Monday 12th May 2008 - different listening exercises

I took the bus to work today. Not noticed any difference in my auditory experience on my walk comparing CI and hearing aids to the bus stop. I don’t remember the birds singing this morning even though it was a beautiful day.

I got on the bus and looked for my ipod and found it and my CI personal stereo lead but couldn’t find the lead for my hearing aid direct input. Was annoyed, but anyway, plugged in the CI to the ipod alone. I did noticed that it still has some way to go with getting my music and that there were still some gaps in my music. I noticed also that some of the sounds were getting rather quiet and with the ipod and CI on full blast, I wasn’t getting a very loud sound. This then told me that perhaps it will need another tuning sooner than I thought. My next appointment isn’t until 2nd June but then thought well I am going to my parents and to Cornwall before then, the current tuning wont last until then, I will practically hear nothing before the next tuning. So when I got to work I rang the CI team and brought the appointment forward so then I get tuned just before I see my parents and also just before I go to Cornwall. Another thing I noticed that I couldn’t hear the ipod very well, cos the microphone on the CI was still active when I was on EA. I need to ask the CI team to create me a programme that uses EA only and mutes the CI microphone. I have booked the next appointment on Thursday 22nd May at 9am. Also whilst speaking to the CI team, I mentioned to them that I am purchasing an FM receiver for the CI on Wednesday and wondered if they supplied the leads for free. I got an email back from them saying “yes” they supply the lead for free – brill – that saves me £30. The hospital has now ordered a 90cm lead for me hopefully it will have arrived by my next tuning.

Work today was fine. There was a lot talking in the office which everyone was involved in so thanks goodness I have BSL interpreter there, and then one of my colleagues helped me with the group discussions. Also I have noticed some hearing people generally (not those at work) have become less deaf aware since I got my CI. I get feeling now that cos my speech is good and I have a cochlear implant, they expect me to hear what is being said – I CAN’T!! I really find this so frustrating and especially since I cannot follow a word in normal conversation with lip-reading. I know I can get some words without lipreading in listening practice with one of my friends cos when he says something to me he lets me know the topic and he speaks slowly. So why why why can I not follow group conversation nor conversation at normal speed? That really gets me down, but why didn’t it not bother me before? Perhaps cos I knew there were limitations with hearing aids and just accepted it. People have reminded me that I need to be patience with the CI, that it will get better and easier slowly. Perhaps I have high expectations of the CI? Grrr!!

Tonight we did some listening exercises on the computer. I had to listen to the sound and let one of my friends know what I think it is by pointing at the picture. This was a good exercise although sometimes I can’t tell what the sound is like the difference between a motorbike and a helicopter. Some of the animal sounds were difficult but I found the high frequency ones much easier to identify funnily enough!! A funny thing happened that a siren outside the office came onto the scene and I couldn’t tell that it was outside or from the CD and so I pointed at the fire engine picture as I thought it was from the CD when it wasn’t from the CD in the first place!! We burst out laughing.