The CI runs in the family...

My Grandpa got the Advanced Bionics Cochlear Implant last Wednesday!

He got the new Harmony and we are all waiting anxiously for the turn on date which is in about 3 weeks! But until then, he's getting his staples out this Thursday and he's going to have to just deal with "hearing" out of one hearing aid.

Here are some of the pictures from the surgery....

My Grandpa Sam Rivituso and my Grandmother Pauline - shortly after recovery


My Granpa with his nurse Katherine... she was really nice


Me, my Grandpa, and my brother leaving the hospital


The scar from when we took off the bandage.... it looked good! (the black line is his glasses, just to let you know lol)



As you can tell from the pictures, we were ALL very EXCITED about him getting the implant! Before, he couldn't hear anything and it was getting very difficult when we tried to talk to him. So we're hoping that after a few weeks he's going to be able to hear again and we can all talk to my grandpa normal again! :)

Congratulations Papa, you finally got the implant!! :)


Now we have three people in the family that has the implant (me, my brother and my grandpa)... and hoepfully my dad will be getting one soon (he's a bit stubborn when it comes to his hearing)....

Can you hear me now?!

It always cracks me up whenever I take off my implant to show my hearing friends and they try to put it on to see if they can hear from it or sometimes they try to speak into the mic to see if I can still hear them! But I have to explain to them that that's not how it works. lol It has to be connected to the magnet in my head...and they always get this confused look on their face... its so funny! :P

It reminds me of the guy from the Verizon commercials - "Can you hear me now... how about now?!"

And also, when I'm in class and we're all listening to our ipods. I'd be jamming out to my favorite songs and some of my classmates would ask to hear what I'm listening to so I would hand them my direct connect cord and they always get this confused terrified look on their face! They're like "what the heck is that?!" lol And I tell them that its my "headphone set" and they try to stick it in their ear to try to hear from it!!! But then I show them how it connects to my implant and you can see a light bulb pop up above their head!! :P

I love doing that to my friends.... it cracks me up! :)


Only AWESOME people get to hear out of the Cochlear Implants!! hehe :D

BUSY BUSY BUSY!

But life is going pretty good!

My senior year has been great so far - I have straight A's and I'm enjoying my classes so much this year! I've been so busy lately between clubs, sports, applying to colleges, SATs, ACTs, and what-not. My best friend, Zoe, and I go to the school football games every friday and we still go swing dancing on the weekends. Last Saturday we got tickets to the Thrashers Hockey Game - which was awesome!! I love hockey!! :D This week is also Homecoming at our school so this week has been crazy with getting ready for that! Our game is Friday night and then the dance is Saturday night! YAY! I'm so excited!! :)

My brother is also doing good - he's enjoying his sophomore year. His implant is doing really good too - he had a rough start from the new implant but now he's understanding really well and calls me on the phone like all the time! :) So that definitly shows he's improving!! He's also gotten really big in ROTC. Him and his friend, Colton, are actually going to be performing an Armed Expidition Routine (sp??) for the Drill Team Competition in the spring! And in case if you don't know what that is... its when a team of ROTC boys (in this case 2 boys) do a routine with different calls and steps with the "gun" and spinning it around and doing all these tricks with it. So it should be pretty awesome to see him out there!! :) He's also playing second base man for the ROTC softball team! His tournament is in like 2 weeks! GO JONATHAN!!!

So I'm in the process of applying to colleges. I've narrowed it down to my top three which are North Georgia College and State University (NGCSU), Berry College, and Georgia College and State University (GCSU). I've had my senior meeting with my counselor which was pretty exciting talking about colleges and life after high school and graduation! I was pretty excited about that meeting but my mom was pretty sad! haha :) So I've been writing my essays for the colleges and I thought I'd post one up here and see what yall think!

Here is one of my essays:


Topic for Freshman Essay:

“As a part of our mission to provide students with a liberal arts education, Georgia College & State University strives to create an atmosphere that instills in students exceptional qualities of mind and character including respect for human diversity and individuality. Given your own individual background, life experiences, and personal identity, how will you contribute to the overall diversity of the student body at GCSU?”

