We all know Audiologists we love but hate to leave because they’re “so nice.” However, we constantly return to them to reprogram our aids and eventually ask for the manufacturers’ rep to come in and help.  For some of us, it’s many hours in the Audiologists office, waiting for an appointment or just getting frustrated and “getting use to it.”   Sorry folks, but no one should have to be told to “get use to it” when it’s the audiologist who is here to help you.  Yes, we have to acclimate to the new sounds we may have missed or even put up with sounds we don’t miss, such as the sounds of flushing toilets, flatulence, burbing and so forth. 

Let’s face it, the reality is, technology, especially hearing aid technology, is changing faster than the speed of light over the past decade, actually it appears to be changing every 6 months.  I fear buying an aid today because there might be something better tomorrow.

  I had seen an Audiologist (unfortunately, with a heavy accent)  last summer who had recommended the “best of the best, top of the line, Widex Mind 440 with its Zen programs (sort of sounds like something out of a Sci-Fi magazine).  The first mistake I made, was seeing an Audiologist who is bilingual with an accent but not in the language I needed her to speak clearly in…English.  Her accent was way too heavy for me to catch what was being said during the audiological testing.  Therefore, we never really got a true reading on my word discrimination.  This was my fault and she and I should have discussed it openly and honestly.  We didn’t, because I know people who love her and are happy with her but they are all Asian. And I guess, she did not want to discuss it with me, because she may have thought I would not recommend anyone.   However, she is someone I would continue to recommend to my Asian clients to.  This was totally my fault.

The Audiologist felt the Widex was perfect for me, yet she could not get the programming quite right for ME.  We had the rep come in twice (which meant waiting additional times to coordinate appointments) and who immediately felt that the instrument I was recommended and wearing for the past month, was too high powered for me.  Jeesh! wouldn’t an Audiologist know that?  Well, as it turned out, the rep had the Widex 440 in a lower power model and she loaned it to me until a new one would arrive with a new trial period starting the day I receive the new aid.

I waited another two weeks, received the new aid but low and behold it did not have the controls I had initially requested. By the time I received the correct model and tested it for another 45 days (which brought me up to 4 months with the hearing aid), I decided the aid was not for me.  I felt that music sounded off, background noise was bothering me and all in all, the reality that this Audiologist was just not getting it right, meant I had to be selfish.  I returned the hearing aid, I was down $300 but felt the time put in to my visits were well worth this so called restocking fee.  Why they call it a restocking fee is beyond my imagination.  It’s a fee that goes to the Audiologist for their time spent with you and personally, they should get that fee if they have given you the time. We parted on good terms and no hard feelings.

What to do next?  I was actually somewhat embarrassed, as here I am in the field working with many audiologists, clinics and top surgeons, yet I could not find myself an Audiologist who I can trust to know what I need.   I spoke to friends in the field and finally after spending alot of time researching, decided that buying a hearing aid is truly a job.  You’re not only shopping for the right hearing aid, you’re shopping for the right technology savvy Audiologist who can look at you as a whole person and not just as a potential buyer.  

I can fully understand why 1 out of 3 hearing aids for senior citizens land up in their night tables. However, I do believe the numbers are higher.  I spent hours going back and forth to the Audiologist last summer through the end of October.  Can we really expect that from an elderly consumer in order to get a proper fitting?  In my case, I truly got lucky.  A good friend of mine who happens to be an Audiologist and colleague, recommended an Audiologist who I so happen to have on my list of referrals for my clients.  She swore to me that he is a whiz at programming aids.   I never recommended anyone to him because the distance for my clients would make it difficult for them to do follow ups, which are so important at the beginning, when purchasing an aid.  In all honesty, it was not the easiest location for me either but I decided if he’s good at what he does, it’s worth my time and efforts.

My first meeting was a real eye opener. Mr. Audiologist asked me several questions concerning what I felt I needed to benefit most from in purchasing hearing aids (in my case one hearing aid).  We discussed my trial periods with several aids, those I was not willing to look at and left the rest up to him.  My first meeting with him took a bit over 2 hours…..wow! that alone impressed me.  I’ve never ever had an Audiologist spend that much time in getting to know my hearing needs. 

