100%

I've been in hearing booths in my life. They used to have stuffed animals in them when I was a kid. (Why don’t they still have stuffed animals in them for adults?) . Even with stuffed animals they were always scary. The news was never good when I came out of the booth. The prognosis never inspired high fives. . I’d sit there in those booths, decade after decade, watching the audiologists on the other side of the glass as they reacted to my poor test results. They tried to keep straight faces. But I think they were all rooting for me - I was so young - and they couldn’t help but let it show when my test results indicated my ears were slowly fading away. They would blink a little faster, or take a deep breath, or slightly, just slightly, shake their heads throughout my test. And, even as a little kid, I would know it wasn't going well. . But my cochlear implant audiologist has been different. I’ve been able to watch her face go from neutral in our first meeting to exuberance today, nearly a year after she turned on my new ear. . I told her I wanted to get 100% on my hearing test today. I warmed up like a boxer before I sat down, shadow boxing the memories of hearing booths past. I closed my eyes and repeated the sentences until they stopped. Then I open my eyes and the audiologist had her arms up, like I’d scored a touchdown. . 100%...My score was 0% when I first met her. . High fives when I came out of the booth. . What a year it’s been. . . #adventuresinghearingimpairement #cochl