I am exhausted and frustrated just reading about your journey this past month. You have such incredible strength and perseverance! Glad you left with some positive news and hopefully you will see great improvement over these next few months! We are all cheering for you! Goooooo Kim, sic em. Woof, woof, woof.
Dear Kim,
Know that we are all rooting for you. Thanks for your honesty and frankness about your progress and frustrations. You are making me more aware of the struggles others are having, yet they are continuing on without a lot of fanfare.
Take care and continue to be strong,
Bert Prestegard
Kim, I have a friend who had bilateral CIs in 2007. I asked her if her experience was similar to yours. She said it was like yours -- it takes time and can certainly be discouraging, but it's definitely worth it. Something she did that I thought was interesting (and effective for her): She got an unabridged audiobook and the printed book from the library. She would play the audiobook and follow along with her finger on the printed page to re-learn spoken word discrimination. She said, "It might seem like now it's never going to get really better, but it will. It was life-changing for me."
You have a lot of people pulling for you!
I'm so happy to know you are making progress though not as quickly as you (and all of us) would like. You will persevere until your hearing is restored. My prayers are with you.