I am starting to hear the difference in sounds of different letters. I spoke to my friend and she bought up a good point; that of the 2 nicknames Abel has for me (Lucia and Pookie), that Abel should try calling me by "Pookie" because it has a heavier or stronger sound to it than "Lucia" and I have to say that she does have a good point. "Pookie" does sound stronger because of the "P" in it while "Lucia" is much softer-sounding. She said I'd be more likely to respond to "Pookie" than to "Lucia" or even my own name. I can hear the "b" in my name but it is not as strong as the "P". I still can't automatically tell apart the sounds yet (can't put a name to it unless I SEE what is making the sound). But I did hear someone pound the table behind me...I was able to tell that only because I felt the pounding also and connected it to the sound.
I spoke to my other friend and she thinks that my tone of voice may have changed due to my CI. This is because lately over the last few days since I've been activated, I noticed that when my cats are doing something they aren't supposed to do (such as scratching the carpet), I say "NO!" or "STOP!" and they immediately stop and look at me. Before my CI, they would just ignore me and keep on doing whatever they were doing (even if I was yelling at them to stop it), until I get up and go over to them. Now I don't even have to get up. Nice!
I am already on P3, I switched over last night. I am hearing things much better. I have a feeling I will have to go back to my audiologist for new maps much sooner than planned. I will give my current maps the weekend as I still have 1 more map that I haven't used yet, and if I am on P4 by Monday, I will call the clinic and make an appointment for sometime next week.
Also, I noticed that I am feeling much more confident with my voice and that I am talking much more now. I used to talk a lot before I lost my previous apartment and had to leave St. Cloud. When I went to live on the farm I didn't really have anyone I could practice talking with (I was very self conscious, plus, I didn't really like some of the people that lived on the farm, they are such nasty people!), and I was used to talking only with people I know really well. I was getting speech therapy at Saint Cloud State University for free before I left St. Cloud. When I left St. Cloud, I had to quit speech therapy as the farm I went to live on was over an hour away, and I had no tranportation. I was SO pissed because I was making a lot of progress in speech therapy. I sure missed talking!