Week 3 and 4

Apologies to the people who have been reading my blog since I started posting four weeks ago and for those who're probably, and quite rightly, wondering if I'm still alive or not! Well, I'm dead - bye(!) Let's just say, I've a lot on my mind lately and it's not been easy - still, Sherlock says I'm still alive, so that's the main thing ;)

I will try my best to summarise what I've experienced during the past two weeks, although I must stress it has been difficult to remember exactly what little changes have occured - even as they happen on the day. And because I feel there have been lots of little changes, and all occuring for the first time in my life, it makes it doubly hard for me to express them into words.

However, as I read back on the previous posts, I can now say that I can entirely distinguish between a car, a bus, a van, a truck, a train and an aeroplane in the sky. The sickening thing is; I live by the sea and have not yet ventured to listen to a hovercraft, let alone a motorised boat.

I played golf with my grandfather, Fred. As you would expect of a golf course, they are mostly set in the quiet fields of nowhere. Did I say quiet? As I was walking, whether be it on the fairway, on the green or in the rough (mostly the latter!) I noticed myself giggling at a bunch of different things. What was I giggling at? Nothing could possibly be remotely funny by banging a ball down some stretch of grass and hoping it don't hit some duck crossing the fairway, despite it should hear the 'TWACK!' of my club and just...well, fly away. So what was funny?
Ah. Sounds. Of course. But SMALL sounds...

It's been a long time since I heard anything at all, so to hear the simplest/faintest/softest of sounds and recognise it always brings a reminder of how surprisingly well the CI has been working on me so far.

On the golf course, I'd hear my feet shuffling along the grass; a family of magpies 'chattering' away in a tree 300 yards down a fairway; an aeroplane flying overhead; a tractor idling in the fields; Fred speaking to me from the other side of the fairway; the clanging noise the clubs as you take them in and out of the bag;...really, I could think of more, but you've probably got the general idea of why it was a good day for me!

It was a 'giggling experience' because I could hear the faintest of sounds that I could never have done before, even during the good use of my hearing aids. I could feel, in jumps of confidence, that everything to do with sounds can only improve, thus giving me more freedom to live as happiest a life as possible.

I attended the second mapping session at the CI Centre. It was a good session. I was tested again on the Audiogram but with a slightly higher-volume program than the previous test (25?-45 decibels). The test results this time showed I am bordering along the 25 to 35 decibel range so we were all happy with this, as some pitches were being better perceived.

I was given three changes of programs; two being set at 50/50 (sounds received in both the earhook microphone and the uppermost microphone: good for all sounds at once?) and at different volumes; the other on the 'aux' setting (earhook microphone only: good for telephone calls)

We also did some more speech recognition tests. Despite the fact we were in a quiet environment and that they spoke with clear, deliberate pronouciation, there has been a significant improvement, since Day 1, of my understanding speech with their mouth being covered. This, for me, is very exciting.

Im enjoying music even more, now. I find myself listening to music at a very long stretch of time, before feeling tired. Before, I'd only whack on one album at a time, whereas now I must go through 5 or 6 albums!

So far, I've mostly listened to my old collection of albums (like Leftfield, Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, etc), but have also been listening to likes of Ray Charles, Milt Jackson, Jools Holland and Thelonious Monk, to mention but a few.

My appreciation for a variety of music now is much more broader than ever - perhaps this is because I hear music differently to before, but still somewhat the same excitment and relaxation.

I start work again at the Tiger Tiger restaurant 4th December - I can't wait for this. I feel I'm ready as ever to tackle the world again and express my true self.

There will be many times, of course, when people in general may have to repeat their sentences for me (especially in the noisy kitchen!) but it'll be far less than before and more likely they won't have to write things down for me, either! We'll see...

I think this is it for now, so until next time... ;)