In the end, he felt I could gain a great deal from the Oticon Agil Pro.  Due to my work life and social life, I ordered the streamer as well.  When the aid arrived, I promptly received an appointment, tested out the equipment and he wanted me to make another appointment whether I felt I needed it or not.  Before my next appointment, I made a list of concerns, questions, likes and dislikes (which there were none).  My third appointment was great and I truly felt blessed with the new equipment.  He had wanted me to return before the trial period was due but I did not feel that was necessary but made an appointment for August.  I have since received a snail mail from his office telling me how proud he was about my adjustment to the new aid. I gather he does this with all his clients and though I really did not feel the need for this feedback, I must say, that for those who need more time to acclimate, it is certainly a good and well intentioned letter.

So, my purpose in writing this long post is to say, there are excellent Audiologists out there who know what they’re doing and that sometimes, going the distance is well worth it.  I have always been an advocate to have aids fully covered by insurances and still am.  However, since I am lucky enough to afford the technology, I am grateful to have it and wish everyone could.  We need to keep advocating, we need to keep writing our Senators and Congressmen and women. Afterall, a day will come, when they too will need this technology.

It’s sort of humorous that I’ve known since I’m 19 years old, that I have Otosclerosis and that its a progressive disease.  However, when the Doctor at that time told me I would be deaf by the time I was 30 and did not go deaf, I ruled that the Doctor had no idea what I truly had.  And so, years have gone by and only recently, have I noticed my tinnitus had become incredibly loud  along with dizzy spells. 

The current Doctor explained that my audiogram looked as if I had Otosclerosis and that I would need to have a cat scan on my good ear.  He was concerned that the Otosclerosis may be spreading, possibly causing me to lose hearing and feel dizzy.  Though I had a hearing evaluation 8 months ago, he asked that I get a more recent one done.

Well, yesterday I did just that and the results were that my hearing went from mild to severe to moderate and profound.  Shock and disbelief almost gave way to denial, but being in the field of working with deaf and hearing impaired, I knew I had to deal with this and be as realistic and prepared as possible.  I was now very close to the severe range in my low frequencies when I was once on the upper mild range.

In two weeks I’ll have a cat scan and hopefully some news as to how much bone deterioration there is and if I am too lose more hearing, what time frame am I looking at.

What are my fears?  Well, first off, that I’ll never hear music again, that I’ll never hear my friends voices and worse, I won’t hear myself or my breathing.  I’m not running scared but I need to know what I’m dealing with or what I will be dealt.  The fear of being alienated and islolated from people is very real and though my girlfriends quickly responded with, “we’ll learn sign language,”  I know that girls night out won’t be the same.

For now, I want to feel that I have choices, that my options to wear a hearing aid successfully will be realistic and that control of my own life won’t be lost to dependence.

 Look at computers, headphones, cellphones, xerox machines, fax machines, TTY’s, even televisions and radios. They all went from large to small and improved. Televisions stayed large and went to very thin as well.   Now, lets look at the hearing aid. Hearing aids started out as horns, something looking like the Shofa used on the Jewish holidays.

The first real hearing aid by Sonotone with a transistor was put on the market in 1952 for $229. In fact, AT&T (American Telephone and Telegraph……remember them?) gave out free transistor licenses in honor of Alexander Graham Bell. Without losing a beat, companies began producing their own aids and competing.

Acousticon put an aid out soon after for $74.50. The hearing aids were powered by batteries and worn around the waist. Could u imagine if the competition continued with prices like the ones mentioned to this day? Anyway, my point is that hearing aids have always been small, but they never quite improved and never got cheaper the way other technology has. In fact, the hearing aid price is so varied and so steep and so difficult to shop around for, that most buyers will not price them the way we do when buying a car. Not one single audiologist I’ve met or discussed with friends, have a hearing aid pricelist on their wall.

 Sure, we have the directional microphones and the programming of the aids for different environments and background noise reductions. We have the options of digital, digital programming and analog. All promising maximum speech understanding. Did u ever wonder whether it was all a gimmick? I mean, after all, hearing aids don’t provide 20/20 hearing, so why make promises u can’t keep?

All I know is that when I cut the background noise out on my hearing aid, with that advantage comes the downside, the voice i’m listening to is now lower as well. Or when there are two speakers, one behind me and one in front of me, my directional mics seem to get a little ditsy and neurotic. Point being that for some reason, the hearing aid industry has changed asthetically but not really technically. They have their new state of the art micro style differences, the ergonomic designs made especially for the boomer generation who has become so vain and forgotten their roots. And I just love when a company states, u won’t even know you’re wearing them……duh! never in a million years. I am constantly reminded that I’m wearing my aid. Whether from someone’s dumb question of “are u wearing your aid today” to “is your aid working,” or whether I am experiencing feedback that day or my ears are itching from the molds.

