God turned the faucet on

Yesterday it rained. When I stepped outside, it literally sounded like God turned the faucet on in Heaven to make it rain on earth. It wasn't a downpour, exactly, but it was a good soaking rain. I didn't hear the "pitter-patter" of rain, but it was definitely rain that I heard. 

I also had to get a medical procedure done, and when my blood pressure was being taken, I heard the blood pressure cuff inflate and deflate for the first time.  I didn't know that made a sound when it did that. 

After I came home, I watched Oprah Winfrey's show. Barbara Streisand was on the show along with Robert Redford. She sang the song, "The Way We Were," on the show, accompanied by a pianist playing the piano.  Well, it sounded different. I could hear snatches of her singing - with the captioning, and I could definitely hear the piano. Not bad for six days of "hearing" post-activation. It isn't music or singing the way I remember it, but it isn't noise, either.

Today I noticed I am hearing more environmental sounds.  When I use the microwave, when I press the keypad, it beeps with each keypad stroke. I can now hear the toast in the toaster pop up when it is ready.

Certain sounds are beginning to be familiar. The ticking of my desk regulator clock. The sound of me typing as I am blogging. I definitely hear the heat pump come on and off, whether I am upstairs or downstairs. When I was watching a car commercial tonight, I heard what was supposedly the sound of wind howling. Whether that was artificially created or the real deal, I don't know. But it had an interesting flavor of sound to it. The sound of a car passing is more familiar. I still hear the turn signal clicking.

I stopped by a grocery store to get a prescription refilled and to pick up a few items. I went through a self-checkout lane after purchasing my items, and to my surprise, I heard and understood this sentence (without lipreading, or any kind of written prompts), "Please take your receipt and thank you for shopping at ... ."  It still sounded kind of echoey and underwater, but it was definitely a sentence.  There are a lot of environmental noises at a grocery store that I haven't identified yet. However, no more grocery cart collisions! YAY! I just can't get over that. And nobody has said "excuse me," to get by me because I didn't hear them.

I stopped by my bank's drive through ATM to get some cash.  The key pad on the ATM screen also beeps. There are different "flavors" of  beeps - one for cash, one for your paper receipt and another to retrieve your ATM card. 

Next, I stopped at Starbucks to get my beloved Venti Skim Latte. The sound of hissing of the frother for steaming the milk is higher than I remember it.  

I am also getting used to finding the "sweet spot" on my head for the headpiece magnet so that the cochlear implant and the sound processor can do their job.