Sunday, June 18, 2006

I wish it was birds

Today, Sunday, I went to church for the first time with my new "ear". I decided I would plug up my "old ear" and see exactly what I would hear. I went thru the singing with using only the implant. What did I hear? Nothing. Only some people clapping and some whistles where there should have been singing voices. They could have been singing tweet tweet tweet for all I know. Then when it was time for the sermon, I continued to plug up my other ear, and see what that would be like; just one voice speaking. Still, he sounded like he was whistling. I would not know if it was a man, woman, or child speaking, or a bird.
I had turned the "clock" dial up at church because of the fact I wasn't hearing anything ( that I wanted to) thru it. I thought that if I turned it up, I could begin to grasp some sounds I could follow and at least enjoy that little bit. No matter how high I turned it was the same. There was no difference in 11, 12, or 1 oclock. I kept going. When I got home and took off the headpiece, I noticed the dial was set at 3 oclock. Yea, I had it up to 3 and I still wasn't getting anything useful.
I almost wonder if it was the building. Our church has really high ceilings and it is a really big sanctuary. Maybe the acoustics were just not right??
Before church, while the congregation ( that sounds SOOOO southern, don't it? ) gathers in the breezeway for coffee and chit-chat, I heard, you guessed it, whistling. I'm looking around and someone IS whistling. Well, that's a relief. A true sound. Also in the car on the way to church, I'm hearing whistling...it was Jason whistling to the radio. Why Jason whistles is another post in itself. A funny post.

I think I have figured out what needs to be done. I need more low frequencies coming thru, and also more highs so I can get all the speech sounds I need. There is no way I can understand anyone just by using the implant as it programmed now.
After church, I went to my in-laws house. While we were there, the phone rang. I didn't hear it.

I was hoping that everything would sound better by today. I have figured out that it is voices that are making the same whistling noise. Other sounds have come thru OK. It's voices. Also, I want to listen to music. I can't get any music or any TV coming thru the implant right now.
The only music I can hear is what I play myself on the piano. But I don't hear every note I play.

Ok, so next appt. in Tampa, we are cranking up the sensitivity on this device.

Oh yea, by the way.
This morning (Sunday) I'm all spiffed up for church, my nice shoes, nice top, nice pants ( yes I wear dress pants to church, *gasp!) ..I got my shoes matching my purse, my jewelry matches, everything is coordinated. Then I go to put on the headpiece and I'm like, gee, this doesn't match my shoes or my jewelry. I'm like, well, what color should I snap on? Jason says...."it's important that your shoes, belt, purse and cochlear implant match"
He's so funny.
So, the must-have accessory for the season...cochlear implants. Be sure to get ALL the colors for fashion savvy-ness.

6 comments:

David R said...

Your audie definitely has it set extremely conservatively. When all is said and done....you are going to be hearing EVERYTHING. You are doing the right thing in the meantime though with trying to listen for and figure out what it is that you are hearing now. That is good news! I look forward to your next mapping.

Laurie said...

Hello! It will get better, I promise. I wanted to hear the birds for the longest time and didn't hear them until this spring. Also, church is really a hard place to "hear right". The sound systems in churches are usually not very good because not much money is spent on them OR the people running sound booths are inexperienced and really don't know how to balance all the different sounds. Hang in there - you ARE headed in the right direction!

Nikki said...

Hey girlie! I am glad that the previous posts are so positive. Hang in there...obviously it gets so much better! You are on the right track!
So, you are in central florida around the 28th??

Samantha Brilling said...

oohh YAY! I guess that makes me in fashion!! hehe

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! I am bookmarking your blog - it's fun to read your progress. What caused your deafness and how old were you when you lost your hearing?

Sugar
Future CI implantee

Jennifer said...

Hey girl...I wish you could enjoy church more! That is one of my favorite places to be, and if all I hear is beeps and whistles, I know I'll be disappointed too :(. I hope that resetting your sensitivity helps you tremendously!! GOOD LUCK! When do you go back for another mapping??

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