Home Sweet Home

Since my last posting, there's been several significant events and happenings of note in my life, so I'm going to take some time to write everything out in a giant update...so if this gets to long, sorry!

As you can guess by the title of this entry, I am back home in Mt. Pleasant, SC for fall break. I got home Friday night after making a nearly 600 mile trip to Raleigh first. I decided to skip class Friday (we're only in college once!) and make the five hour trip to Raleigh, NC to see the Tigers play NC State. A family friend's son who goes to State was able to get me a free ticket to the game, so I definitely took up that opportunity. It was very enjoyable to visit another ACC stadium, and even more enjoyable to see the Tigers win by a large margin. For those of you who keep up with Clemson football, you know that Clemson's victories and losses usually are decided on the last play of the game and ensure that the score is within a touchdown. Thankfully, this was not the case on Thursday night!

That night, I drove a bit south of Raleigh to stay with another close friend of mine, and it was great to see her and her new house! Since I've had trouble on the phone the last few months, it's been hard for me to keep in touch with certain close friends like this one, so to finally have a chance to sit down and catch up and see what's going on in this person's life was really nice.
I left the next morning (Friday) to make it home by Friday night to wish the not-so-younger brother a happy birthday.

It turned out to be a great trip that definitely made all the work I had to do at the beginning of the week completely worth it. I had to do all my work due Wednesday and Friday at the beginning of last week, and it was very stressful.

Speaking of the amount of work I have to do for engineering: I mentioned in my last post or two that I had pretty big news, and this is it. I decided in the last two weeks to change majors from Mechanical Engineering to Business Management. The change of major request has already gone through, and I feel a sense of relief to finally be in a major where I am happy and actually interested in the curriculum. I was already minoring in business administration, and had actually taken some classes such as Macroeconomics and Management 301, so I am not far behind in the management curriculum at all. Engineering was proving to be a lot of work, and I really was beginning to realize that I did not have the heart or desire to put in the time necessary to complete that work. I don't like engineering enough to stay up every night until 2:00 getting the work done. I still have to finish up my classes from this semester, but after Christmas, I'll be able to get started on my management classes, so I definitely can't wait for that!

Fall break has given me a chance to sit on my butt and really just relax and take advantage of having nothing to do. It was a blast to spend my day on the couch Saturday watching college football. The Notre Dame/USC game was exciting, to say the least, and it is always thrilling to see the Noles fall to a lesser opponent, in this case, UVA.

Yesterday I went to church and got to see a lot of people I haven't seen in awhile. Took a long nap yesterday, too.

This morning, I got up early and went down to the hospital for a three month follow-up for my implant. It's actually been a bit more than three months, but since I've been gone, we haven't had a chance to meet for the customary three month follow up until now. We did a few sound tests that showed a very marked improvement in my ability to understand sounds with my implant.

The last time I took the same sound test was one month after wearing my implant. First I was tested on my ability to understand approximately ten simple sentences spoken by a recording of a man's voice. Last time I took the test, I was able to identify about 40% of the sentences correctly. Today, in the same test, I correctly repeated 89% of the sentences! In this particular test, after a patient scores over 50%, the implant specialist then repeats a similar test with sentecnes, except this time there is extremely distracting and annoying background noise combined with the recording. The normal expectation in this sort of test is to be able to understand at least a quarter of the percent that can be understood without the background noise...so in my case, with 89% understanding of the same test, I should have been expected to identify less than 25%. I scored a 69% understanding my first time around...which is incredible! The second test involved identifying single words spoken by the same male voice. This test is much harder, so the scores are generally lower. It's much easier to understand entire sentences than single words because with sentences, you can use context clues to fill in the gaps. On this particular test, the national average for implant users who have had their implant for a year is 40%. The last time I took this test, I scored a measly 18%. Today, after three months, I scored 44%. I don't have to tell you that this is an incredible increase, and was definitely a reaffirming moment for me. Any remaining bit of doubt I had about whether or not the implant was the right thing for me was absolutely SMASHED to pieces this morning. I could not be happier with this, and I never in my wildest dreams would have thought this much of an improvement could come in such a short amount of time, especially in the initial frustrating month after receiving the implant.

After we took the test, I received my second external implant. Basically, I have two devices to use on my left ear, as well as two different magnets and coils. If one processor breaks, I now have a back-up device that I can use while the first one is being repaired. The new magnet stronger and will come in handy when I play sports. You may recall in previous posts that I was frustrated with the inability of my magnet to remain attached while engaged in athletics. Now, with a stronger magnet, this should not be a problem. I may choose to continue wearing my headband occasionally, but we shall see! Finally, I also received a new color for the magnet color. Rather than wearing a beige magnet/coil all the time, I now have the option of wearing a dark brown magnet and coil. This allows the unit to blend in more easily with my dark hair and it will not be so visible.

