I'm doing really well hearing with my Cochlear Implant - I've been writing down things I notice in my notebook:
- You know how you can't hear properly when you yawn? That doesn't apply to people with a CI - we can hear just as well during a yawn. Maybe I could use that to become some kind of secret 007 superspy... probably not.
- When I'm in our basement watching the television, I can hear the stove beeping upstairs in the kitchen when the oven reaches temperature. I could barely hear that beeping from the kitchen before getting the CI.
- (I have David Henry to thank for pointing this out to me) - peeling bananas makes a sound.
- Listening to NPR on the radio makes long car trips go much faster. I used to enjoy talk radio before my hearing started deteriorating - now I can enjoy it again. I listened to NPR during a 40 minute car ride yesterday, and I understood every word.
- It's hard to ignore the closed captions on the TV once you are used to them. I told myself that I'd leave them turned on to help in case I didn't understand something, but, by habit, I watch the captions like a hawk. I had to turn them off.
- The Cochlear (tm) wireless mini microphone is a cool piece of kit. Mine was delivered over the weekend. A cool tip - you can place it next to the TV and use the remote assistant to change the mix between the sound processor mics and the mini mic to watch TV even with lots of background noise. I watched a program yesterday while both the clothes washer and dryer were running in the next room. Yes, I know there is a TV streamer available - but you can save money by dual-purposing the wireless mic.
- Being able to hear and know what's going on really reduces my stress level. On the other hand, I can now hear so well that I can hear when my son is bouncing a whiffle ball against his bedroom door.
- Two-year olds say the funniest things sometimes. It's nice to be able to understand what they are saying. Lipreading doesn't work so well.