Happy 15 years!

Today marks the 15th anniversary of my partnership with a certain piece of technology - my cochlear implant! I am very thankful to have this wonderful partnership as it has been of huge benefit to me, despite a rocky start with it.

With Cindy Gustin, my audiologist on my switch on day. (Can you tell I looked like an impressed 17 year old?)

I was activated 15 years ago for the first time. After taking a month to heal. My 17 year old self was smart enough at the time to keep a journal of my initial journey. On this day in 2002, I wrote:

An Advantage or a Disadvantage?

Is it an advantage or a disadvantage for the hard of hearing person if they don't hear a fart?

Case in point: my husband recently told me that he often farts in front of me - especially at night when I don't have my hearing assistive devices on. The only time when I do know if he farts without my hearing assistive devices on is when there's a huge stink involved.

Other case in point: We were watching TV and out came this big boom. Me = "what on earth was that!?!'" Husband = *snickering* "I farted" Me = *face of disgust and groan*

So what do you think? Advantage or disadvantage?

I vote advantage. Ignorance can be bliss.

Ava Scribe

If you're deaf or hard of hearing, you'll know that reliable transcription (voice to text) services are valued, and often comes at a hefty cost! This article is about a new transcription app that a new audiologist friend of mine introduced to me not long ago. It's called Ava Scribe (I'll call it Ava for short)! You can find it on your iPhone or Android devices. I have a Samsung, so that gives you a bit of perspective where my technology use is at.

The logo for Ava Scribe

At first, when I heard about Ava I was intrigued. First off, it's free (yay! But there is a slight catch... more on that later), and had the ability to transcribe conversations in real time. Wow. For the deaf or hard of hearing consumer, this could be life changing.