually had like real conversation in the car on the way home which DID NOT happen before. Cars were actually the worst because I couldn't look at the person's lips and there was road noise to contend with. But I could hear all of her "father from a Christmas Story" comments on the other drivers. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing (kidding mom). So anyway, keep talking to me so I can get used to you!
I went home and practiced the music which went really well. My singing is already a lot better even though sometimes I get static in my ear. But I can hear the pitches again and that rocks my world! I have choir pracgice tomorrow night so we'll see how it really goes. But Beth said it will just keep getting better b/c the brain is so adaptable. I know mine is.
Had a Parish Council meeting here tonight which was GREAT! I actually got everything! Well, almost everything. Not totally everything. But that's OK. So I am looking forward to work tomorrow to see what happens. I warned my boss that they might all sound liek Mickey. :) But who cares? This is awesome!
I really don't want to take it off. Is that weird???