Sentimental Journey

Okay, I’ll admit it.  I’ve been getting sentimental this last week.  Who ever thought one could feel this way about a hearing aid?

As I count down the days to surgery, I’ve been reminding myself that soon I won’t have something in my left ear all the time.  I’ve been wearing a hearing aid in it for 20 years.  My hearing aid has become a part of me, an essential part of my daily life. 

The other day I came to the realization I will never hear like I do now ever again.  Wow, that’s kind of a heavy thought.  Hearing with hearing aids is still natural hearing.  Hearing aids are just amplifying sound so I can hear.  But hearing with a cochlear implant is mechanical since the device does the hearing your ear can no longer do. 

Everyone I know who wears a cochlear implant has told me when they were first activated everyone sounded like Darth Vader or maybe even Mickey Mouse.  Eventually the mind learns what the sounds are and the robotic-sounding voices start to sound more natural.  But music is another story, and is the primary reason why I dragged my feet in making the decision to get implanted.    

Music is complex and takes a long time for the implantee to appreciate once their device is activated.  Sometimes it can take years to fully appreciate it again and it requires a lot of listening practice to get to that point.  As a music lover I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately.  So this morning I decided to enjoy my music these last two days as much as possible.  I put on my Compilot, my Bluetooth device that allows music from my iPhone to go straight into my ears.  I’ve been listening to some of my favorite songs from the 80s like Come on Eileen, Billie Jean and It’s My Life (by Talk Talk) to more current songs like Counting Stars by One Republic and The Black Keys’ Lonely Boy. 

Tomorrow Noah has his first orchestra concert of the school year (he plays violin).  I plan to enjoy and appreciate it like never before knowing that I probably won’t feel the same way at the next one.