An update and a farewell... for now.

i think this will be the last post in this blog... for a while, at least.

i haven't had any earth-shattering CI moments lately, although my hearing has been working very well. i'm still listening to the radio every morning on my way to work, i play my favorite CD's, i talk on the phone (both cell and land line) AND i don't rely on lip-reading as much. IT'S GREAT!

last weekend, my friend and i ordered the movie Stepford Wives through Movies On Demand. for some reason, the closed-captioning wasn't working. naturally, i was distraught because i NEED to read the captions in order to understand the movie... or so i thought.

instead of complaining about how Cablevision ripped me off by "fooling" me into purchasing a movie that wasn't captioned, i decided to hook up my processor directly to the television by way of the personal audio cable. with this little gadget, the sound from the movie was transmitted directly into my processor, so i heard it very clearly. it's amazing how much of the movie i understood because when it ended, i didn't think i missed anything (which is usually the case when i can't follow along). i felt so accomplished because i actually heard the movie! with a combination of listening really hard and speech-reading the characters' lips, i was able to follow The Stepford Wives with hardly any problems.

in short, the cochlear implant is an INCREDIBLE piece of technology. it has changed my life so much in many wonderful ways. i have no complaints whatsover, no regrets either and if i had to do this all over again, i would. END OF STORY.

before i wrap up this blog, i just wanted to say "Thank you!" to all of you who read my postings on a regular basis. i wish there was more for me to type, but unless i have some unusual CI moment or find myself hearing things better, i don't have anything to type about.

i do have an appointment to go for another mapping session with my audiologist next month, so maybe after that happens, i will have some new hearing stories to share.

in the meantime, if anybody has any questions/comments/compliments/complaints, PLEASE feel free to e-mail me at lindahear@optonline.net... i will gladly get back to you.

happy hearing!

:o)

i'm really deaf... for real

this morning, while getting ready for work, i walked into my bedroom and saw that my alarm clock was still vibrating (the light was blinking -- i didn't actually see the vibration... duh).

well... turns out, i didn't shut the alarm off when i first woke up -- i pressed the snooze button instead. (i know i'm not the only one who's ever done this!)

well, imagine my horror when i felt the pillow and noticed that it was WARM to the touch. my poor alarm clock -- it was vibrating for a good 20 minutes before i turned it off.

obviously, i wasn't wearing my CI *or* my hearing aid, otherwise i would have HEARD it!

grrrrr... how embarrassing... and what a waste of energy.

thank goodness my pillow didn't explode or something. how would i explain that to my husband? 'umm... honey? our bed is on fire because i let the alarm clock cook my pillow... ooops.'

:-/

Look Ma, No Captions!

i was watching The Food Network's Unwrapped the other day when i noticed that the captioning wasn't consistent with the narration. whatever Mark Summers was saying would show up delayed in the captions. i found this rather frustrating because not only could i hear what he was saying, but it didn't coincide with the words i was reading on the television screen.

SOOO... for the first time ever since i've been wearing my CI, i deliberately turned off the Closed Captioning -- and i felt *SO* empowered! i actually preferred to listen to the narration of the show rather than read the delayed captioning.

yay, me! yay, CI! i could understand and hear and everything. WOO-HOO!!!

:-D

Sound-Related Pet Peeves

now that i'm getting more and more used to this "surround sound" hearing thing, i've developed some pet peeves. i'm *not* complaining because being able to hear so much is wonderful... it's just that i'm human, and i get annoyed by certain sounds like everyone else does (i assume).

anyway, here they are in no particular order:

1. my co-worker sniffling all the time -- she never blows her nose, even though she has a box of tissues RIGHT IN FRONT OF HER ON HER DESK! i want to ask her if she has a cold or if she's suffering from allergies, but what if she doesn't get the hint? it's not like i can say "stop that sniffling! i can hear you, you know?"
2. someone making a telephone call using the speakerphone -- this sound has always gotten to me, even prior to my CI... now it's just LOUDER and more DISTINCT. hearing the phone ringing on the other end over the speaker is very annoying... and loud!
3. my husband's car radio playing in the background when i'm talking to him on the phone -- i ask him to turn it down and he always says, 'i can barely hear it, it's so quiet!' so i tell him that *I* can hear it and that he should just shut it off... thank goodness he's so patient with me and complies with my request.
4. my neighbors taking a shower -- the walls in our co-op are so thin that you can hear every little sound that my neighbors make. whenever the water is running in their bathroom, i can hear it, and it sounds like a huge flood coming in... or a waterfall running through our living room..... UGH.

GOSH, i'm cranky!

:-[

The storm was astonishingly noisy this weekend.

anyone who lives in the tri-state area knows about the "lovely" rain we got on Saturday. well, i don't think i have ever heard a thunderstorm as loudly and clearly as much as i did last night!

it was quite frightening at first because i was home alone, so hubby wasn't around to clarify every little noise that i heard: 'yes, that was the wind... yes, that was a car horn... yes, that was a bird...'

last night, i had to listen to these sounds BY MYSELF and then i had to figure out what they were. wow, what a challenge! the funny thing is, once i knew what exactly was making all the noise, i wasn't as "scared" anymore.

at one point, i actually heard water splashing against the living room window. at first, i didn't believe that it was raining THAT hard, but it was! my goodness... as soon as i looked out the window, i saw the downpour and it was BAD.

i also heard thunderclaps and the wind whipping against the screens on the windows. i didn't realize that window screens make noise when it's windy enough. who would've thunk it?

i discovered a lot of new sounds yesterday... THANK YOU, MOTHER NATURE!

:o)

"Surround" Sound

i have been wearing my hearing aid since Wednesday of last week and would like to say that i'm pleasantly surprised at how quickly i got used to hearing on my right side again. granted, there are HUGE differences in sound between the CI and the HA, but it's still better than being completely deaf on one side.

this is what i've noticed so far:

• i can tell what direction sounds are coming from -- when my cell phone rings, for example, i know what room i left it in
• background noise has a "fuller" quality now -- it's actually more noticeable because i can hear it all around and not just from my CI (left) side
• people's voices are less mechanical and sound more "natural" -- my brain remembers voices better with my HA than with the CI (that's 25 years versus 2 months of hearing experience)

there aren't any other earth-shattering stories to share about my hearing aid now that i'm wearing it in conjunction with my cochlear implant. besides the initial turning on of my HA (which was NOT fun at all because everything sounded so distorted and weird and blurred together), things have been going smoothly.

i guess no news is good news, huh?