College Essay Rough Draft:

No matter who we are, where we’re from, or what our backgrounds are, we all come together to achieve one common goal: a goal of overcoming all obstacles and achieving success. In achieving our goal, we must all work together bringing diversity with different backgrounds and points of view about life, to achieve success and to make a difference. With my background of being born with a disability, a passion of helping or mentoring others and the motivation of being an active member in my society will help bring diversity to the student body of Georgia College and State University (GCSU).
Over the years, I’ve had to overcome my disability of being hearing impaired. I was born profoundly deaf and went through Auditory-Verbal Therapy to learn how to hear and speak and to become an independent communicator without the use of sign language and lip reading. My journey wasn’t over with just hearing aids and years of therapy. In 2005, my hearing started to deteriorate and I went through major surgery to get a Cochlear Implant. The cochlear implant is like a more “high-tech implantable hearing aid” which helps me to hear even better. But along with getting the new cochlear implant, I had to relearn sounds all over again while I was still going to high school, making good grades, and continuing to be an active member in various clubs.
After going through a major surgery, I realized I could help others who are going through the same situations. So I decided to work in the Operating room as a “VolunTEEN” at the Atlanta Children’s Hospital, which I have done for several years. Working there allowed me to help other families deal with emotions that come with having their child go through a major surgery. Even though I volunteered my free time at the Children’s Hospital, I also kept an updated online Blogspot journal (www.samshearinglife.blogspot.com), entitled “Sam’s Hearing Life.” I posted about my experiences while going through surgery and about the process of relearning sounds all over again. This was designed to help mentor other families who are in the same situation as I was, who also choose to become independent communicators me.
During my high school years, I realized that it’s important to not only maintain a good grade point average but to also be an active member in clubs that support community service, such as Key Club and Girl Scouts. As a member I help make my community a better place by cleaning local parks to make it fun and safe for neighborhood children, package up food with Project Open Hands for AIDS victims, and I also help clean local pet shelters such as Paws Atlanta. I also use my leadership skills, organizational skills and creativity to help with school committees such as Homecoming and Prom.
I believe what makes a unique college experience is one with a diverse group of people and backgrounds who all come together to achieve success by working together and helping others. And because of my well rounded background and desire to overcome my disability, I believe I can adjust to any environment, such as GCSU. I would come with enthusiasm and dedication to be able to excel academically as well as to share my experiences to help others overcome their struggles from dealing with a new environment, challenging personalities, and a new way of life away from the comforts of home. I also believe that my passion for helping others and being involved will allow me to continue to be involved with new community service clubs, such as Circle K, to make GCSU and Milledgeville a better place and to be able to call it my new home.


So I hope for the best and just wait and see what the colleges say!! Gosh the wating part is the worst part ever!! eeeeek!



But yeah.... I don't know what else to say at this point. Jonathan and I are both doing great in school, clubs, and with our implants. This year, Jonathan and I are also actually officers for Key Club which is pretty fun becuase it makes us look important! He's 10th grade representative and I'm Bulliten Editor. :)

Oh by the way - Jonathan also just got his liscense this weekend and he's going to get his motorcycle permit this weekend! YIKES! So he's pretty excited about being able to drive...but one thing he's going to have to remember - the second car is MY CAR and I GET PRIORITY!!! hehe :D


Here are some updated pictures of us...

Me, My Mom, and my Brother at a Kareokee party with some family friends!! :)



Me and my best friend Zoe going to the Tucker Football game! YAY!



Jonathan and I when we went hiking in North Carolina - SO BEAUTIFUL THERE!!! :D



My Senior Graduation Picture :D

Spreading the word around...

Just in case you didn't notice...I posted up some links on the right side on my website.

One is for the Auditory Verbal Center, Inc. Thats the center that taught me to hear and speak.

The next one is the homepage for Advanced Bionics, the implant company that I have (and ABSOLUTLY LOVE!).

And the others are friends with Cochlear Implants and AVC graduates from the center I graduated from. They vary in ages, so you get a wide variety of points of views and lifestyles with the Cochlear Implants.

But they're all really good, so if you're interested...check them out too and see what they have to say! : )

Just thought I'd point that out for those curious minds out there...

Who's ready for Senior Year?!?!

I AM! I AM! I AM! I AM! I AM! I AM! : )

Yesterday we had registration at school...that was pretty much really hectic! The only awesome thing about registration yesterday was standing in the SENIOR LINE!!! haha I was so excited!! :D I also got to see some old friends that I havn't seen all summer and my teachers from last year!! That was pretty fun!

