Two CI’s and a Woman on the Road

What a great hearing weekend I had in warm, sunny Michigan! With a couple of Hearing Loss Association meetings on the schedule, I was facing a good six hours in the car. Pre-CI, I found driving longer distances by myself extremely, excruciatingly boring. If you’re hard of hearing or deaf, you’ve been there. Once I received my first CI, my outlook on long drives improved a great deal because I could hear music again. In those early days, I stuck to tried and true CD’s of my old favorites from my hearing days. Since getting my second CI last July (2008), I have branched out to listen (and singing along!) to the music on the radio.

Returning from the Saturday meeting, I was driving along when my phone rang. I had put it on the LOUD ringer so I MIGHT hear it over the radio. No reading glasses on so I couldn’t see who was calling. A second’s hesitation… Will I be able to hear well enough to even know who it is? My mom is in the hospital… Better pick up. So I silenced the radio, grabbed the phone and answered. It was my brother calling to see if I had been to visit my mom yet. We carried on a conversation while I was driving along. (Michigan currently has no laws against this.) I had no trouble hearing him with the cell phone and the T-Mic on my Harmony! Awesome (or maybe not), now I have the same potential hearing people do - crashes due to cell phone distractions. I promise not to make a habit of cell phoning and driving!

Sunday was another meeting in another city, another hour and a half drive in another direction. I had the radio tuned to oldies and was enjoying the music very much. I felt like I was hearing more and more of the lyrics of each song.

All of a sudden I heard:

You are so beautiful to me
you are so beautiful to me
can’t you see
you’re everything I hoped for
you’re everything I need
you are so beautiful to me
Such joy and happiness you bring…

I found myself holding my hand out in front of me and imagining my Harmony in my palm as I sang this song to it. Sounds pretty corny! It WAS pretty early in the morning. I WAS slightly sleep/caffeine deprived. I DID need some entertainment. Mostly I was just feeling VERY appreciative of what I’d been hearing. It really does sum up how I feel about this sweet little device that lets me hear again! Just to reassure you, there was no traffic at all – think Timbuktu on Sunday morning. Everyone sane was sleeping or drinking their coffee with the Sunday news or maybe getting ready for church. This was way before the church traffic would start up.

All weekend, the lyrics just kept jumping out at me. Songs I had forgotten all about, like waves of memories washing over me. Crimson N Clover, Rock On, Goodbye Yellow Brick Rd… Oh, I just love it!

Then a song I had been trying to figure out for the longest time came on. I only heard the music and only noticed the song when I was alone so I couldn’t ask anyone what the song was. I tried once to hum it to my husband, but obviously my humming is somewhat lacking and he couldn’t help. The music would be so familiar to me but my brain was just not making any connections and my 'ears' couldn’t catch any of the lyrics.

Suddenly I heard:

Why can’t you see
what you’re doing to me
when you don’t believe a word I say?

My brain perked up and I started listening harder, turned the volume up a little, then I heard, “ …with Suspicious minds” . My eyes got big. I kept listening. Yes! Realization washed over me. This was the elusive song that had been toying with my 'ears' and brain for months when I heard it played on the radio. It’s mine now. Another one bites the dust…

Then the stop at McDonald’s for a coffee before the meeting. I pulled up to the ordering booth and heard ‘Would you like a double fudge brownie?’ I thought, ‘At this time in the morning? Are you crazy?’ but I very politely said ‘No thank you’ and went on with my order. I felt so empowered. I heard the question plain as day! This morning I did a repeat of this exact conversation while taking my husband in for his eye surgery. He said ‘That was a machine’. I asked 'What?' somewhat puzzled. He said: You just told the recording “No thank you”. We had a good laugh!