Reflections: an eventful year for me - and new one to come !

Dear fellow readers, followers, fans and friends - i want to wish you all a very
Happy New Year and hope you all had a fabulous Christmas or Holidays!


It has been a bit of a roller coaster for me the past month - but not all CI ( Cochlear Implant) related - just busy with usual life things - you know how it is Hospital appointments, Doctor appointments, WORK! Christmas Shopping, Holidays, eating, catching up with friends/family, more eating (till i explode!) and most of all spending time with family. Where does the time go- too quick i might add.

Its now way over my 6 month milestone since my implantation, 3 months of listening since my activation, which has given me time to  reflect how eventful this year has been for me - lots of tests! a major operation, recovery - learning new sounds, and adapting to the noisy world we live in !  Its not been an easy ride for me - I really struggled to learn new sounds at the start. Ive been told although it can be easier for those deafened suddenly to adapt to the implant - my circumstances are probably harder - discriminating sounds can be tricky  - especially if its new sounds that ive never before. Theres 2 factors here - a, sound that im familar with and  b, noise that i can hear but cant quite identify yet.

Now that ive come to terms with how very deaf i was prior implantation Im amazed how i  coped with it all. Just goes to show how determined I am. When i describe the operation people shudder and reply 'My god did u really have it embedded under your scalp? I casually reply: 'Yeh, i know - but i was just plain greedy - i just had to have it all!' 

Meeting Geoff Plant

Before the Christmas period began - I was given an opportunity to have a session with a well known hearing therapist - Geoff Plant. I had learnt on various Social networking Internet sites - good things abt him. Most people who knew him were American CI wearers so i assumed that was his base-  but on meeting him I established that he in fact worked for Med El (another cochlear brand), as well as being a Executive Director of the Hearing Rehabilitation Foundation
see the following link for further info :http://hearf.org/.... he liked to travel - and had an accent that i couldnt quite identify. I then discovered his origins were Australian but at present  lived in America so i guess that's why he was becoming famous within the CI community - he had probably given them rehab tutoring.

In introductions he described his prior years of being a teacher for the deaf which answers his abilities, his knowledge of deafness and why he was so good at his job as a hearing therapist.

 We began some work on listening words, he read me some paragraphs of which were a bit bizarre - i say this because we were focusing on the letter 'Ssss' - ive never heard this word before. I'm told that hearing aids do not recieve the silent letters and sounds very well, a common complaint for prior hearing aid wearers and also for those who had been born deaf.

I remember a silly story he read me abt Sharks and Swimming being in the Sea, being Scared - which as you can see hit all the S letters! I just had to follow what he said on another piece of paper which i had blanks on and no peeking- and guess each word I was missing on my sheet. It was jolly hard work but also interesting how much i could and couldn't pick up. Which he said would come in time.

As i told him abt my history - I mentioned about some of  the words i struggled with particularly the famous S word  that my family know too well - I've always struggled with - SAUSAGES .. i used the word 'bangers' for many years cos no matter how many times i pronounced it - it came out like SOFF A GEE .. my mum always said that it was because i couldn't hear it and i had to imagine it.. Geoff kindly helped me with this and broke down the letters for me - SAUSS SIRR GEES along with patience of a  few minutes and repeats - with a slow pace i began to slowly get  it..i could actually hear the Ssss but it sounded weird i was like whats that hiss sound - Geoff kindly explained it was the letter S! An amazing transformation for me - i was SO chuffed. I couldn't wait to get home and share it with my family.

We did several other word exercises including singing me a song called 'Waltzing Matilda!' s -  i was struggling with music and could hear beats but not words or melodies so well. He cleverly set his laptop up via a screen which projected the words so I could follow. I was smiling at this point because it was so nice that he had the time to help me and as the song progressed the more and more i heard it the more the tune of the song became familar. He agreed that when he was next in the area he would try to see me again - which would be next year to help me with some music rehabilitation.

 

I now cant get this song out of my head - hahaha.

On leaving  this session I was feeling some what exhilarated, he had taught me far more and given me some idea of how far i had come since i was activated ( 3 months!!). It was an awesome day for me - especially as i walked in the door at home, and was asked by my husband 'what would you like for tea?' You can imagine my response SAUSAGES!!! at a slow pace - he went WOW!

A lovely moment for us - for which I owe Geoff a massive thank you. I'm also looking forward to seeing him again - what an amazing guy!

HERE'S A PHOTO OF US TWO AT THE SOCIEC ( SOUTH OF ENGLAND COCHLEAR IMPLANT CENTRE - SOUTHAMPTON) AFTER MY SESSION

My First CI Christmas

I did get my 'Bogof' - Purple CI back before the Christmas period began YAY!! but it was still rather hissy still and crackly BOO at this stage I was passed over to see Roberta another audiologist at the centre who works on the same team as Helen ( I'm SO lucky everyone wants a part of me ha ha!)- we all agreed I was having difficulties at certain noises on my left side and decided send my processor back to request a new one - once this had arrived - they were going to arrange for the Neurelec Representative to visit us so he could help assist myslef and the Audiologist further. Neurelec is still very new to the UK and also Bradford our Representative probably understood more technicalities of the software - so guess they needed more support in this area.

With the festivities of Christmas looming - i had some fun at work as i went up to my boss and showed of a hat trick of me sticking my name badge to the magnet of my coil! my colleagues were all in fits of laughter especially when i picked a handful of paper clips up and they all stuck onto my magnet! They did try a pair of scissors - but it pulled the magnetic coil of.. it really also brought to light with my colleagues what i had in my head! I did wind them up afterwards by saying that i was so glad that the scissors didn't work as id hate to set murderous thoughts off ha ha!

Ive enclosed below a photo of me wearing my CI with a Merry Christmas badge!

My birthday is quite close to Xmas so i was able to pop my birthday badges i got onto my coil as well - it was nice getting out for a meal this day although - although still tricky in noisy situations - background noises did make it hard at times to hear direct sounds but I'm sure it was a matter of getting used to.

The highlight of my birthday was getting a pile of purple presents wrapped up from my lovely daughter - she knows me too well ! I Love purple lol

I did have a lovely Christmas - it was my first with my CI and although i was familiar with some sounds like the Christmas Carols - it was SO good to hear them again - boy had i missed  that sound.

I also discovered that Christmas wrapping was a lovely experience too as i could hear the sellotape dispenser ripping, the wrapping paper rustling and the scissors snapping - something again i never heard before - i used to hate wrapping pressies up but not this year - i was getting SO excited!

Another special moment of excitement was hearing the wrapping paper being ripped of on Christmas day and seeing that my husband had brought me a POD SHUFFLE as a present - it was going to be a great start to me listening to all the old tunes i haven't heard for a long while and also help me with my listening experience! I'm SO lucky !

New Years Eve

I had a quiet one at home this year with my lovely husband - we watched a few DVDs which was nice and then when midnight struck we live in a flat so myself and my husband stood on our balcony watching all the fireworks and seeing all the neighbours dancing in the street.

I could actually hear  the church bells ringing opposite to me, the ships in our naval port hooting their horns an old town tradition, the organ at the church playing 'Old Lang Syne!' What an amazing experience - it wasn't clearly defined but it was there and as I wished my husband a happy new year I knew 2012 was going to be a truly amazing one!