Tuesday 4th March 2008 - Day 2

As soon as I woke up this morning at 8.30am, I put in my speech processor on my right ear and connected the magnet and put in my hearing aid in my left ear. I noticed a very slight “whirring” noise. Mum and I reckon that I might be picking up the fan on my lap top. Mum and I started going through this massive box that we received from the hospital with all the bits and pieces in. We were trying to sort what batteries we have so that we know what we have for when the batteries needs changing.

When I get dressed I have to take the magnet and processor off. It would fall off anyway. Then I put it back on again after I am dressed. Everytime I connect the magnet, I get this sudden surge of sound or power or sensation and then after a few seconds it settles again. It really makes me jump when I get that.

This morning, my Mum and I spent two intensive hours of speech and listening exercises. I had to tell my Mum how many syllables there are in the words, numbers and sentences that she were saying. We started to laugh cos we are being thrown back to 1978 to the time when my Mum was teaching me to lip-read and speech. She couldn’t teach me to listen / hear the sounds then cos I wasn’t getting benefits from hearing aids so Mum had to make sure I learnt language through lip-reading and teach me new words that way and then get me to say them correctly. At that time, she would give me a smartie for getting it right. Here we are 30 years on, doing similar exercises together again with me as an adult and a great awareness of the structure of language and with a wide range of vocabulary and understanding of the formation of the English Language, my Mum is using the same exercises to teach me to hear / listen / and to start to recognise the sounds of speech. We had interesting deep discussions about how words are formed and the phonetics of the words and I would compare notes tell my Mum how the words now sound through the implant and what it sound like before and let her know whats new. With my lipreading and existing knowledge of how words sound through hearing aids on a profoundly deaf person, I realised that through the implant, the word endings seems to be extended with an extended sensation of sound. I also noticed for the first time that through the implant, words have intonation – they go up and down depending on their letters / spellings which then controls their sound whether it goes up for the high frequencies. A good example of a word I picked this up was the word “Hissing”. Before to me it sounded like “Heh – in”. Now I noticed that the word actually intonates upwards in the middle before coming down again with a lower freq letters and that the upward sound of the letters / pronunciation of the word in the middle I was picking up for the first time was the “ss” sound which I had never heard before. I was gobsmacked!! Mum and I cried. The same with the word “listening”. I noticed that high frequency syllables were easier to pick up than the low frequency syllables. I have difficulty picking up “ing”. However with telephone box, I picked up 4 syllables, some soft sensations, some harder and noticed the one right at the very end indicating the x went right up in frequency!! That shocked me too.

I was worn out from this speech and listening session but it was an important session we need to do which we need to do on a regular basis to help me get used to the implant quicker and to gain the maximum benefit from it quicker. When making coffee this morning, I still couldn’t hear the kettle boiling, but I was made aware that mugs “clink” to each other when they touch one another which is a new addition to my coffee making experience. Also the “clunk” of the milk botlle when placed on the table. Still cant hear the shutting of the fridge door though. I realise that I am picking up the high frequencies better than the low frequencies with the cochlear implant and I am just so amazed with just how much I missed for 33 years of my life!! Later when I went to the toilet, I still can’t hear myself wee, but I gained a slight sensation of vibes going up and down when the tap was running. But nothing was recognisable.

I was so tired from all this new experience of the sensation of sound that I went to bed this afternoon and slept for a couple of hours. My mum woke me when my Dad came home at 5.15pm and we had a cup of tea. The TV was on and I was aware of a sensation of sound as Ann Robinson spoke on The Weakest Link. It was just a series of unrecognisable syllables that don’t make sense. Then I became aware of another sensation of sound vibes on top of that then I looked around and noticed that Mum was eating a biscuit and that this “other sensation” seemed to follow the movements of my mother’s jaw as she chewed the biscuit and the sensation of that sound stopped when she stopped chewing it. Mum picked up another biscuit and chewed it again and the sensation of vibes started again. That confirmed the biscuit. I couldn’t believe it!! Mum and I laughed!

This evening when my parents were out, I decided to try out to see what I could sense from the piano. I played a few pieces of music on the piano that I know and also played a few scales and I couldn’t really pick it up with the implant at this stage. I didn’t get sensation from all the notes and therefore I wasn’t really getting the music… basically it was still silent there.

Tonight in bed I decided to take the hearing aid off whilst typing my email and this news with just wearing the cochlear implant. I noted sensation when I tap my lap top. Also I tried to say a few words to see if I was hearing my own voice. Before my voice was just silent vibes and now its beginning to make a very very slight “sound”. My voice was just starting to sound like monotone beginning to hear a slightly different sound when I tap my lap top. Then I noticed a sensation of sound and I had no idea what it was until I saw my Mother’s hand wave from behind my door. Apparently, my Mum had knocked on my door, I was getting the sensation of it, but my brain had not registered it nor recognised it as a knock. Everything that is just starting to sound sound all the same – all the vibes and newly started sounds sound all the same – nothing makes sense yet, although I am beginning to note a difference in the sound of my own voice (sounding like a very faint monotone tinny dalek), the tapping on my lap top and me producing a “shhh” sound. The higher the frequency of the sound, the easier it is for me to pick up – amazing. Now lets see what Day 3 brings us. This week is focused on listening as I need to help my brain to register the sounds that it senses and learn to translate them as much as I can. Therefore it was suggested that I need as much time as possible to do the exercises and the teaching of sounds around me with my mother as much as possible. The more we do at the beginning, the better I will use my implant to register and recognise more sounds in the long run.

I wore the processor from 8.30am until 2.45pm and then from 5.15pm until 1.17am!! That makes it 14 hours today and the battery in the speech processor is still ok!!