Day 5
Today, I arranged to meet a deaf friend in, yep you've guessed it, London. I daren't imagine how much I've spent yo-yo'ing to and fro England's 'beloved' Capital city. I met my friend at Waterloo station, where it is almighty busy and agreeably loud. Concerned, if we stayed there for too long, I thought it might be pretty tiring for me taking in all the sounds. It turned out we stayed there for 2 hours, talking over several cups of coffee.
After a while, and showing my friend how much of a cyborg I am, I decided to switch off the processor and pack it away. I found, at this stage, that the combination of noise and sign-language was not natural. It wasn't so much I couldn't sign but it WAS that I couldn't ignore all the new sounds whilst I was listening/talking - distraction was at its highest.
I spent most of today with the C.I switched off. And imagining all of the people's efforts over the past 6 weeks of making sure that everything will turn out to be a success, I thought I would feel guilty of abandoning my new toy. But this was not the case.
I realised that now I have the choice to socialise in both 'worlds'; the Deaf and the hearing communities. However, I must admit, with that of most Deaf people's own decision not to agree 100% to the C.Implant, I was obviously a bit unsure what would happen of my friendships in this community, if I went ahead with it. Thankfully, this was also not the case.
I will always be proud of the friendships I have in the Deaf community, as they have all been supportive and intrigued by my decision to go ahead with the C.Implant. Like myself, most of the family and friends I've spoken to, since the switch-on, D/deaf and hearing alike, have been impressed at the success of the C.I so far.
Still early days yet. However, at Waterloo station I was beginning to 'hear' the tannoy from the rest of the surrounding noises, as opposed to I couldn't on Day 1 or Day 3. Despite hearing the tannoy I still could not understand it.
I find that as each day go on I have an accumulation of questions that arise for me to ask the programming experts at the C.I Centre. Such questions could be, 'Will I ever be able to "understand" the tannoy? Will the buses and cars ever sound different to each other? Do general background noises sound this awful to you, too? Will background noises ever become more distinguishable for me? Is everything really this loud for you hearing people? I almost fell over today, am I insured? My armpits started smelling, but I couldn't hear it?'
The latter, obviously, no. But there is nothing wrong with asking the dumbest questions in the world to your experts at the Centre, as; 1) at this stage, your brain is like a baby's, relearning material every day, and 2) the experts are very good people; extremely helpful and honest, answering all questions to the best they can.
This is it for today. Ciao.
After a while, and showing my friend how much of a cyborg I am, I decided to switch off the processor and pack it away. I found, at this stage, that the combination of noise and sign-language was not natural. It wasn't so much I couldn't sign but it WAS that I couldn't ignore all the new sounds whilst I was listening/talking - distraction was at its highest.
I spent most of today with the C.I switched off. And imagining all of the people's efforts over the past 6 weeks of making sure that everything will turn out to be a success, I thought I would feel guilty of abandoning my new toy. But this was not the case.
I realised that now I have the choice to socialise in both 'worlds'; the Deaf and the hearing communities. However, I must admit, with that of most Deaf people's own decision not to agree 100% to the C.Implant, I was obviously a bit unsure what would happen of my friendships in this community, if I went ahead with it. Thankfully, this was also not the case.
I will always be proud of the friendships I have in the Deaf community, as they have all been supportive and intrigued by my decision to go ahead with the C.Implant. Like myself, most of the family and friends I've spoken to, since the switch-on, D/deaf and hearing alike, have been impressed at the success of the C.I so far.
Still early days yet. However, at Waterloo station I was beginning to 'hear' the tannoy from the rest of the surrounding noises, as opposed to I couldn't on Day 1 or Day 3. Despite hearing the tannoy I still could not understand it.
I find that as each day go on I have an accumulation of questions that arise for me to ask the programming experts at the C.I Centre. Such questions could be, 'Will I ever be able to "understand" the tannoy? Will the buses and cars ever sound different to each other? Do general background noises sound this awful to you, too? Will background noises ever become more distinguishable for me? Is everything really this loud for you hearing people? I almost fell over today, am I insured? My armpits started smelling, but I couldn't hear it?'
The latter, obviously, no. But there is nothing wrong with asking the dumbest questions in the world to your experts at the Centre, as; 1) at this stage, your brain is like a baby's, relearning material every day, and 2) the experts are very good people; extremely helpful and honest, answering all questions to the best they can.
This is it for today. Ciao.
posted by nopplish at
10:13 am
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