I'm getting a cochlear implant this fall

I'm getting a cochlear implant this fall. I was deafened as a baby, and have been deaf most of my life. I am new at blogging. I have no idea what sounds I will hear post-implant. I think each sound has a "flavor," so I came up with soundflavoringsanew for my blog. This has been a long process, and one that I hope will improve my quality of life. 

This probably won't be popular with the deaf community - I grew up in a hearing family and have both deaf and hearing friends. 

I want to say to every parent of a deaf baby or child whose son or daughter is a candidate for a cochlear implant, that you are seriously compromising your child's future by declining this option.

A cochlear implant wasn't approved in the United States until 1985. When I was a baby, hearing aids were the only technology available. I went through YEARS of special education to learn to speak and lipread - successfully.

As I understand it, here's what hearing aids do: amplify sound.

A cochlear implant, through the miracle of technology, allows a child or an adult to "hear" by stimulating the cochlea, sending signals to the human brain which recognizes the signals as sound.

Think long and hard about this. Babies and young children have minds like a sponge and learn at astonishing speed. A baby or young child who is implanted with a cochlear implant isn't going to remember the trauma of surgery or what it was like not to hear at all BEFORE being implanted.

It is like having your tonsils out at age three, rather than having your tonsils out at 21. I still have my tonsils, so I realize this is a feeble attempt at an  analogy.

It wasn't until two years ago that a cochlear implant was an affordable option for me. 

Language and literacy are so important in today's job market. A cochlear implant, I think, would allow a baby and or a child to learn spoken language quickly, maybe even play a musical instrument or learn to sing.

 The energy involved in "hearing" with hearing aids is now an exhausting experience for me. 

i can no longer understand speech without any visual cues. Listening to the public address system when the fire alarm goes off in my office building, which I cannot hear either, sounds like a dog barking to my deaf ears.

I love to read.  I always have. Books were my friends for the longest time.  You read descriptive things like, "the pitter patter of rain against the window,"

What is "pitter patter"? I have no idea. For me, it would have to be hurricane, gale-force rain to "hear" rain.

People sometimes wonder why deaf people are such fans of heavy metal music or rock music.  It is the percussion.  It is the beat.  It is the bass.
I love Coldplay's "Clocks," for that reason. And what about some of Beyonce's music?  There is a lot of percussion there.  And Michael Jackson. I still love "Beat It," and the Album of All Time, "Thriller."

My hearing friends always lip-synced the lyrics to the rock concerts. I didn't go to that many concerts when I was younger, because I couldn't always afford the tickets.  I was so glad when the music industry finally printed lyrics to the records, CD's. I could appreciate music that much more.

I want to hear frogs croaking again, Crickets, even. Cicadas when I could hear them, years ago, were really loud. Can't hear them now either.

What is the buzz of a bee? The slithering of a snake?  I would like to hear those sounds so I can get out of the way of danger.

More later. My stomach is protesting to be fed.  What does a stomach growling with hunger sound like?