While I wait for my Cochlear Implant to be activated next month, I'm completely deaf. Well, as I've discovered, I'm not completely deaf; my implanted ear isn't hearing anything at all, but my other ear does pick up a few sounds - mostly loud, low-frequency ones. I guess I was hearing in that ear all along, but never knew it, because the amount of information was so small compared to my "good" ear. It's nowhere near enough information to make any sense of it - the one thing that surprised me was that the vacuum cleaner sounds almost musical.
Other than those few-and-far-between sounds, I don't hear anything now. It is strange... I can't hear myself talk. One thing that I have been amazed by is how well I can read lips - I assumed that I was getting along by hearing-supplemented-by-lip-reading, but it turns out, it was probably the other way around. I can "hear" some people better than others, just like before. I was surprised when I went to church on Sunday that I could carry on a conversation with the pastor and some other people without much difficulty at all, as long as I was talking one-on-one. I think it would be challenging to follow a group, though. I cannot hear my young daughter at all, and lip-reading is pretty tough with her, as she's still in the early stages of learning to talk. I have to make sure I check the volume on the TV now to make sure it's not loud and disturbing others. I have no idea whether I am talking loudly or softly - I think to myself that I'm talking loudly, but others tell me I'm not. Phone calls are working out just fine with the CaptionCall phone - the only challenge there is that I cannot tell if the other person is talking or not, so the back-and-forth cadence of the call is a bit different, but it works.
I guess, all-in-all, being deaf isn't all that much different than being severely hard-of-hearing, except for missing certain things, the phone ringing, a baby crying, the doorbell (although I rarely heard that one to begin with). I'm looking forward to starting the hearing life again next month - in fact, as long as the healing is going OK, I'm going to ask my surgeon and audiologist what they think about moving the activation date a week or two earlier.
Other than those few-and-far-between sounds, I don't hear anything now. It is strange... I can't hear myself talk. One thing that I have been amazed by is how well I can read lips - I assumed that I was getting along by hearing-supplemented-by-lip-reading, but it turns out, it was probably the other way around. I can "hear" some people better than others, just like before. I was surprised when I went to church on Sunday that I could carry on a conversation with the pastor and some other people without much difficulty at all, as long as I was talking one-on-one. I think it would be challenging to follow a group, though. I cannot hear my young daughter at all, and lip-reading is pretty tough with her, as she's still in the early stages of learning to talk. I have to make sure I check the volume on the TV now to make sure it's not loud and disturbing others. I have no idea whether I am talking loudly or softly - I think to myself that I'm talking loudly, but others tell me I'm not. Phone calls are working out just fine with the CaptionCall phone - the only challenge there is that I cannot tell if the other person is talking or not, so the back-and-forth cadence of the call is a bit different, but it works.
I guess, all-in-all, being deaf isn't all that much different than being severely hard-of-hearing, except for missing certain things, the phone ringing, a baby crying, the doorbell (although I rarely heard that one to begin with). I'm looking forward to starting the hearing life again next month - in fact, as long as the healing is going OK, I'm going to ask my surgeon and audiologist what they think about moving the activation date a week or two earlier.