Using the Phone

I have some really exciting news.  I can hear on the phone with my CI!  I know most normal-hearing people are probably thinking, big whoop-tee-doo (how exactly is that spelled, anyway?), but it is a huge deal in my world.  And I'll tell you why -- I haven't been able to use my left ear to talk on the phone in over 20 years.  That's two decades.  That's the majority of my adult life.  That's, well...you get the picture.

One day I thought I'd see how I'd do on my iPhone so I decided to start by listening to a couple of voice messages.  I was amazed at how loud and clear they sounded.  Then I made a call to a store to see if they had a particular item in stock.  Not once did I have to ask for a repeat or say, "What?".  By the time I finished the call I was so excited I had to share the news so I emailed a couple of people who would understand my enthusiasm.  

I've had a hearing loss for so long that I have become conditioned to being adverse to making or taking calls.  I don't know if I'll ever get over it.  Maybe after lots of practice and some success I'll start to gain more confidence.  I remember even as a kid I didn't really like to spend a lot of time on the phone.  Maybe that was because of the lack of privacy since we were tethered to one spot. Even with the extra-long spiral cord, I had to stretch it to get into the next room. Or maybe it had something to do with the fact that my dad was a realtor, and as such, a tied-up phone line meant the possibility of a lost sale.  After all, this was before answering machines and call waiting.  Ah, the low-tech, or should I say no-tech, years.

Today I had to make another phone call and I felt myself taking deep breaths beforehand.  I made sure I had my hearing aid in my right ear just in case I needed to switch to that ear if I couldn't understand what the person was saying on the other end.  Well, the risk of jumping in with both feet is you will stumble and I did. The phone call started with my implanted ear, but quickly changed to the aided ear after I struggled to get everything the person said at the beginning of the conversation.  I even had a hard time understanding with my aided ear.  It confirmed what I already knew -- aids and CIs were never meant to be hearing miracles.  So I would give myself a B- on today's call (I got bonus credit for effort).  Oh, well.  With a lot of practice I'll get it down.  Now I need to work on the anxiety issues.

Overwhelmed

As if getting a CI wasn't overwhelming enough, they give you a bag, the size of a carry-on, jam-packed with accessories.  The picture doesn't really show what is in my bag, but it gives you an idea of how much stuff I got with my bionic ear.

Cochlear America, who made my CI, bundled the cost of everything -- the surgery, the device and all the goodies that come with it.  Before my surgery I had an appointment with my audiologist devoted to picking out the  accessories for my bionic ear. I was given a sheet of paper and allowed to pick out five items.  I don't even remember everything I selected, but I know I chose to get the aqua case that will allow me to wear it in the pool.  Now I'll be able to get in the water with Noah and be able to hear what is going on around me. 

I was really surprised when my audiologist told me that she was ordering two processors.  My first thought was, "Don't you think you should ask me if I want to pay for a second one?"  She quickly assured me that private insurance covers the cost and it's nice to have a backup in case something happens to one of them.  So I chose to have one black and the other mocha. 

When I opted for rechargeable batteries as my main way of powering my CI, I didn't give any thought to having one more gadget to keep track of charging.  But, that's not the only thing that needs to be plugged in or charged every day.  See that blue box in the picture?  That's what my store and dry container came in, and that wasn't included as one of my five accessories.  So every night when I get ready for bed I take off my CI and put it in the dry and store.  And yep, it has to be plugged in every night.  It zaps up the moisture in my CI that can cause damage to the electronic components.  I have not one, but two remote controls.  One small simple one that changes volume that can easily fit into my purse, and another one that allows me to change programs among other things.  And how does my bigger remote get it's power?  You guessed it...it has to be charged too.  Argh!  I already had a mess of cords to keep track of, now I've got three more.

I have been so busy getting ready for the holidays that I haven't spent much time going through everything in my suitcase (that's what I call it). I take my bag with  with me when I go to my audiologist appointments because sometimes there are things she has to refer to when we are going over my progress and questions I have.  And speaking of progress...my next post will be devoted to this topic.  Hopefully by then I'll have more therapy experience to share.   

What's that sound?

I'm at one week post activation and each day is bringing better understanding of what I am hearing.  Having said that, I have a long way to go.

A couple of the first things I noticed shortly after I was activated was how much clearer sounds, like running water for example, were than speech.  Wow, my microwave buttons were loud! I had no idea. One day I heard a sound like someone was popping bubble wrap.  I looked around to identify the source and noticed I had just received a text.  Aha!  That sound was my text alert.  I wanted to hear more of it!  

Speech is still not at a place even close to where it was with my hearing aids, but I didn't expect it to be this soon.  At first my brain seemed to have a lag time between when someone said something and the time I realized what they said.  This isn't a problem anymore. Now I can communicate in real time, even if I am not understanding more than half of what is said.

The last couple of days I've noticed a marked improvement in  understanding voices, but things are still a jumbled mess of garbled sound.  It reminds me of what it sounds like when a radio station isn't quite in tune -- I can tell someone's talking but I'm getting a bunch of frequency and static noise.  I've decided my word for the day is reverberation because that sums up what I'm experiencing the most.

On my way to the grocery store today I listened to the Diane Riehm show on NPR because I knew it would be good practice for listening to speech.  I could hear one lady's voice (I don't know who it was, but it wasn't Diane Riehm) pretty clearly and was able to pick up a significant amount of what she said.  I came to the realization that I was hearing two layers of voices at the same time -- the person's
"normal-sounding" voice and the robotic version of their voice.  If I focused on their "normal-sounding" voice I was able to comprehend what she was saying much easier.  I have no idea if this is a typical experience, but it was quite cool yet annoying at the same time.  

I could write a lot more about specific things I heard this past week, but I will save it for another post.