7Hrs to Go!

Well, it's the day I start my challenge...at approximately 4pm today I will be giving up my voice in exchange for an electronic communication aid!
ITV West were supposed to be sending a reporter this morning to do an interview with Lucy and I as well as two students. Unfortunately they had to cancel which is very disappointing for both us and the students who agreed to take part! Having some TV coverage would have been great for fundraising and extremely important for raising awareness of AAC and communication difficulties in general. We are very much hoping they can rearrange but we'll have to see!
It's been very strange observing Lucy (who started 48hrs ahead of me) using her communicator in the office. I think if anything it has made me feel more nervous about the challenge ahead as I can see the impact it has on any interactions she has. At least we are fortunate here that staff and students are used to seeing and talking to people who use communication aids so they are more patient and allow more time for Lucy to respond to them! However, one member of staff has already commented that she didn't stop to talk to Lucy in the office as she normally would when Lucy is speaking, instead they just exchanged hellos (Lucy just gestured and didn't use her communicator). If it is difficult here then OH BOY it's going to be a challenge in Kidderminster tomorrow when Bruce (our college website guy) comes to film me doing some Christmas shopping and ordering drinks in the local pub!! The pub in question, when asked if they would mind us doing some filming, asked "Is it going to take long?" and "What does it involve?" - I'm not quite sure what they expect but I explained that I would just order drinks the same as anyone else only using an electronic voice. I think it's going to be a long and challenging 5 days!
Another thing about Lucy's communicator is that although she is pretty quick at preparing her message, the device seems to take a long time to catch up with her and speak the message. I think mine will be a bit quicker in that respect, but, as I will be using a greater combination of symbols and text it'll probably take longer to prepare the message in the first place, especially when I'm using the Minspeak (LLL) programme (which is based on categories and associations) as there are lots of words that will take me longer to search for!
Off now to try and sort out Monday's BBC radio Glocester interview.