to and fro

My latest adventures in hearing loss, as I like to call them, have taken me to Los Angeles again, Las Vegas, and Cleveland.
The week of the fourth, I was in Los Angeles. I had been asked back to do some more testing. Mom and I flew in on a Sunday and we did the silly Tour of the Star's Homes. It was actually neat and they took us up to Hollywood Hills and we had a great view of the Hollywood sign and downtown Los Angeles. Then we drove to Malibu and met my friend, Dana and her husband for dinner. It was a really neat restaurant on the beach. Pretty exhausted, we headed for the hotel. On Monday I did some testing. No silly tricks, just testing. It was pretty straight forward, and it was so nice to see the AB gang again. Tuesday was supposed to be the same, but Aniket ended up sick. My mom kept calling him "the germ" and other silly names. I did tell everyone there that if he got me sick for our side trip to Las Vegas I was definitely sending hate emails. I ended up really enjoying what I got to do instead. I got to sit down with a few people and look at products in the works and give my feedback. I never knew how much I would enjoy doing product analysis... who knew??? In the afternoon I worked on some tcoil testing, which I didn't mind at all.
Wednesday was my big day. I was giving a presentation of my story to the employees at both of the AB campuses and one time for new hires. I had worked pretty hard on my presentation, and some of my former students put together an amazing video as part of my story. I had no idea how emotional it would be to say some of those feelings and experiences out loud for people who really care and are invested in making the product. No better audience I suppose.
So let's say that stress is a trigger for my vertigo and somehow I was internalizing some weird nervousness for speaking. I didn't feel nervous, but my body said otherwise... I ended up with vertigo the night before my presentation and I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it. In the morning I decided to suck it up and get dressed. By the time I got there the vertigo was much better. The presentations were well received and I think it did me good to say a lot of that stuff out loud. I met a lot of neat people post speeches.. and everyone loved the video the kids did. After that day, I needed to kick back and finally felt like I could.
Thursday of that week we drove to Vegas (about 4 + hrs.)... We had a nice time in Vegas, ate way too much, including a very silly story about Gelato at Caesar's Palace that is probably funnier in person. Our flight back was good and I was tearful and missing my kids on the plane home. All in all, a great trip. I would go back in a minute. I feel like being a willing participant in the testing, if that makes a difference in the development of implants in some small way, then I could never say no to any opportunity to do so.
This week I had the chance to be a part of a panel at Rainbow Babies and Childrens in Cleveland talking about my bilateral experience. Again, it was neat to see my AB friends and my audiologist, they are all wonderful, dedicated people who have made a difference in my life.... I felt like this speech unexpectedly gave me the chance to not only share my experience with people who may be considering another implant for themselves or children, but I got to encourage some people who have two but may not be having as positive of an experience as I am.
Now, I get to relax for the most part for the rest of the summer, nothing gut-wrenching...
Next week is Vacation Bible School at my church and Adam will be leading the games and I will be teaching 3rd/4th grade. I realize this may be the chance to really share my faith with impressionable little people, so I am really pumped about it.
Today is actually our tenth wedding anniversary... we can celebrate because Adam accepted a job offer this week. It is not at all what we had in mind, but see it as an opportunity to make money and support our family. In the economy, we are happy for him to have an offer and grateful.
Tomorrow is little Mimi's birthday! So, for now... we seem to be headed down a smoother road for the time being.