But today I had to go back beacuse I had an appointment with my new counselor to talk about my schedule, introduce myself, explain my hearing, and what-not. And of course my mom told him my awesome story with the implant and how I was born deaf and how I can now hear and speak...and of course he was just blown away and couldn't believe that my brother and I were born deaf! haha Its amazing how people's face expressions change once you tell them that you're deaf!! haha : )

So here are my classes for next year...
1. AP Microeconomics
2. Environmental Science
3. British Literature
4. Algebra III
5. Banking/ Finance
6. Bussiness Document Processing
7. Introduction to Technology

I'm looking forward to my classes this year....the courses seem like they may be a little challenging but for some reason I'm excited! So we'll see when I start next Monday!

But you know what else?!

Today, I also got my first Parking spot at Lakeside!!! I was soo excited!! I didn't get one last year (even though I could have) but I got one for this year!! YAY!
I got a little sticker to put on my back window and we went out to find the spot...and lucky me, my spot is one of the few that were in the shade!! YAY! YAY!
Heres a picture of me in my parking spot...can you tell I was excited?! haha :D





So yeah, this year should be a pretty intersting year! I'm a senior and my brother is a Sophomore!! I can't wait till football time starts! Then HOMECOMING! My favorite part of the year!! haha

We LOVE our Direct Connect!

Hey - Just thought you might enjoy a picture of the implant with the direct connet. We went hiking this weekend in North Carolina and so my brother and I both took our ipods to listen to in the car. And lets just say, now that my brother got the new harmony - he has become OBSESSED with the new direct connect!! haha So now both my brother and I won't go anywhere without it!! haha : )

Here is a picture of my brother with his implant and the direct connect attacted to it.
For those of you who don't know - the direct connect is like a headphone set for the Advanced Bionics users. Its the black cord that hangs down from the front of the implant that connects to the ipod or to whatever you're listening to (cell phone, ipod, computer, mp3 player, etc.)...



And just another thing to notice...my brother got his implant about a month and a half ago and his hair and skin is already back to normal! I know there are alot of parents out there that are worried about what their kids are going to look like afterwards and scared about the whole hair thing...but his hair grew back, you can't really see the scar, and he's already had a hair cut since after the surgery.
So your hair will grow back and it'll go back to normal!!

Just another note for those worried parents... : )

VolunTEEN at the Children's Hospital

My last day as a VolunTEEN at the children's Hospital was today! :( I could only do it for the summer, and becuase of school starting in two weeks, today was the last day for us.
I got to work in the Operating Room with my friend Sumon. We had fun helping all the nurses, watching the different surgeries, helping the hospital move into the new building (which was so confusing lol), and learning about what its like to be a nurse at the hospital! My favorite part was seeing all the surgeries - I got to see intestines, the inside of a stomach, lungs, and a heart!

Who knows, maybe I'll become a nurse working in the OR one day... :)

Here's a picture with me and the people I worked with in our lovely scrubs...

Sumon, Elizabeth, Mrs. June (the lady in charge of us) and then me...

An Emotional Summer...

So much has happened this summer - I don’t know where to start!

Well...in May of this year, I got my new harmony! I was so excited!! : ) I went to go get it mapped and had my programs set to:
P1 – 120 – 60 IDR
P2 – Hi Res – 60 IDR
P3 – 120 – 80 IDR
But being that I don’t like to change my programs through out the day, I tend to just stay on program 3.

I can’t tell a difference from the Auria and the New Harmony when I’m just talking to people and when I’m in my normal environments. But when I’m listening to music…I can see the changes. I’ve been able to hear the words to the songs better, I’ve also been able to get more of the instruments from the background too! There have been a couple songs that I liked before I got the Harmony, but never really understood the words and what the song was about…but once I listened to it with the Harmony, I understood the words and finally got the meaning of the whole song! And now its one of my favorites! : ) Its so weird to hear different songs on the radio and compare it to what it used to sound like and to what it sounds like now! Some of them have been good changes, but then again, some of them have been kind of wierd...like this one time - I listened to this one song that I liked before and I listened to it with the Harmony and heard what it REALLY sounded like! And with the Harmony, it sounded sooo wierd and different! It sounded so whiny and strange. Lets just say...its not one of my top songs anymore! haha But for most of the songs...they sound so much better! So thats a good thing! : )

But yeah, I really like the Harmony, not only because of the more channels and how the music sounds… but also because of the battery life! The battery life is TRULY AMAZING!! AND SUCH A LIFE-SAVER!! For me, I was lucky because with the Auria I only had to change my battery twice a day….but even still, I always had to worry about my batteries charging at night, making sure I had my batteries with me and what-not. But now, I just use the one on my implant and I’m good for the WHOLE DAY! I still carry one battery with me as an emergency backup if I need it, but honestly I don’t even need to carry an extra battery with me! The one battery lasts all day long and I absolutely LOVE it!! : )

