Roaring Lamb

better understanding

There's one person in my office that I've had lots of trouble understanding.  I had a horrible time lip-reading her.  We've resorted to pen and paper in order to communicate.  Today, we chatted about a newsletter project she needed my help with and I understood every word as long as I watched her lips.    So this is my favorite before/after story for today.

But another very sweet moment came at the morning meeting, people from different nations came up to the mike and prayed in their own language.  To hear and see their heartfelt words meant a lot to me.  Also today, someone was being sarcastic, and I'm pretty sure I heard the change in the tone of her voice.

However I'm talking too loudly, since my own voice is not "sounding" loud enough to me.  In noisy restaurants, I seem to be doing better at modulating my voice, but in quiet, I'm much too loud.  Someone who lives downstairs commented on hearing my voice, and two or three other people told me I'm talking louder than before.

Bought my first song

My music taste will be very eccentric at first.  But after surfing the internet radio, I clearly heard bell like sounds.  At first I wondered if it was a violin, it may have been the high notes on a piano, but it brought tears to my eyes.  So I searched for a tune that had a similar sound.  First, even though I'm web savvy, it was hard to find the correct music site, one that would be trustworthy.  For now Real's Music store will do, later it might be Itunes.  Anyway I found "Bells are ringing" by Kenny Martin.  This tune sounded pretty good to me.

I talked with my dad on the phone.  I just loved hearing his voice, though we really didn't communicate very well.  I did catch phrases, mainly simple sounds like "okay."  But afterwards I realized he told me something and then tried to spell the letters.  Well the first letter was "r" and I though he was trying to ask a "Are you...." question.  But he was only trying to spell out the word renter.  A friend took the phone and relayed the message.  My renters gave me 30 day notice.  So I'll be sorting that out.  I'm renting that place in order to live in Hawaii.

In church, the vocals faded away with the overpowering guitars and keyboard.  I did love the percussion, never heard all the details before, including the tamborine.  I enjoyed it even though the sounds were obviously compressed, due to being a new user, limits are set on how much sound one receives.  I sure want the vocals to come forward.  My own voice was lost, but I have to sing louder to hear myself sing, but I don't have a reference point as to how loud my voice is and not much chance of staying on key.  However I'm sure I wasn't on key with a HA.  Yet I know music and voices will continue to develop.

I did understand the speaker, though it was with some effort in speech reading.  His voice also seemed a bit hollow and far away, perhaps due to my programs cutting out loud noises like the amplified speech coming from the speakers.

I'm not yet working hard on listening exercises, mainly just enjoying the sounds.  However at my friend's house a buzzing/vibrating/staticy noise appeared.  From my short experience I knew if my voice became soft, loud noises were happening elsewhere.  First my friend and I thought it was a power saw, but it turned out to be a gas-powered weedwhacker.  Like my hearing aids, sounds do not rise above a certain level.  In this case the CI distorts sounds differently, seeming to cut off certain frequencies sooner and leaving others in place for a higher volume.

My audiogram shows some hearing in the low frequencies like 250, but even that one was below 80 db.  Nearly everything else fell below 100 db.  This level has been mainly stable most of my life.  I've had perhaps a bit more in the lower frequencies before the age of 20, but my word recognition at the evaluation equalled zero.  No recognition unless I could lip-read.

My Auria headpiece keeps falling off.  I finally had a friend clip a tiny spot of hair off directly over the implant and that helped a little.  But I've been quite frustrated in getting my headpiece to stay on.  I finally quit using the Auria this evening and put on my Platinum processor.  I'll wear the Auria again in the morning, I was just fed up with trying to keep the magnets stuck together.  Later a stronger magnet can be added and clear up this problem.

I love my CI despite the hassles and will never wear the hearing aid again, it doesn't have any usable sound left, almost like it was broken.  But it is not.  I just never really understood how deaf I was, audiograms non-withstanding.  I always considered myself a person who couldn't hear well, not deaf.

Listening exercise lists

This list sent to the CIHear yahoo group contains wonderful ideas.  I used it a lot today.

