Welcome to Storyworthy. My name is Christine Blackburn, and I'm coming to you from Los Angeles, California.

Whether you're a longtime fan of the show or a new listener, welcome to Storyworthy.

Boy, if you're a new listener, you have a lot of catching up to do. This July of 2025 will be my 15th year podcasting.

So you can go back in the storyworthy catalog and listen to an awful lot of stories.

But today I am recording solo because I have so much to catch you guys up on.

And I'm really looking forward to recording.

First and foremost, I had cochlear implant surgery on December 17th.

That's right.

Last May in 24, I lost the hearing in my right ear.

Now, I've talked about this before on a couple of other episodes, so I don't really want to go into how it happened.

Because at the end of the story, I don't know how it happened, and nobody else does either.

But the point is, is after a small battle with my insurance company, I got them to approve me having a cochlear implant inserted in my head.

So that happened. It's very exciting. And I'm still deaf in my right ear. I still can't hear.

But I will be activated next week on January 7th.

Yeah, next week.

That's my birthday, in fact.

So January 7th, I go back down to the Kek-Otelaryngology building at USC,

and they activate me.

Am I excited?

Yeah, a little bit, just a little bit. I've been hearing, of course, in stereo

for the last, you know, 10 months or nine months, whatever. And it's just not the same. It really

isn't. So I miss hearing in stereo. This mono has been for the birds, especially when it comes from music and

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