Forgot to include this in the previous post (I think).
I’m hearing so much better. Things are really coming to me – and fast. Ever since I picked up the slack a couple of days ago and started wearing it 10-12 hours a day, the sounds are learned everyday, and things are really starting to come together. I expect at this pace, I should be at 60% of my potential by August. That may seem like a far time away, but I am going on a road trip in July that will be 10-12 days long, depending how much driving we get done in the first couple of days and the the day we leave Vegas.
I am probably not going to bring my CI to Vegas. I have perfectly good reasons as to why not.
1) I am going to two clubs that are guaranteed to be crazy, and packed, and this is bad news for a CI.
2) I have a reputation for breaking or losing my phone in every Vegas trip I take.
3) I like to drink and have a good buzz going, and that would be really irresponsible for a rookie CI user to keep his CI on while drinking, potentially not noticing it might have fallen off.
4) It’s Vegas, baby, Vegas. The CI can take a little vacation.
I am really, really excited by my progress up to date, and I can’t wait to see what it’s like come August.
DeffJeff's Blog 
I would take it to Vegas! Listen to music in the car, listen in the casinos, just leave it behind when clubbing & drinking. Are you going to post photos? Glad the EEE is sorted. My audie says she thought it was my sensitivity to high frquencies and she turned down the high frequencies to zero in my mapping then we worked up to 5%. I am okay with it now and no more EEE. I do notice I get a full blast of sound when I put the CI on before it quietens down, sounds like the same thing you experience. It might be an idea to adjust your mapping like I did?
So proud of you little brother! So is Teddy!