What's New.

This entry covers (i)Nursing school, (ii)Veterinarian school, (iii)stethoscopes, (iv)audiobooks, (v)insurance and Cochlear Implant upgrade.

i. At the forefront of my decision to leave nursing: my school was not adhering to the accommodations I needed. I chose not to support them via future tuition or alumni donation. I don't doubt my professors may have been confused since I performed well in my classes,  but I was not receiving the high quality education I deserve. Having to work harder than everyone else from the school's failure to provide equal access is not acceptable to me. Numerous videos remained uncaptioned, other videos were captioned days and weeks after the rest of my classmates had access (and therefore they had more time to study), mandatory and daily group work was atrocious with 100+ students in a small room speaking loudly over one another, zero help in the clinical setting, and microaggression behaviors (about disability) exhibited by classmates and professors.
The above, however, is not the only reason why I left, but it was crucial. I would have loved to have been a nurse working with Deaf patients, but that's going to be something others will need to do. I will still have that opportunity but in a different healthcare setting. I'm seeking careers that will allow greater freedom for independence and will seriously pursue my other healthcare passion: Animals. 

ii. I intend to apply for Veterinarian school this summer. I will need to take the GRE and I have three pre-reqs to complete before Summer 2015. In the meantime I will pursue Animal Science related degree. I'm more confident and motivated to ensure a Veterinarian school will provide my accommodations versus trying again at another nursing school. I will not allow schools to bully me any further with empty promises of, "Be patient and we'll fix the issues" only for them to never resolve anything.

iii. During nursing school I was able to use an electronic stethoscope modified for Cochlear Implants and hearing aids. After several mapping appointments with my audiologist, it still wasn't quite what I wanted for noisy environments. There is another stethoscope available. I would describe this one as a tool that translates sounds into images, though you can still listen at the same time. I'd very much like to try it out.

iv. Brief update on audiobooks is I have been listening to audiobooks while following along with the written books, though I cannot say any new changed have been noticed in the months since starting. I still require lip-reading skills to converse with others, and audiobooks are just as annoying to listen to as ever.

v. In the meantime, I'm trying to come up with a way to afford upgrading my Cochlear Implant from the Nucleus Freedom (Model made in 2005) to the Nucleus 6. Supposedly there are insurance plans out there that will cover an upgrade to the external C.I. processor if it has been over 5 years, but my health insurance through BlueCross BlueShield is NOT one of them  (pdf link explaining coverage).
By trading in my Nucleus Freedom, I would be given a $2,000 credit putting my final cost for an upgrade at over $7,000. If I order a second processor within 90 days, the second one would "only" cost 4 grand. I'm not certain how long this $2,000 trade-in credit will be accepted. I imagine at some point they'll take this offer down, putting the price for an upgrade to $9,000 plus additional accessories and batteries.

My Nucleus Freedom is currently functioning, it's just not technologically capable of giving me the results that hearing people would consider a successful surgery. Think of the improvements made to computers and cell phones alone since 2005. A lot has changed since then, and so have Cochlear Implant processors. I believe an upgrade would drastically improve my audio training, but how I'll be able to afford a $7,000+ upgrade is a question I haven't yet answered. I can either put it all on credit cards, or wait 3-5 years until the next upgrade. My current processor does not give me what I need, but it technically "works." I don't know, the ability to hear sounds seems pretty useless if you're not able to understand them as well. It's like walking around and listening to the rest of the world speak a foreign language. It's only gibberish (until I read lips).