January 28, 2018 was Caroline's last deaf day. Two years later - to the day - Caroline and Andreas catch up on the long podcast-free period (most of 2019): Caroline is listening to podcasts. A lot of them. Constantly. Caroline talks about her favourite podcasts, her favourite podcast and radio voices, what it's like to hear on vacation, a technical glitch over Christmas, how the sound of a doorknob will rock your world. And she talks lingering self-doubt.

In November 2018, Caroline and Andreas received a Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation "Courage Award," recognizing extraordinary efforts in approaching Caroline's hearing and loss, but also for their advocacy, awareness, and mentoring.

The Courage Gala on April 12 was a memorable evening. The gala theme was "The Colours of Courage." There was food. There was drink. There was music. They got up in front of a thousand people and talked about hearing.

Most epsiodes of My Beautiful Cyborg are explicitly about hearing. This episode is the evidence of hearing. With her ability to hear with her Cochlear implant, Caroline can be with friends and enjoy an evening out in a noisy public setting, and gets a chance to recount a night out - and NOT be corrected on the conversations she had, or what happened.

This is what it sounds like to be amazed how hearing lets you enjoy other things.

#deafnotdeaf #shecanhear #loveyourhearing

https://www.glenrosefoundation.com
https://topcooilsite.com

It's Celebration time. It's about time. In mid-February Caroline and Andreas traveled to Nashville to speak and take in Cochlear Celebration. It was all go go go and rush rush rush once they got back. One more big event with a talk, and another coming up at the end of May, the pair have had their hands full. Plus the mentoring, plus the day to day re-ordering of your life once it's been blown to unrecognizable but much better smithereens.

Cochlear is Caroline's implant manufacturer. Every two years it invites all its implantees to gather (in the USA - in 2019 it was in Nashville, TN). There are lectures, information sessions, training, new product demos, free hardware service and cleaning, and just the real joy of being with people who know you're just like everyone else, but a little more like each other.

When you gather together over 1000 cochlear implantees of all ages, and loved ones, there are going to be stories, memories, and awkward moments. The Celebration Time episode has it all -- catch up!

http://www.mybeautifulcyborg.com
Twitter: @mybionicear
Instagram: mybeautifulcyborg

ps: yes, we're dropping the whole numbered episode thing...you're welcome.

There are few times in life when the line between yesterday and today changes everything.

January 28, 2018 was Caroline's last deaf day.

The Activation Episode is about January 29, 2018.

Caroline and Andreas listen to Caroline's activation audio. Activation was billboarded on multiple previous podcasts, but life took a turn as we learned to cope with being a hearing couple. It's been a year, okay?

We think this episode was worth the wait. This isn't bombast and fanfare. This is awakening and discovery.

As always, it's honest and raw, from the compressed tedium of setup and calibration, to Caroline's first hearing moment. And yes, you CAN hear it; best first words ever.

Honestly? Listen. It's more fun to hear someone regain their hearing than to read about it.

http://www.mybeautifulcyborg.com

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Good hearing promotes good health. Take the opportunity to visit an audiologist to make sure your hearing is healthy. Google: local audiologist

For more information about hearing loss or Cochlear Implants, please visit:
https://www.cochlear.com/intl/home/understand

Caroline turns the tables and sits on the other side of the table as she asks Andreas about his hearing. Which is, in a word, unusual.

It's another twist in a love story about hearing. Ironically, Andreas reveals that being able to hear everything isn't always what it's cracked up to be. But in the end, even if you live on opposite ends of the hearing spectrum, together is better.

Caroline & Andreas will be speaking at Cochlear Celebration in Nashville, TN - https://www.cochlear.com/us/recipients/promo/celebration/index.html

For the first Better Hearing Month (in May) Caroline's audiologist tested Andreas's hearing. And yes, getting to a hearing tests is hard to do.

Put on your big girl/boy pants - get your hearing tested by a certified audiologist every five years. It's better than never, and it beats the average amount of time it takes for people to get checked because they think they're losing their hearing (8 to 10 years).

http://www.mybeautifulcyborg.com

*Long story short, it was the first time Caroline ever suggested a podcast title, even as a joke. Which this was. This gets explained early on, otherwise the title would be a distraction.

After a hectic Christmas holidays with family and friends, Caroline and Andreas settle back into whatever routine they can manage. In the spirit of Auld Lang Syne, they reflect on seemingly routine little things that stop them in their tracks. Conversations with normal flow, a stranger asking directions, a fart. They're major -- yes you read that right, a far...if you want to find out why a fart was a major sign of success, you'll just have to listen. Where was I...oh yes, a major fart. No, no, no. Blah blah blah, conversations with a normal flow, directions...a fart...all are major milestones. And yes, seriously, a fart was the sign of something important. We probably should have called it "the Fart Episode," but I mean, there's a line. Caroline's "Hearing Tip of the Week" is cheap, easy, and polite (and polite is sexy). It's not always pretty, but this episode, join My Beautiful Cyborg on what it's like to regain hearing. Sometimes it's a gas, which can be an epiphany. On epiphany.

On December 12, 2018 Caroline and Andreas tried to have a normal morning. You know, do all the normal things like pack up a day bag, take a change of clothes, and hold your husband's hand uncomfortably tightly as you find your way to the hospital admissions desk. There's nothing much normal about implant surgery day.  To celebrate implant surgery day, Caroline listens to something she's never heard before: audio from the pre-operative meeting with surgeon, Dr. Richard Liu. Before implant surgery, you have the opportunity to meet with the surgeon and ask questions. Caroline struggled to hear in the doctor's office with noisy ventilation (which is everywhere). For the first time since the consultation, she hears Dr. Liu and Andreas talk about the doctor's experience, the procedure, risks, and expected outcome from the cochlear implant surgery. Caroline has revelations - and questions - because, even though she was in the meeting, she didn't hear it. That's hearing loss. Join Caroline and Andreas as they celebrate one year of Caroline officially becoming My Beautiful Cyborg. And FTR, there are 9 years left on the implant warranty. 

My Beautiful Cyborg returns. Finally. Caroline begins with an apology: "I broke the podcast!" What the heck happened? A deaf woman regained her hearing - that's the opposite of breaking something.

Now Caroline is #deafnotdeaf. Why drop off the radar? It has to be all good news right? Absolutely. But it's possible to be overjoyed.

Caroline and Andreas talk about coming out of the fog of reflection. They thought they had an exciting story to tell before. It turns out hearing is like an onion. A very big onion. My Beautiful Cyborg has discovered more about hearing and how it connects us than she imagined. She's finally ready to tell the story of her hearing, and yours.