Seattle recap

To sum up the Seattle trip....
The tests at The University of Washington... I worked with four people. Dr. Drennan, the professor administering the tests, who I did not see very much.... I worked primarily with a very kind audiologist, Elyse and an engineer, Jong Ho, and a little bit of time with Nikita.
Some of the tests, I was slightly familiar with because I had done some of them at Cleveland Clinic. The music tests(those weren't so bad)...... but that was not all!!!!
I literally gave them all I had and left both testing days feeling spent and actually sick to my stomach. The first night I could not get the testing noises out of my memory and laid in bed thinking about them! Though it is hard to explain what they were like in the written word, the one that really troubled me was the they played plain white noise and then a rapidly changing white noise with no pause. I had to determine which was changing the first or second sound. It sounds easy, but some of them were so quick I had to guess. The bad thing about the tests there, is a lot of them gave you feedback as to whether or not you got the answer right (it would light up on the laptop I was working from) and then I would start to get freaked out if I was doing poorly. It would have been better not to know. There were sentences mixed with noise and then one with four pitches, one was slightly altered, and when I say slightly... I am not joking! In addition to that, I kept taking the same tests over and over again... but with different programming strategies. I had to do the tests four times with the four different strategies. Without getting very technical, they had just one electrode turned on, so I couldn't really understanding speech very well and two of the tests were in analog sound not digital, so it sounded like clicks and scratches... very weird. After taking each test four times I would put my own processor back on... and everything just sounds weird. It really messes with your head... which is why I think I got the stomach ache. Needless to say, they were hard. I can only hope the information I gave them was valuable and yes... even though the tests made me kind of physically sick... I would do any testing again in a heartbeat. I want to contribute in any way I can. That is so important to me!

Seattle, it was gorgeous. I was enthralled with Mt. Rainer. If you don't know what it looks like, please look it up online. I kept looking at it, to make sure it was still there. We felt like we got to see and do a lot there and the weather was gorgeous. I would go back to the pacific northwest in a minute. The mountains are gorgeous and Puget Sound and all of the surrounding water was beautiful as well. We were also really impressed with how eco-friendly the city is. It was a chance for us to momentarily not worry about Adam's job search and we needed that time to re-group.

Other updates.... I leave very, very early Sunday morning for Los Angeles with mom. I will be testing for two days and on the third day, I get to do a presentation about my whole story for some employees at both of their facilities. I am working on it now. I am amazed at how fresh some of those wounds still are after 4 years. I am sure I will get emotional talking about it, which I hope will make my story more meaningful to those hearing it. I also asked some of my former students to make a dvd about life pre and post implant to show as a part of my presentation. They are coming over today to interview Addison. What is also cool about this trip, is mom and I get to see Dana, my producer for 3 wishes. Adam has a few upcoming interviews, so that keeps us hopeful about his job search....

Lastly, our dear friend Dave passed away in his sleep early Wednesday. He has been given so much more time than the doctors ever dreamed. We were all strengthened in his unwavering faith, but my heart aches for his family. I know these first few months for his family will pass in a blur... it is about 6 months from now when people think you should be all better that Sarah and the girls will need support.

He reminds me something I know well. It isn't the bad things in life that need to define us. It is what we do with those circumstances that say everything about who we are. Dave remained faithful when I know from my own experience you want to shout at God... Why??? He never stopped joking, even though life wasn't very funny. And he surrounded himself with the love of his friends and family, when he probably wanted to be alone. He was amazing, and I am proud I could call him and his family my friends.