A whole new world

Well folks, that is the truth. It is a whole new world for me. Yesterday I picked up my hearing aid. I was at the audiologist's for nearly 2 hours learning how to use my new device. If anyone is interested, I googled it and found a link for the type I got. You can go here to see it. It has an accurate picture on the very top of what it looks like. In the picture the one the hand is holding is white while mine is brown. A pretty close match to my hair color and blends in well with my glasses frame. Yesterday was crazy. I stepped out of the office and stood in the parking lot and just listened. I could hear leaves rustling. Birds singing. Cars vrooming. I drove home with the radio off (gasp!) just to listen to the car noises. When I got out of my car at home, I stood in the driveway a moment be/c I could hear chirping, I'm guessing cricket or some kind of bug. Inside my house... wow. The microwave actually made me jump. When I closed (slammed) it, it banged in my ear and echoed a little. The buttons are noisy! The cabinet that creaks was really loud. I didn't realize it was that loud of a creak. The children... oh my the children. I had to take the hearing aid OUT of my ear one time when Mark was crying. It hurt my ear a little. Then later the boys were playing and the squealing was painful. I took it out again until they calmed down. Hey, at least I'm getting good at putting it in and out. The doctor said to take it out the first few days any time I felt overwhelmed with sound or I was getting headaches because of all the new sounds. It's kind of like getting contacts for the first time. He said wear it 4-5 hours the first day and then build up each day a little longer. This really is amazing. I can't believe I can hear now. I can really hear. After the boys went to bed, I wanted Jamie to talk to me. He hid his mouth behind his hands, and I heard every word!!! Before, if he wasn't looking directly at me, and I was reading his mouth, I couldn't make out his words some of the time. It was so cool. We also watched Glen Beck last night and I didn't need captions nor did I lose interest be/c I could hear him the whole time! This is really a whole new world.