Naturally, I’ve accepted that hearing aids are not the perfect solution but they give me the best situation for my hearing loss. I would have preferred the aids have been more miraculously improved without convincing us they are so dynamically tuned for our specific hearing loss and that our ability to hear will be a miracle. And whats with the tiny battery? How do they expect the largest population of hearing impaired people to put that little battery into that little thingie compartment? Oh yes, they came up with a solution to that, a tape attached to the battery. And don’t forget about what happens when dropping that little battery on the floor. It’s amazing to watch a group of seniors on hands and knees looking for that stinker. It’s also amazing to see how far that little battery can travel when its not even on.

 I never lead anyone to believe that hearing aids are the all or nothing solution. Its just a temporary solution to a problem that can’t seem to be fixed by medical science thru other means, yet.

During this past summer, after a great deal of research, I purchased a $3,200 hearing aid.  You read that sticker price correctly and that was for one aid.  I tried it out for the 2 full 45 days, that was a total of 90 days due to when the rep came in to see me, she gave me a different model of the aid I was trying out that I liked better.  So they gave me the aid until the one I was purchasing came through and that day was the day my next 45 days started.  I landed up giving it back on day 105 (total days that I spent with this hearing aid which included the time I was loaned the model) and taking a $320 loss.  But hey, in all honesty, the audiologist should get paid for all the time she spent with me and trust me, she spent at least one day a week with me. I made the decision to go back to my cheap old hearing aid.

I did learn something that I did not want to face and that was, I am truly convinced that many (not all) but many audiologists cannot be  brought up to date properly due to the constant and rapid technology changes.  I am also convinced that the hearing audiologist DOES NOT UNDERSTAND HEARING LOSS as in, please don’t speak to me when the aid is out of my ear because I cannot hear you and I am not a great lip reader. 

 In the meantime, all I want is a hearing aid that works better and works to my benefit. I couldn’t care less about all these ergodynamic state of the art designs. After all, I don’t expect anyone to say, ay Pearl, cool hearing aid you got there in your ear!

The SayWhatClub is a strong support group for late deafened and adults with hearing loss.  We believe strongly in helping one another through our support groups and through Education.  The University of Washington needs everyones help, especially parents who have children with hearing loss or deafness.   You can learn more about the study here https://depts.washington.edu/projhql/  The University also has a facebook page about the study.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Quality-of-Life-of-Children-and-Youth-who-are-Deaf-or-Hard-of-Hearing/121377458983

I once tried an aid on my left ear, many moons ago, with no affects.  I wear my aid on my “good” ear from the minute I wake up in the morning until I go to bed.  The only time I usually remove it during the day, is when I get jock itch in my ear.  Since last Thursday, I’ve developed extreme pain in my ear and on the crest of the helix.  You know, that part of the ear that has nada to do with hearing.  It’s where u would stick the earmold under that little sucker.

Today is the first day I could not wear my hearing aid due to extreme pain and let me tell you, it was a real eye opener for me and the people around me.  I have never gone this many waking hours out of the house without my aid.  First off, I found the people I work with not able to deal with me.  WOW! Now for the surprise, these are my teammates and we work with the hearing impaired and deaf population and their families.

I guess it’s true when we say, you don’t know what it feels like till you’ve been in my shoes.  Hearing people really do not understand deafness, let alone a hearing loss. Maybe it’s their fear of the unthinkable.  It immobilizes people when we discuss our unability to hear.  The very idea of not being able to hear a discussion, a disagreement or the hearing persons fear to communicate with us because WE cannot hear them.  So afraid to initiate a strategy to communicate with us for fear of catching what we have. 

Then, I encountered the people in the stores, on the streets and the dangers of walking in between cars to cross streets. Naturally, I can’t use my phone, which means, I can’t communicate and others can’t communicate with me, which means I’m going to be one pissed woman by the end of this week.  I’m very social and love to communicate.   The I’m in your face type of person I guess.

