What Am I Hearing?

I’m hearing talk radio with a pretty good degree of success. Not all stations, but NPR seems to be really good for listening.

I’m hearing people behind me whisper in church while the organ is playing. I didn’t catch everything said but I heard enough to be amazed at my new found hearing!

I’m hearing people talk in the isle one over from me at work. Not the words but the bubble of voices – more than I have ever heard before and that's what my co-worker said she could hear. I'm also hearing the announcements and music better.

I’m hearing much better in meetings and have not been using my FM system for the last couple of weeks.

I heard the speaker without a microphone at a meeting in a big conference room at work. I was in the 5^th row and had no FM and the microphone was broken.

I can hear walk partners no matter which side of me they walk on!

I can hear books on radio well enough to follow along. My brain needs practice taking the information heard and relying on it to understand though. Sometimes I find I have a really hard time concentrating on audio books. No doubt a byproduct of all those years of not hearing and being so visually oriented.

I'm hearing sales people when they ask 'Are you finding everything?' I can smile and say 'yes'. Before I never really knew if they were asking 'Do you need help?' or 'Are you finding everything ok?' and so I'd usually mumble an answer in a complete sentence just in case I wasn't answering the right question.

We were at a Polka festival today. Great opportunity to try out my noise program! Not that polka music is noise. I don't mean that at all. The noise program worked pretty well. It was so loud, everyone was shouting above the music so it helped to have a narrower IDR to screen out some of the music and focus on the voices.

After ten years with my first CI, I had gotten comfortable enough with it that I was taking for granted what I was hearing with it. Getting the second CI has re-awakened my wonder of hearing again. The newness of hearing in my right ear hasn't worn off yet. I find it particularly amazing how my ears work together to create better sound. I always felt this would be true and yet it still is amazing to me. I am continually, turning off one CI or the other to see what I'm getting from each one and then turning them both back on to marvel at the sound they deliver together. I'd like to say I'll never take my hearing for granted again, but I know that after a few years with both CI's I probably will. When I take them off at night, I will remember that I am deaf and that being comfortable enough with my CI's to take them for granted is a gift in itself.