Thankyou from Leonie

Angel Flight No's 43 and 44
Monday 7 January 2008
Another Quickie.

My day starts early, 5.15am. I make my lunch, pack my bag and have breakfast as it could be sometime until I get the chance to eat again.
David and I drive to The Black Dolphin Motel to pick up my pilot, Victor Laybutt and his co-pilot and son, Ashley.
There was much confusion the night before as to how we were going to get past all the new security at the airport. We had to either be at the airport at 6.45am or 8.30am to gain access to the apron.
Ridiculous as it seems, our airport has tighter security than Bankstown.
So instead of departing at 8.20am we were forced to depart at 6.45am as that 10 minutes difference would have left me behind schedule and holding everyone up all day.
Thankfully Victor was able to get me up and away at 7.00am.
The day was sunny, and the wind-sock only just moving with a breeze from the south.
There were Plover chicks and Mum and Dad on the edge of the run-way. So cute. They will build their homes just anywhere! Luckily they have the good sense to stay clear of planes.
It only took ten minutes for the clouds to make an appearance to the point of being completely overcast.
I settled back to enjoy the view, the always interesting, changing view.
There was small patches of sunlight up near Bateman's Bay and even more near Jervis Bay. Visibility improved somewhat. Didn't read my book for the whole trip, everything was just too pretty and I was enjoying myself looking for landmarks.

We touched down at Bankstown at 8.40am.
I said my farewells and thanks to Victor and Ashley after they'd seen me safely inside the terminal to await my Earth Angel.
While still in the air, David had messaged me to say that Jane Braithwaite, my Earth Angel, would be at the airport terminal at 9.30am, earlier than she needed to be but very good of her to come early at short notice.
This left me with only 50 minutes to kill. By the time I'd gone to the toilet and read my book for what seemed like a short time, the time was almost up.
A car pulled up out the front so I went to investigate. It turned out to be another Earth Angel. She was there to pick up a young boy and transport him to Westmead Hospital. I sat in her car and chatted with her.
Jane arrived minutes later.

As she'd rushed to pick me up we needed to rearranged the interior of her car. She'd planned on taking out her grandchildren's car seats but didn't have time. All was well and I fitted in easily.
I was lucky as Jane always made sure she had my attention before she spoke by holding up her hand. Made having a conversation while driving just that much easier.
We had something in common in that our daughters are circus orientated but Jane was lovely and it wouldn't have mattered, we had an easy conversation and the trip was over before very long.
As Jane was doing both legs of my trip, she dropped me the Cochlear Implant Centre at 10.05am and would return at 12.00noon.
I went to reception and then made a much needed cuppa and sat in the waiting room and read the Women's Weekly and enjoyed a rock cake, which Rhys, my son had made the day before. Yum!
I got to see Rachel at 11.00am and we commenced with the much needed tune-up on my right implant.
It needed alot of alteration, which only goes to show that by missing the last appointment wasn't a good thing but of course it couldn't be helped.
Next task was the one I dreaded as much as I'd looked forward to; the turning off of the two electrodes that had kinks in them. Would it be the cause of my troubles or not? I was nervous!
Rachel did her things with the computer with my first speech processor plugged into it. She turned off the offending electrodes and then we did the usual beep, beep, beep test. Rachel then played back to me the sound levels which, apart from one, sounded good. The one that didn't had given me trouble in the past and had been turned off but Rachel thought she'd try it again just to make sure but she turned it off too as it wasn't preforming well enough to be of any help. So out of the 22 electrodes that I had implanted, I now only have 18 functioning as another had never functioned since the day it was implanted but that's still good; I can function with that many so it's no drama.
The thing that both Rachel and I find amazing is that my left ear picks up sounds that my right ear doesn't and vice-versa.
At the moment they are working individually but my long term hope is that they'll learn to work together with improved hearing for me.
Naturally being able to use both implants again is better and time will tell just how much better.
I still have two more appointments for tune-ups so there is still room for improvement.

I must praise my audiologist here, as she came to have this appointment with me while still on holidays. Now that's dedication. Thankyou Rachel.

I say farewell and thanks to Rachel and go to meet Jane who has, in the meantime gone down to the waters edge and had a look at Banjo Paterson's Cottage, which is next to the Gladesville Hospital.
We depart for Bankstown Airport at 12.10pm and arrive at 12.45pm. Jane has commented on the fact that there is much less traffic in Sydney at present and I said it's probably because most of the population is in Merimbula. Our poor little town is overflowing with tourists.

Once we arrived at the airport, Jane rings Steve Green, my pilot for the return leg. His plane is out front and he'll come and get me in 2 minutes, which he did.
I farewell and thank Jane and off I go with Steve to board his plane, which is a four seater, twin engine craft. Steve has a co-pilot, Russell whom I meet after he has finish on his phone call.
He introduces himself and I say, 'Did you say your name is Russell?' and he says, 'Yes'. That's the first time I've been able to hear someone say their name for a very long time. What a buzz!!
We board the plane and take off at 1.00pm, on schedule, wonderful.
Lots more sunshine by now and quite warm, lovely.
An uneventful, comfortable trip home which seems to over in quick time. Once again I didn't feel the desire to read my book; quite happy to sit back and watch the ground fly by.
I messaged David once we were flying over Tathra so we flew over him at the same time as he was crossing the Merimbula Bridge to come and pick me up.
Thankfully there was someone at the airport to let me out and David and I headed for home after thanking Steve and Russell for their assistance.
Another successfull mission behind me.

By Leonie Williams