Lastly, there’s my family.  Everyones has their mouths wide open to over emphasize what they want to say to me.  It’s so weird and it’s also pretty scary to actually not hear the voices of the people I love.  I guess I’ve taken the assistance I get from my aid for granted.  And friends, co-workers and family around me, have taken my hearing loss and wearing an aid for granted.  I guess now they realize I am not hearing anything and that I am truly hearing impaired though one cannot officially call me deaf.

Don’t you just love when a hearing person says, wow, you have such great speech for a person with hearing loss?  It blows my mind.

Oh by the way, my Doctor really impressed me today. The man actually took out paper and wrote the questions he had for me and had me answer them (verbally of course).  He did not want me to put my hearing aid on because of the pain.  Oh and by the way, this was my Internist not my ENT. 

Here’s one of the reasons I dislike ENT Doctors.  Many years ago, during a phase where I refused to be aided, I went to an ENT Doctor because I was having terrible sinus problems.  As soon as I tell him I have a hearing loss he calls in his audiologist to do a hearing test.   I showed him my audiogram which was taken several months ago by my audiologist. But no, he wants one from his office.  I refused.

This ENT Doctor proceeds to look in my ears after I tell him about my hearing loss, show him my audiogram and explain that I have no speech discrim in my left ear.  The man looks into my ears, looks very seriously at me and says, I don’t see why u can’t hear out of that left ear, it looks perfectly fine.  With that remark said, I stood up, said thank you for your time and left (as fast as I could).  I decided from that moment on, that people, even many well meaning and not so well meaning professionals in the field, do not understand us.  It’s as if they have deafaphobia, the unimaginable! the unthinkable! 

So what is my point?  I raise my glass to all of us for holding our heads up high, for not allowing this to drag us to the grave and for continuing to educate those who hear.

I looked at her with complete contempt and disgust.  Afterall, she knows I am hearing impaired, knows I wear a hearing aid…….ah! but she’s hearing and she’s clueless.  It doesn’t matter how many times I tell hearing people that wearing a hearing aid does not give us 20/20 hearing, they still don’t get it, can’t comprehend it, and in my opinion, so afraid to imagine what it’s like to be without it.

I’m getting to the point in my life where I am tired of educating the hearing on hearing loss and deafness.  I’m tired of being nice about it and most of all, I’m tired of hearing peoples lack of wanting to understand hearing loss.  I most recently discovered the only way to give hearing people a small taste of what it’s like to have even a mild to moderate hearing loss is to give them a taste of it.

I do workshops for school staff on early detection and understanding  hearing loss.  One day, while preparing my powerpoints, I was trying to figure out how to bring the audience into the life of hearing loss.  And it hit me, I need to allow my audience to get a sense of what hearing loss sounds like to us.  So, I searched the web and found several programs that I could set up to have the audience listen to a man, woman and childs voice and what it sounds like to hear those voices at different degrees of hearing loss.  I also purchased several hundred packaged earplugs online to have each person experience a 35 db. hearing loss (thats if the individual did not have an unknown additional loss) toward the end of the presentation. 

What I discovered by giving everyone the earplugs and moving along with my presentation was that everyone was so baffled by what they could or could not hear and the difficulty they were having with the speech discrimination.   Some people refused to put the earplugs in both ears, some pulled them out after a few minutes but everyone was totally thrown into a new light about hearing loss.  My experiment has been so successful that I now use the earplugs and what hearing loss sounds like for all my presentations to make my point.   I also always carry earplugs on me, just in case I need to do a quick lesson.

Getting back to my niece.  After several minutes of people joking around about my hearing loss, I pulled out packages of earplugs and handed them out.  I told everyone to put them on and continue with their conversations.  At first, no one took me seriously, but the look on my face told them, they best listen. They listened and listened they did.  There were lots of “what did u say?”  ”Did u say blue or hue?” “Look at my lips and try to read them.”

After ten minutes, I got a big apology from my niece as well as my nephew as well as lots of questions. I guess deep down inside I do care and can’t help but feel the need to educate the hearing.  I guess I also learned a lesson here and that is, I need to be patient, as patient as I expect the hearing person to be with me.

In case you were not aware, Phonak and Unitron are under Sonova AG Holding.  In anycase, I find it interesting that each company believes their product is number 1. What I find interesting are the questions that went unanswered and left me with a bad taste in my mouth. 

Why can’t hearing aid companies tell us how much it costs them to make a hearing aid?  Afterall, we have a pretty good idea how much it costs to make a car, how much it costs to make a movie, a video, clothing, etc. Yet no one wants to be honest about the manufacturers cost.

