Current Hearing
Current Hearing
I have not written an update in a while, time has just been flying! I am still enjoying my hearing very much. I had a few remarkable things happen in the past few weeks. The most significant thing I think is the fact that I no longer have to use a flasher for the phone at my work or home. That is huge for me - because I have never in my whole life been able to do that. It has always been a problem at my home because the wiring was always shorting out, so the flashers worked intermittently at best. Now I can hear the phone just fine, and I am distinguishing it from other noises too. I have to! When my phone rings, my dog barks. So not only am I hearing the dog but the phone too and I have to figure out that he is not barking at the door (those flashers are unreliable too) and how many times the phone has rang. It makes me very happy to be able to hear the phone. I can even hear the phone on the TV ring. It is very different and good for me.
The other really big thing that I noticed that has really helped me a lot is that I am more confident with my hearing and I am not always scared. I'll explain.....Usually when I am at work and busy at my computer, people used to come in to tell me something and they would touch my shoulder and I would jump to the ceiling! I never heard them come in and I was scared to death all day, every day, by everyone. NOW, I hear the door open, I can hear their foot steps, I can hear sometimes they are calling my name now. They don't scare me at all anymore. (of course they never meant to) It is a wonderful feeling not to be scared just because I didn't hear them sneaking in. I feel more calm.
I got my doctor to send a referral to a new doctor's office near my home. I am still participating in the FDA study for the Hi-focus for pre-lingually deaf adults so I will still have to make the long trip two more times for my six month and one year evaluations, but I also have a new audiologist here in town. Her name is Sissy. I really enjoyed her office visit because she allowed me to set all the levels myself for the software setting up my speech processor. It was interesting and it went alot faster than usual mappings. She told me a really good analogy when I asked her about hearing and understanding words and speech with my CI. Here it is:
Think about the times you go to the movies and you sit down and the lights go out and you watch the movie for a couple of hours. Then the movie is over and you go out the back door exit into the parking lot and it's still daylight. You can barely see...your eyes squint almost shut in pain, your brain does it for you automatically. That is how my hearing is. It's like my hearing has been in the dark for 47 years and now it is standing in the sun - squinting. So I will gradually work up to hearing more and more things as the auditory nerve stretches with use. That made a lot of sense to me. Also it is how I am noticing my improvements too. Like the clock on my wall. I can hear it bong and count the times, even with the TV on now. Before I thought I could not hear it but I can.
I am still working with Lisa my speech therapist, two times a week. I notice that when my voice is warmed up, people understand me better. I can hear 'sh' now. I still don't hear 's' and 'f', but I know I will later. From all the practice, I noticed that my face muscles are not getting tired anymore, but when I talk for long periods of time (an hour) then my diaphram (the muscle just below your lungs) becomes sore and tired.
I use a plastic coffee stirrer and put it in between my teeth to practice 't', 'd', 'n', and 'l' for my homework. I am pronouncing three and four syllable words now. My voice is strong now and I can yell! ha ha!
I will travel to florida in December to enhance my knowledge of Avatar by taking the master's course. That means I can teach the course, something I know I want to do in my retirement. And I will be the first American signing deaf master too. There was a course taught to signing deaf people in Nepal. I am looking forward to my course.
Stay tuned.....