Parties: Lessons Learned

On Saturday night I went to my first party since getting my CI.  And as a newbie to the CI world, I went not as prepared as I should have been.  

It was an office party and held in a big ballroom with roughly 40 people sitting at round tables that sat eight.  We got there late so we didn't have many options in where to sit.  We took two seats at a table that put my back to most of the other tables.  As a result, I couldn't see the wait staff coming toward me.  On multiple occasions someone had to prompt me that a wait staff had asked me a question.  The first time this happened, it wasn't a big deal.  But when it happened repeatedly, I started to feel like a zoned-out zombie.  Lesson #1 takeaway - arrive early so you can pick a seat that strategically maximizes your ability to see and hear what's going on around you.

I tried following the conversation taking place shortly after our salads arrived.  Most of the time I was able to hear just enough to know the topic, but not enough to feel comfortable adding to it.  My bionic ear wanted to focus on all the other conversations taking place behind me even though my brain couldn't make sense of them and they sounded like distant gobbledygook.  I wanted so badly to shut out the noise so I could focus only on what was right in front of me.  Finally, it dawned on me that I needed to change programs on my CI, from my general setting to the one called "cafe" that would enable the processor to focus on sounds to the side and front of me.  I thought I'd discreetly change the program using the remote I remembered to put in my purse.  There was only one small problem.  I forgot to check the remote before we left and the battery had died.  Luckily the programs can be changed directly on the processor.  I reached up and pushed the button until I heard the four beeps that indicated it was in the fourth program, the cafe setting.  Lesson # 2 takeaway - always make sure you have your remote completely charged before you leave the house. 

Since my speech discrimination was still not where I wanted it, I put my hearing aid in my right ear.  My audiologist told me it was okay to wear it with my CI when I needed to and I knew going into the party I would definitely need all the help I could get.  What I wasn't expecting was to struggle so much to hear people who were only sitting a couple of seats away from me.  I began to panic when it quickly became obvious to me that I couldn't hear much of the conversation.  I even took out my hearing aid to see if I had somehow not put the battery in, but no such luck.  For some reason, I just didn't catch more than maybe 50% of the words.  Finally, I reached up to my hearing aid and turned up the volume a couple of notches, but this didn't help as much as I hoped.  Lesson #3 takeaway - relax!  Stress can wreck havoc on your hearing.

If you learn from lessons #1 and #2,  they will make it much easier for you to follow lesson #3. Remember, it's a party so try to have a good time and go with the flow.  Do the best you can with what you have, something I strive to do in every aspect of my life.