So everything is going great with me….but unfortunately this summer and been a rough few months for my younger brother, Jonathan (16). At the end of May, his C1 internal implant (after 9 ½ years of having it) failed. So after the “confirmation” of the device failure he went into surgery to get the new Harmony. Lucky for him, the doctor was able to just take out the old one and put the new one right in the same spot on the same side. We were really happy about that because we both want to keep the other ear open for down-the-road emergencies and for the more advanced technologies that are coming out. So then after the surgery he waited a few weeks to get turned on. Those few weeks were probably the toughest weeks we all had to go through! He doesn’t lip read or use sign language (because we went through Auditory Verbal therapy to learn to hear and speak) so basically we had to walk around with a pen and paper so we could even communicate with him and to tell him what’s going on! I don't think I've ever seen my brother so depressed and bored! We were also all really nervous about the whole thing because we weren’t sure how this was going to turn out. We didn’t know if he was going to like it, if it was going to even work, or if he’s going to have to relearn the sounds all over again. But then the turning on day came… and it worked! But as it turns out, it did start off to be beeps and it moved into the “robotic” sounds and now it sounds like normal people. Its been about 2 months and he’s now hearing fine! I think because he had the implant for the last 9 ½ years in the same ear, the process of understanding with the new one was quicker and easier for him then for someone just getting it for the first time.

But after this rough and emotional summer, he’s now really liking the implant and seems to be hearing great!
He wears the new color caps, loves the direct-connect to listen to his ipod with, and most of all… he loves the battery life! With the C1, he had to go through 6-8 batteries A DAY and now he only uses one battery for the whole day!

So now, that my brother and I both have the new harmony we have fun with sharing the new color caps and jazzing up our implants!

Now, we're both stylish AB Harmony Implant users!! haha : )

Here is a picture of me and Jonathan swing dancing at a local concert a few days ago....



But on the flip side...even though this summer has been really emotional and crazy for us, we still had a great summer!
This summer, I worked in the Operating Room at the Children's Hospital again and I absolutly love it there! I went to Texas for 2 weeks and cruised around San Antonio with my Mom. And I've also been working at AVC and hanging out with all my friends.
And for Jonathan - for the last five weeks he went to the Riverside Military Academy to take Algebra II and to see whats its like to be in the military. Now, you're probably confused and wondering why he went off to the military academy when he JUST got the implant... well he actually signed up before the imlant failed and nothing was going to stop him from going (even the implant failure). And much to our surprise, the teachers and sargents were all really cool with him about the implant and really worked with him! He took a whole years-worth of Algebra II in 5 weeks ( and PASSED) and had a great time playing sports and working out with all the other guys!

Here is a picture of Jonathan and me from the Military Ball (you can kind of see him in his uniform)...



So yeah, you never know what life is going to bring you.... : )

FINALLY! ...an update! : )

Wow, I haven’t posted in while! YIKES! I’m sorry…I keep forgetting to post! : /

But yeah, things are going good. Last week I went to get remapped because I felt like I was loosing most of what people are saying. So we changed my settings and put my implant in the cleaner (wow-that cleaner thing really makes a difference! lol). So right now my settings are set the following:
program 3 – 50 - quite environment
program 2 – 60 - noisy
program 1 – 80 - cafeteria or very noisy environment
She set me on these settings because it’s supposed to help me hear better when I’m driving in a car, listening to music, and eating in the cafeteria or a restaurant. So my homework was to experiment with the different programs and see if it helps make a difference.
And right now, I’m in the process of doing that. Although I gotta say, I hate changing the programs throughout the day because for some reason it takes so long for the implant to switch over. And by the time I switch over, I’ve already missed a lot. But I think that that’s something that will get better with more practice on switching BEFORE I get there! : / But I’m working on it…
But other then that, the new mapping seems to work good…it’s defiantly better then what I had!

