UPDATE_____FINALLY!!!

Well, I know it's been close to a year since I last made an entry. Shame on me! Actually, nothing world shaking has been going on with my CI. I still very much enjoy conversation(face to face) and phone talk, but music is still as bad as ever. I have made 2 visits to my Audie since last update. On the first visit, I asked her to add a BEAM program to attempt to hear better in noisy environments. It really did not help much as the noise was nearly as loud as the the person I was speaking with. Thus, at my last visit, I asked for the addition of a SENSITIVITY program. With this, I can adjust the circle of sound. This has been described as dropping a pebble in the water....the larger the pebble, the bigger the ring of water it makes. One example where it has been useful is on my twice a week 1.6 mile walk with a group at the local Senior Center. We pass a street adjacent to an interstate highway. I have adjusted SENSITIVITY so that it eliminates the car noise, but not the person's voice that I am walking with. I am still experimenting with it, and I will try to re-adjust it the next time I eat in a noisy restaurant so I only hear the folks close to and at my table. Finally, I have decided to listen to a lot more classical and big band type music to see if my brain will ever wake up and hear it properly. I would still recommend going for a CI to anyone who qualifies and wishes to improve their quality of life.