I guess now girls will have an excuse to point out to me when I absentmindedly forget to wear my brown magnet with my brown belt and shoes. Heaven forbid I should wear the unfashionable color! :)

I forgot to mention that I have also received a new phone this weekend. I think I posted recently that i'm able to use the phone with my implant, and I've had a lot more success with this in recent weeks. So much, in fact, that I felt I could justify buying a new cell phone to replace my worn out, beat up phone that I've had for several years. Now that my implant is doing so well, I have every reason to believe that I'll be able to use this phone a lot and hear friends over the phone once again!

You can tell it's been a good weekend.

Before I go, I have one final update.

The loser has finally overcome. The monkey is finally off his back. Victory is his.

I have finally won an intramural game at Clemson. After an astounding 0-15-1 record in intramural sports at Clemson, I finally won a game! Last Tuesday night, the planets came into alignment, and the Fighting Llamas beat "under the influence" in convincing fashion. I won't go into great detail, but it was a great win for our program, and hopefully will not be the last! Hopefully we will carry our support and winning streak into next week's game and win there and establish our position in the playoff race!

The Tigers take on Temple next weekend at home, and you can bet I'll be there cheering them on!

I'm heading back to Tigertown in the morning tomorrow (Tuesday) and will have a chance to see my soccer team from England, Manchester United, play on ESPN2 for the first time in a long while, so I'm looking forward to that!

Thanks for the continued support...I really think it's played the most crucial role in the incredible developments so far with my implant!

At least the bodies aren't moving

No, I'm not talking about dead people.

I'm taking a study break from Statics...the land of objects in complete equilibrium and thus "static" movement...i.e. no movement at all.

Sounds fun, right? You know you want to take this class.

Thought I'd just get on here and leave a quick little update, but knowing me it'll probably turn into some long, rambling entry that just proves I like to talk about myself and all the stuff going on in my life, or something like that.

The Presbyterian Student Association Fighting Llama football team took to the field last Tuesday night, and as will hopefully be the custom over the next few weeks, I'll continue to leave you updates on how our team did. This week, taking note from our idols, the Clemson Tiger football team, we stepped out on the field this Tuesday decked out in brand new uniforms. No longer were we a mismatched group of royal blue, robin's egg blue, and navy blue warriors without a sense of identity - as we did last week in our tie against Delta Sigma Pi. We felt then that we were truly members of a cohesive unit, prepared to fight tooth and nail to ensure victory over any worthy opponent that crossed our path.

The first worthy opponent to test our mettle and confidence in these brand new uniforms? The Crackers.

What a silly name.

Nonetheless, our feelings of cohesiveness and strength evaporated within minute as the Llamas fell to a quick and painful 14 point deficit. Unfortunately, they got a touchdown on the second play of the game and then intercepted our first pass on the ensuing drive and returned THAT for a touchdown as well. After the intial flurry of two touchdowns however, I am proud to say the Llama defensive unit settled down and held the Crackers to only one more touchdown for the remainder of the game. Unfortunately, our offense was not able to produce, and so, we were forced to concede defeat.

Llamas are resilient. We will bounce back. Next Tuesday night, we take on "under the influence". They've only scored one touchdown in the last two games, compared to our three. It's a battle for the bottom of the table. The stakes will be high. One team will exit the game with a chance to stake its position for the best of the worst teams in the league. The other will simply be the worst team in the league.

Stay posted, and be sure to check back next week! I hope to report that we have achieved a llamarific victory. If that is the case, I am proud to report that will be my FIRST ever victory in any intramural sport since I started at Clemson. Currently, I believe I am 0-15-1 in all intramural sports I've played at Clemson. It must be a record. At least I have learned to be graceful in defeat! Haha.

Oh well, my implant is still kicking butt, and I'm loving every passing second as it continues to just get better and better.

I gave a tour in the rain today, and I actually had to concentrate more on people's questions, because the rain was just SO loud! I'm not used to hearing rain with my implant, so today was definitely an enjoyable experience to hear the patter of raindrops on the umbrellas and to know that the reason I couldn't hear someone was because I could hear TOO well!

Fall break is next weekend...definitely looking forward to headin home for a few days of rest and seeing my family and friends!

Rock on.