Ideas for Listening Exercises to Augment (Re)Habilitation

ANIMAL SOUNDS

http://www.animalden.net/sounds.htm

SENTENCES

Cochlear website - tools for adults.   Sentence samples -
http://www.cochlear.com/Lifestyle/570.asp

*** Randall's Cyber Listening Lab   - www.esl-lab.com ***

*** Randall's Cyber Listening Lab - basic self-study guide - www.esl-lab.com/guide.htm ***

http://www.chebucto.ns.ca/~ai251/xcarol.html

PARAGRAPHS

http://www.focusenglish.com/dialogues/conversation.html

http://www.whitehouse.gov (click on radio/tv speeches)

http://www.prairiehome.org/listings/200112.shtml

http://www.audio-bible.com

http://www.englishlistening.com/

http://esl.about.com/library/courses/blcourses_beginner_listening.htm

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorial.html

Brain Connection - http://www.brainconnection.com/teasers/

ESL Gold - Listening Practice - Sounds and Distinctions
www.eslgold.com/jsps/site.jsp?resource=pag_stu_pronunciation_sounds

Randall's Listening Lab - A Day at School  -
www.esl-lab.com/elem/elemrd1.htm

Rudenko Book Reader - www.rudenko.com

Help ReadT is FREE software that reads along with you while you do the
reading -http://www.helpread.com/

Audio Books - Recorded books available for sale or rent - CD and Cassette
formats:  http://www.audiobooks.com/ or
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/44/ref=br_bh_1_ab/102-9910858-9624108

Other sources for Audio Books - www.recordedbooks.com  Look for those with
no background music such as the following that other cochlear implant users
have found effective:

Dr. Phil's Life Strategies
Bill O'Reilly's The No-Spin Zone
William J. Bennett's Book of Virtues

A Prairie Home Companion - Show Archives to listen and view -
http://www.prairiehome.org/listings/index.shtml

Software and materials for purchase to build listening skills in adults
and children:

Earobics - www.earobics.com

Fast ForWord - Scientific Learning - www.scientificlearning.com

Better Communication and Cochlear Implants - Users Guide and Journal -
www.hearagainpublishing.com

Building Music Skills:

Noddy Theater - Play a video clip from each of the episodes or sing along
with the "Noddy" puppet songs and fairy tale songs - six animations are
featured.  Listen to audio clips of the Noddy Songs -
http://www.pbs.org/kids/noddy/theater/index.html

Music Lyrics Websites:  See the lyrics of popular songs to help with music
enjoyment with your cochlear implant.  The International Lyrics Server,
http://www.lyrics.ch

The Mudcat Cafe presents The Digital Traditions Folksong Database Search
Page, http://www.deltablues.com/folksearch.html

Annie's website - Tunes and lyrics from the past - 50's and 60's
http://www.buffnet.net/~ambrosia/home.htm

Music from the 50' and 60' with lyrics - http://www.biglyrics.com

Oldies with lyrics  - http://www.buffnet.net/~ambrosia/ or --
http://www.55-57chevys.com/coccc/radoowop.html,
http://ntl.matrix.com.br/pfilho/html/main_index/index.html

Yahoo's Launch - Music videos - http://launch.yahoo.com/musicvideos/

Telephone practice:

Randall's Listening Lab - Phone practice -
http://www.esl-lab.com/phone/phonerd1.htm

800 Directory - Find businesses (such as AMTRAK) that provide toll free
recorded messages for listening practice http://www.inter800.com/

800 numbers with pre-recorded messages:

1-800-829-4477 -- IRS

1-800-772-1213 -- Social Security

1-800-872-7245 - Amtrak

1-800-366-1655 -- American Dietetic Association

1-800-555-8355 - General

Excellent websites for listening practice:

Ellen Rhodes, Cert. AVT - Resource for newly implanted teen or adult -
independent listening practice - Music, sentences, animal sounds -
www.auditoryverbaltraining.com/websites.htm

Emotional and Expressive Synthesized Speech -
http://xenia.media.mit.edu/~cahn/emot-speech.html

Chirping birds, noisy restaurant

Music…I really want more music and so its time to look up whether to get a mp3 player or a cheapo CD player. In searching online for something to listen to, it was hard to find a website that is reliable unless you are talking about Itunes. There are others, but it is like a foreign language to me. Anybody have any suggestions? I’m leery of spyware or malware sites that can be linked to music sites.

Do I like country-western? Or maybe hiphop? Can’t hear the lyrics yet, so I’ll be picking through the minefield of terrible language later on. However, I like Hawaiian songs, since the repetitive vowels are far more soothing than English. For sure the songs I heard most clearly years ago will be of particular interest, such as Vineyard or Hosanna selections.