The manufacturer claims the audiologist makes a big profit and the audiologist claims the company does.  I now know the restocking fee is the audiologists, not the manufacturers fee, and in all honesty, the audiologist deserves that fee.  Afterall, they are spending time with us for the fitting and the programming.

However, I don’t know how any company or audiologist can think that a $3000 hearing aid is worthy of its cost.  We get a 45 day trial period, yet I am told that it can take up to 6 or 7 months to adjust to the sound.  Duh! I am $3000 down if I hate the sound after 6 months.  I wonder how many audiologists have stuck earplugs in their ears for 24 hours?  How many manufacturers make their Executive Boards wear the earplugs just to get the sense of a 35 db loss?

I recently went to see a new audiologist and though I liked her alot, she was totally unsavvy concerning assistive technology.  This is really not a good thing.  Why aren’t the audiologists being trained to understand the clients who need this technology to function?  Simple things like bluetooth technology and loop systems.   I don’t know about you, but I am so frustrated, I want to just get the software to program my own hearing aid and purchase an aid online.

I don’t want to hate hearing people who don’t understand or people with hearing loss who are too vain.  I want to yell at the top of my voice,  do u have any idea what its like to hear you all muffled? or people who think its funny to open their mouths wide and exaggerate their words.  I have a guy at work who thinks its so funny to refer to me as being deaf.  I’ve pulled him aside on several occassions to have a talking to.  He still doesn’t get it.

I started doing staff developments at work and have received a very positive responses.  I made them all wear ear plugs that gave them only a 35 decibel loss while I spoke.  Several pulled them out after a few minutes and you could just see the disbelief on their faces screaming, “thats a 35 db loss?”   It certainly scared them enough to ask alot of questions.  I did a whole power point on how many children and adults have hearing loss in the U.S. alone.  How many parents admitted to not aiding their children and how many children were failing school due to a lack of access to communication and hearing properly.

Sometimes I just want to yell from the top of the Empire State building,  PEOPLE WAKE UP…..WHY ARE U ALIENATING US, WHY ARE YOU AFRAID OF US? Are you afraid you might become one of us?  Well, the truth is, you just might one day, but it wont be because you caught it from us.  However, what goes around, comes around.  Treat me badly and that will come back to haunt you.

There are approximately 1 out of every 6 people walking the streets in the U.S. with a hearing loss. I suspect those numbers are going to change very quickly over the next decade to something like one out of three.  We are a techno smart society but most just can’t understand hearing loss. Lets hope the baby boomers will drop the vanity, refuse to pay $3000 for the best hearing aid on the market and advocate for understanding rights to hearing that doesn’t cost us our life savings.  Lets hope people can stop thinking old age when they start losing their hearing, and stop stigmatizing their own children who have hearing loss and refuse to aid them….that is definitely and should be illegal.

So it only goes to show that eventually my searches found the Say What? Club by way of one of the founders – Bobdeafie.  He invited me to join the group, so I did.  Next thing I knew I was getting lots of emails from people from all over the world who were like me – hearing impaired, deaf, hard of hearing, cochlear implant would be’s etc… 

Over the years, I’ve made many friends through this group – some lifelong.  I’ve headbutted with a few, cried along with them, and had many many laughs.  It’s the laughter that keeps this group together, the sheer joy of laughing about things that happen to people, and knowing because of your hearing loss, it’s either happened to you too, or could quite likely happen.  It’s a group that puts our hearing loss into perspective, helps us when things get bad and you’re down because of it, opens your eyes to the many devices that are out there to help us, and simply gives us a sense of belonging.  Coming home. 

It must be pretty good as 14 years later the SWC is still a huge part of my life.  

One of the most exciting things about the SWC is the people I’ve met.  First came Bob and Ling who came and stayed with me any years ago, then Joanie from New York, then Steven from San Francisco.  I met up with Rick in Australia, and Emily from New Jersey has been out here several times now. And just yesterday, Jeff  and his daughter was in Auckland for the day so I was able to show them around. 

Last year I won the SWC Scholarship which enabled me to travel out to meet up with so many at the Philadelphia Convention.  It was a really special time putting faces to the names I’ve been corresponding with via email for 15 years.  One of the most exciting things to happen to me in my life.   I came home to New Zealand, with some great memories, ones that I’ll keep forever. 

