Simmie - the Next Step

“Now I feel like crying,” Simmie’s eyes filled to the brim even while they lit up brightly.
“So, cry,” I said.
“No.”
At least not yet, I thought.
“You cry enough for me.”
It doesn’t work that way, of course, but I’ll let it go for now.
She smiled broadly, realizing how well she could hear and how fast she was progressing. She said, “Truly, the sky’s the limit.”

Today is July 22, a mere twenty-one days after Simmie received a Cochlear Implant in her left ear. Her assimilation into the hearing world provided by this miraculous invention is progressing rapidly. Just now, audiologist Lisa increased the number of active electrodes from 16 to the maximum 120, at least two weeks ahead of the average schedule. Simmie now has access to the full range of hearing available through the CI. Lisa dialed her own recorded message on her telephone and let Simmie take the receiver. She could understand every word. She listened to sentences, not just words as previously, spoken by Lisa behind a screen and heard them all. A hearing test given in a sound booth a little while later revealed that her sentence recognition of Lisa’s voice was at 85% and of a recorded male voice at 51%. Before surgery, with her old hearing aid, sound booth test showed a 38% sentence recognition in that same ear.

After her processors were re-programmed and we prepared to leave, I asked, “I wonder what Myra will think about this.” Myra is the main character in Simmie’s semi-autobiographical novel who visits the consciousness of her great-great-great grandmother Simeona aka Simmie.

Simmie stopped in her tracks. “Oh, yes! Myra.”

We shall see how God weaves the story through the consciousness and gifts of His child Simeona who has now entered a new world.

“Myra,” she whispered as she closed her eyes.