While talking in a crowded restaurant today, my voice seemed very soft, yet my friend, Sharon told me that I modulated my voice much better than when using hearing aids. The conversational buzz in the restaurant seemed to be limited by my program, yet my own voice sounded very soft and so did my friends voice. The noise seemed to be a vacuum, all the voices a little hollow sounding. When getting out of the noisy place, my own voice sounds full sounding again.

Tried some listening exercises again that consisted of text completion of dialogue that I could hear and read. There would be about 10 fill-in blanks in the transcript and it was interesting to see if I heard the word or guessed the word.

I’m catching words, and it would take some major brainstorming to puzzle out a complete sentence at this point, but the voices seem so clear to me. My comprehension level and my mapping is only going to improve, so things are looking up.

Also, when my friend called out my name from about 40 feet away, I turned around. Didn’t recognize the voice, but it was sweet to respond on the first call.

The TV sounds really loud! I can distinguish between men and women most of the time. At this point I’m not trying to turn off the captioning, just enjoying the bits of music that never showed up on my hearing aid radar.

At another friends house, the birds seemed to be chirping right in my ear. These little tiny chickadee like birds have this LOUD chirp. They kept up a chorus as I watched the video of my activation. It was funny to see the part where the audiologist turned on the voices. He said, “Testing one…can you hear me now.” I answered, “Oh that’s a warbling sound!” Then I connected the dots, his voice, then my own warbling voice! Wow!

I love this world of sound, no matter if frequencies are high or low or whining at me. The leap in sound put me squarely in the world I only saw from the outside. I’m thrilled the day finally arrived after this long two-year wait. Thank you Lord for this miracle.

Roundup of CI's in the news

USAToday posts a story about a 59 year old woman receiving her implant.  Great details, but lengthy.  Go to Cochlear implant helps woman hear sounds of life

US military helps raise funds for Korean boy.  The writer of this article did not research CI's very much, but it does show a community rallying around helping this child.  Go to Stars and Stripes

Listening lessons

I just finished listening to scriptures on www.biblegateway.com  The speaker has a deep voice, although some of the tracks seem to be fluctuating in volume. I'm getting an idea what "s" sounds like.  Still very soft.  It is a part of the speech sound that is so unfamiliar and yet so critical that more practice is needed to catch its place in certain words.

All the same, I heard a bird calling, it wasn't a chirp or a sqawk, just something in between.  There is a construction zone nearby that might explain some of the loud noises I hear, but it isn't really obvious to me.  I can't ask my roommate as she's out right now.

The sound of laughter is awesome.  I missed it time and again because if I wasn't looking at someone, I'd never know they were laughing.  In the dining area, laughter from different areas seem like sunshine streaming into this formerly dark world.  I love it. 

Men's voices will be easier for me.  Some have said that bass sounds are lost, but I seem to be picking them up really well.  I'm afraid that small kids sound like chirping birds, but that will change in time.  I have to listen to one child, not a playground full of kids to catch what they sound like.

This is one amazing world and I'm off to buy some noise-canceling headphones and start downloading some tunes!  I want music....and SOON.

Yeah soon...so I'm going now.

2nd 24 hours

today's email, then a detailed report:

This sound business is amazing. Changes are happening so quickly it is hard to remember how far I’ve come. I’ve been writing a more detailed report that I’ll be posting to www.roaringlamb.blogs.com but I’ll just touch on the highlights here. Though I have heard people knocking on my door even with my hearing aid, I just answered the door at the hotel, looked through the peephole and found the maid. She asked “Do you want me to clean your room?” I didn’t really work at it too hard to speech read her. So it is coming along very nicely. When these extraterrestrial sounds get out of the way, the sound is very natural yet still pretty soft.

Well I need to stop writing and go have some fun in Honolulu. Thank you for your prayers and blessings.

Update while I’m getting ready to send this email: Hey, I’m might be reading too much sign language but the desk clerk across the hall answered someone else’s question and I recognized her saying “That way!” as she pointed down the hall—no speech reading!