The SWC opens up the world as well.  Not only do we have people in America, but also Australia, New Zealand, England, Finland, India, Canada, and South Africa.  We learn about different countries and cultures, and we know if we’re ever travelling in those parts of the world, there is a friendly face waiting for us to meet them.  

I would recommend SWC to anyone who is wanting to find out about  hearing loss, or just wants to ‘hang out’ with people who you know will understand the frustrations that we come across in our every day lives when one’s hearing isn’t 100% perfect.

For more details… Head to… http://www.saywhatclub.com/ 

I look forward to getting to know you !

 Cheers

Robyn

It’s now official. I have just been diagnosed with depression for the first time in my life. Simply because of the frustration I’m having with lack of hearing, and lack of action in terms of ACC funding my new implant. 

ACC is our Accident Compensation Corporation.  When you have an accident in New Zealand, ACC covers the cost of any medical need you may have to treat injuries caused from that accident.  Normally, my hearing is covered under the District Health Board funding, as my hearing loss isn’t caused by an accident.  However, when the electrodes from my implant migrated out of the cochlea after surgery, rendering me profoundly deaf once more, this is termed a medical injury and is covered under ACC.

The hearing loss I’m dealing with is huge compared to when my original implant was up and working properly. I haven’t really heard properly except for a very brief window in 2008, for 18 months…. Going on 19 months but who’s counting?

Two months ago, when an x-ray was taken, we finally discovered that the electrodes had moved and so we applied for funding from ACC.  I checked with them just before Christmas hoping I’d have an answer then – but it wasn’t to be.  I was severely disappointed but they told me that they would have an answer early New Year.

ACC sent me a email yesterday (6^th Jan) apologizing for the delay, explaining that it was a very ‘complex’ case, and they’ve now been advised to get an outside ‘independent’ opinion, so they have sent my case notes to Christchurch in the South Island to an ‘independent Cochlear Implant surgeon’. This is quite laughable as we’re not exactly a BIG country, and the implant surgeons in NZ is a very small club (boys network!!)

As for complex – I think they’re making it more complex than it needs to be. The electrodes have come out of the cochlea. They need to be put back in, maybe with new electrodes. What is complex about that?

They’ve given the surgeon 4 weeks to complete his report, and then it goes to their legal team which could be another 4 weeks. So I’m going to be profoundly/totally deaf for at least another 2 months.

Yes I’ve written to ACC and explained my case and displeasure of waiting so long – they’ve apologized but said there’s nothing they can do. I *can* go ahead with the surgery, pay for it myself, and they’ll reimburse me IF they accept the claim. That’s fine and dandy if I had some spare change in my pocket to the tune for $30k – but I don’t, and I resent the fact they think I might have!

I guess it’s because I’m the first person in NZ where electrodes have migrated out of the cochlear, so there’s some research for them to do, and some I dotting and t crossing! But in the process, they’ve forgotten that there’s a real person out there, struggling to cope with day to day hearing and living because of it.

My doc has put me on a low dose anti depressant. She’s been my doc since I was 17, and said it was admirable how I’ve overcome many struggles throughout my life, and that my mood has always been stable and happy. But it looks like this is one thing too much. She’s also concerned how I might feel if the operation doesn’t work, so hopefully by then the pills will be working and will help me through that process should the worse happen. Naturally, once things start moving and I get a date, I’ll probably be much happier, and if the switch on goes well and I hear again, then I can be weaned off the pills.

I took my first one this morning. I hate taking pills, but I have been warned that depression can spiral down further if not treated. I know I feel this way because I have no control over what is happening to me, and the doctor says that’s one of the main causes of depression – lack of control over things that are happening in your life.

A friend asked me to make sure I remember all the things I’m grateful for – so I’ll list some of them here.

I’m grateful for friends and family and their support

I’m grateful for the support I can get from SWC

I’m grateful for my bra because they stop me from tripping up over my boobs when knock against my knees, and stop me from getting black eyes when I’m out running!

I’m grateful for my fantastic implant team even though they can’t do a lot for me right now!

I’m grateful I still have a sense of humour even when I feel so sad.

I’m grateful for my cats who give my unconditional kisses, particularly when I’m whistling or singing!!! (Yep they’re actually trying to shut me up)

There – Now I’ll go and eat some more ice cream and chocolate.

by robyn carter in New Zealand