§ ¶Fuzzy wuzzy sewing machines
My one-year surgical anniversary almost passed without my realizing it. It wasn't until a friend asked, "Isn't today the anniversary of your surgery?" that I made note of it. I don't like to remember the surgery anyway, but my life has definitely changed a lot since then. The one-year anniversary of my activation is coming up, and my mapping on May 2 will be an interesting and informative one. I think Sharon will give me tests to see how I perform compared to a year ago. Megan (who I had rehab with in the fall) will be joining me, though Becca can't. She'll make the next one, I hope! Only two more weeks of rehab with her - where has the time gone?I continue to pick up random phrases just by listening - even when I'm not consciously doing so. During our recent trip to Buffalo, my family got to see this firsthand. One morning, my mother-in-law was talking to the kids nearby. I suddenly turned to her and asked, "Did you just say 'fuzzy wuzzy?'" She had!
I walked outside with my parents one day, and helped transfer some stuff from Mom's car on the street. I heard a noise and immediately knew it was a car coming and was able to move in time. After I did so, I looked at Dad, and asked if he realized what had just happened.
I had some listening practice with Samara, Mom & Dad, and Mom & Dad said afterwards that they were impressed. We picked categories like things that move and things in the room. When I heard "sewing machine," I opened my eyes (closing my eyes during listening practice helps me to focus) in puzzlement, because while I had heard "sewing machine," I didn't remember there being one in the room. After it was pointed out, I remembered, but what's noteworthy about this is that it's proof that I was actually hearing the words, not just guessing.
We also picked broad topics, like food, and I had to listen to random sentences about that topic. I was able to understand Dad's sentence, "I like fajitas," on the first try. When Samara started laughing at sentences that weren't even humorous, we knew it was time to stop!