Dancing with joy in my heart,

Thema

Detailed Report

Put my CI this morning and left the settings on 11:00 for both volume and sensitivity. The ee sound is not disappearing so much. I still hear the typing of this keyboard, but the sound doesn’t overpower everything else. I sang Amazing grace and it appears that the three layer sound is dwindling down into two, one is extraterrestrial speech or warbling static voices, the other sounds like a soft version of my voice. I am expecting to feel the sound from my right ear where my hearing aid has given me the loudest sound I’ve heard for years until the CI. Yet now the sound is so soft it is nearly useless. If I sing softly my own voice appears with less extraterrestrial sounds. When I was at the beach, the sound of the ocean appeared to be more like a crowded room of people talking only with static. It doesn’t have the muted dull roar of my previous sound experience.

My soft program (1) is too limited in volume and it lacks fullness of sound. The second program is louder, but also lacks fullness of sound. The third program is uncomfortable because of the static, but voices seem much more natural. One of the sounds I heard yesterday was a high pitched “thick” whine that became noticeable anytime when turning the sound down, switching programs or anytime the volume wasn’t loud enough to mask the whine. It probably was tinnitus since it continued after taking off the CI although I’ve never had that pitch or volume before. Today, with my volume at medium on the third program, the whine has nearly disappeared. I’ll leave the volume soft unless the whine comes back and then I’ll just turn everything up until it disappears.

I’m saying “aa” to myself, and the sound is in two parts. A static note of a higher pitch accompanies the deep sound of the vowel. It seems to calm down if I speak softly and get exaggerated if I speak loudly.

That’s all my notes for now. My next appointment is at 8 p.m. tonight. Time for some more fiddling!

The first 24 hours

Mighty good first day. I’m catching so many new firsts it is nearly impossible to journal them all. For sure I’m going to be able to understand people better even if all the speech sounds are not in yet. The most amazing thing that happened so far was last night, I put my hearing aid back on as a lark, thinking it would add in just a bit of sound. I couldn’t hardly hear my own voice. That floored me, the sounds from the CI are so LARGE that the hearing aid sounded like a puny 60 pound weakling against a 300# muscleman.

So far I’ve maxed out the two programs that Ken Pugh, my audiologist, gave me. I’m on the third one, and the volume is pretty close the end. I’ve been reading other people’s journals, they’ve talked about hearing the clacking of the keyboard, the whoosh of the toilet, the incredible new universe they now hear. I too have heard them, along with the mynah bird’s chirping. Never heard that one during the two years I’ve lived in Hawaii.

I’ve been catching the odd word. It works best while someone isn’t talking to me and I eavesdrop! The habit of always facing the person talking to me keeps me from knowing how much speech I actually recognize. But I’ve heard words like “what, yeah, beginning, so, tell me and a few others without lip-reading, so the potential has already been clearly demonstrated to me.

I already enjoy music again, even if the lyrics are not there for me. Been listening to Hawaiian language songs. Onnng wah ong onng ah eh ong. It really is funny to listen. I’ve got the tv on, and haven’t turned the captioning on. I’m just speech-reading for now knowing that full understanding will come later.

All in all an excellent day, and I could write several pages on it, for we toured the North Shore of Oahu. That’s where I heard the birds singing, saw the whales jumping, the surfers gliding. I’ll never forget this day, and I thank you for your prayers and blessings.

Ever since I watched that video...

My head has been aching more!  If any of you make it through the twelve minute video clip of the surgery,  I'll award you five stars!  (Link reposted here) But  I know that surgery is worth it, even though it's still 24 hours away from getting the external processor that will bring sound to life for me

.

Well, tomorrow I fly to Honolulu to the clinic.  The appointment is at 7:00 p.m. a strange time..begs a question on why so late in the day.  Another CI newbie that went to the same clinic told me that the appt. only took about one hour which kind of surprised me. Always thought it would take longer to go through the "beep tests"   

Living on the Big Island has its charms, but getting out to the Big City is fun too, and there aren't any in this place.   Ah, I'm really ready for tomorrow, been waiting over two years for this day.  Long story, but between becoming eligible for insurance, being in a "remote" location, and ending up on a waiting list pretty much sums up the waiting period.

Yeah, I'm thankful, for God is good to me.

 

Deaf kids and music

This teacher exposes hearing impaired and deaf children to the world of music. This lengthy article looks inside the classroom some of these children also learn to play musical instruments. 

Favorite quote from article: " "A deaf person's perception of music is not the same as someone who has regular hearing, but what they are able to hear becomes music to them."  Check it out  Post is still free until Jan 31st, then subscription is required.