As I approach my activation date - Wednesday - I'm getting really impatient. Will everything sound like croaking Daleks? Just beeps? Normal speech? (Okay, maybe not.)

A few days ago, I felt the implant for the first time. I'd been feeling around near the incision for a while - cleaning out the cruft, and itching my new scar (one for the collection, heh) - but I guess it was obscured by the swelling. It's subtle - just a little raised edge behind my ear, about at the level where my cartilage ends and the squishy part of the lobe begins, and it goes up on a diagonal to a point just a bit above my ear. I think, anyway - touch is a tricky sense. I should try feeling it while looking in a mirror. It basically feels like bone, but the flatness of it and the regularity of the edge are a dead giveaway.

I'm also getting curious as to the hearing aid on my other ear. I've been told that I should leave it in at least long enough to see if I like the balance, and that I can always take it out if it interferes, or if it makes me feel off-balance. I'm curious, though: will I wear it during the activation? Or therapy? It will be interesting to see if it's useful to have a familiar guide while I'm adapting, or if leaving it out will force me to rely more on the implant and speed the process. Questions for the audiologist and the therapist, I suppose.