Oh, the other day I also put an order in for my NEW HARMONY! YAY! Thanks to my mom for helping me get that, maybe now I’ll be able to HEAR EVEN MORE! Now, I’m not even sure if I should be happy or a little nervous! Because quite honestly, it gets kind of annoying to hear my dog lick herself while we’re watching TV! Haha, just kidding…I’m looking forward to it! : ) I should be getting it in the next few weeks, so it should be interesting to see the differences between the Auria and Harmony. They say that the Harmony helps make music a lot more clearer – YAY! And being that music is everything to me…I’m looking REALLY forward to that! : )

But other then that, life has been going good! I just turned 18, I went on my first date, I've been to two Proms, I’m touring colleges, and also I’m taking Swing Dance Lessons! My junior year has definitely been the best so far, and it’s all because of my implant! My freshman year sucked because I had hearing aids (Superos by Phonak), and missed A LOT. Then my sophomore year, I was just getting the implant and I was trying to get used to it. And now, it’s the end of my junior year and I’m doing GREAT with hearing everyone and making all A’s and B’s!!

I went on my first date a few weeks ago. I was soo excited! Because I didn’t know how people would react to me being deaf and this guy asked me out!! I was honestly really nervous about it because I didn’t know if he knew about my hearing or not. But he was actually pretty cool about it! We went to the park and we were talking and he asked what that thing was on my ear. So I explained it to him and his mouth just dropped! Haha, he couldn’t believe that I was deaf! But he was surprisingly cool with it which made me really happy and a lot more confident about my hearing. And what’s so funny about it all is that he’s actually part deaf too! And I didn’t realize that either! He can’t hear out of his left ear either which was kind of neat to find out! : ) So you never know what you might learn about someone else, huh?!? So yeah – I guess I was just imagining the worst when I thought about telling people about my hearing. People are actually more understanding about your hearing then you realize! And that really makes me happy! : )

I’m also touring colleges right now! I went to tour Georgia College and State University (GC&SU) and I absolutely LOVED that place!! I am looking soooo forward to college, no offense to mom, but I am!! We got to tour the dorms, see the classes, and eat in the cafeteria and what-not. The dorms were pretty cool. It’s more of a quad-suite so I would have a roommate. And hopefully my roommate won’t mind my vibrating alarm clock!! Haha! So yeah, right now that’s my first choice in colleges (go GC&SU!) but I’m also touring some others such as University of West Georgia and Berry College. SO we’ll see…

I’m also taking Swing Dance Lessons which is A LOT of fun! My brother is actually my swing dance partner (he also has the implant)! We’re not as good as the dancers on Dancing with the Stars (…not yet at least! hehe) but we’re having fun learning the dance moves and listening to all the jazz and swing dance music! ; )

So yeah, life is going good…I love my implant! I’m definitely enjoying my life a lot more!! I’m making better grades, hearing more things, trying new things such as dance lessons and running for office in clubs, and I’m also getting better at being more vocal about my hearing! : )

Survey....

Hey Everyone!

My friend wanted me to answer this survey for her project in college, and I thought it'd be interesting to post on here. I thought they were good questions and I figured they might be helpful to you....so enjoy!


1. What age were you when you received the Implant?

I got the implant in april of 2005 when I was just turning 16 years old.

2. Has Getting the implant limited what you can do?

Yes, there are some activites that I have to avoid now becuase I have the implant, for example different things with magnetic fiels such as some rollar coasters, MRI's, and plastic slides.

3. How does the Implant help you with your daily life?

The implant helps me to hear no matter where I am, such as the cafeteria, outside, at home, or even on the phone. I wasn't functioning good with two hearing aids, so thats why I got the implant. And now I can hear alot more and its helped me to understand people, music and environmental sounds better.

4. Is it noticeable to other people when you first meet them?

No, becuase the cochlear implant is a small device that sits behind my ear. And being that I have longer hair, its hard to see it because its being hid. Plus, people don't "look" for the implant becuase they don't realize that I'm deaf when they meet me because my speech quality is so good. I was taught spoken language through the auditory verbal approach to where I don't lip read or use sign language.

5. How has the implant affected your life?

Yes, dramtically. With it my grades have gone up becuase I can hear now, I have been more involved with clubs such as Key Club and Girl Scouts, I have volunteered at differnt places, and I can even get a job now because I can hear what I have to do. And of course music is my favorite thing, now I can really enjoy the music and words.
But then again, its also frustrating because I always have to make sure I have charged batteries to get me through the day. Because if my batteries go dead, I can not hear a thing and I'm in a silent world.

6. If you had not gotten the implant how would your life be different?

If I had not gotten the implant, I would not have been involved with the clubs, volunteering, and plus I probably wouldn't be at the public school that I am now. I also wouldn't have been able to do some things such as going to concerts, movies, and plays. Without the implant, I would have very few friends, I wouldn't be as socialble and I wouldn't be where I am today.

But yeah, it was a short survey but it had some interesting points about the implant...