Roaring Lamb

In the dark

Tomorrow night, I'll be listening to people around the campfire.  It's something that always bugged me, that it was too dark to have a conversation.  But this time....

I'm listening to a cricket outside my bedroom...there's also a sprinkler going.  I've been using the phone unassisted most of the time...since my CapTel is back in Hawaii...it is a good thing, for the practice is giving me confidence. 

In noisy situations, cochlear implants don't work that well, and that was obvious when I sat down with my friend Lorrie at the Point restaurant.  I still need a map for those types of conversations I also need it for phone use, since I have to walk to the quietest part of the house in order to call anyone.  No fans, no tv noise and so on.

Yesterday, I poured my pop over a bunch of ice, something I don't do very often.  The resulting fizz captured my attention...it was so loud I thought it was something else altogether.  But I noticed the noise started and stopped everytime my cola created a head of bubbles over the ice.  Ah, such a small thing, but impossible to hear before my surgery.

So one day I can do the other ear, but I'm not in a hurry.  I'm one of those who wants upgraded technology before going bilateral.  Direction of sound is great, but increased clarity is my priority.  I'm very pleased with the quality of what I'm hearing.  There's glitches such as a gravelly sound in men's voices, but I'm not complaining.

God is SO GOOD!

Crickets and more

I'm in Sweet Home, Oregon at my parent's house and it is wonderful to explore the new sounds.  While there's lots of birds in Hawaii, there are no crows.  That sound was easy for me to figure out, since they were loud enough for my old hearing aids to pick up.  But the sound I hold in my heart as one lost in all these years--sort of a measuring stick--is the song of a cricket.  A friend brought a box that played the sound of a cricket, but I still wanted to listen to those around my childhood home.

Just one little bugger, but that cricket sure did sound sweet to my ears.  I moved around, listening for the sound to get louder, since that is the only clue to direction of sound (only hearing with one ear) and when I got too close, the fiddling stopped.  Well, there's plenty more new sounds waiting for me to hear them for the first time.  But this one is special...it tells me how much I've regained...I did hear them as a very young child.

There's a bug zapper, and one of those street lights at my parents house, and I located them with my ear, before someone told me what the noise was.  I also cherished hearing my niece and nephew's voices.  They certainly turned the volume up on these kids!  Where do I go to turn it down again? Hehe

One of the favorite parts was doing some phoning to local people since I don't have my CapTel phone with me.  I managed to make arrangments to meet them somewhere and it was a great feeling.  Imagine my frustration when a couple days later, the same phone seemed to have so much static on it, that voices disappeared and became impossible to hear.  I switched to a different phone, and voices are clear, but this one doesn't allow the volume to be turned up.  I tried to contact customer support, but couldn't make heads or tails out of what she was saying...this time using a cell phone that pumped out the sound through "conference calling" or where everyone can hear the conversation.  My parents had a hard time understanding also, so perhaps it was an accent throwing me off.

Phones are an on and off affair for me, but it is getting where I can get basic understanding of what is being said.  I've got another mapping appointment next month (I hope) and some more fine tuning is needed to get those voices louder and clearer.

Facial twitching is not really a problem anymore.  It's there, but the volume is high enough that I don't need to pump it up and suffer the consquences of "winking" during certain sounds.

Well this is way too long...consquence of putting off writing for several weeks.  I'll be hearing some new stuff at my parents house, and plan to write about these CI moments more often.