For the first time since before my cochlear implant surgery, I went outside and raked leaves, gathered up the leaves and bagged them. The sound of raking leaves sounds very different and unfamiliar when hearing with a cochlear implant. The sound of a car passing is beginning to be familiar in that I recognize that particular sound as a car passing by. I heard that sound for the first time INSIDE my home and again when outside. The clicking of the keys as I type this blog is beginning to sound familiar. I am hearing more environmental or "background" noise. I now hear the heat pump turning on. I hear my regulator clock ticking and recognize the sound for what it is. Later I was watching the program 60 Minutes on TV and heard that clock ticking. I didn't know the 60 Minutes clock ticked the seconds, or minutes to the hour.
I am now recognizing speech from the news programs and am able to understand some spoken speech while lipreading the various news anchors. Often, the news anchor speaks faster than the captioner can transcribe the spoken speech, and I still understand what is being said.
Getting used to a cochlear implant is a unique experience for each person who is implanted with a cochlear implant. It is very unfair for someone who has been hearing all her or his life to form an opinion such as "Deaf people who have not heard sounds have a difficult time adjusting to the cochlear implant," or assume that once you have a cochlear implant, are activated, you can automatically use a telephone without assistance. I may or may not be able to use a telephone in a month. It might be six months. I simply don't know.
My deafness progressed from severe to profound to nearly completely deaf over time. Your brain never forgets to hear, whether the deafness is acquired or you were born deaf. Hearing people need to understand this. A cochlear implant doesn't CURE deafness. I am "hearing" 8 hours a day with the cochlear implant, but I still have to take OFF the sound processor to sleep, shower, bathe. During the time I have the sound processor OFF, I am Deaf again. I still depend on a dawn simulator lamp with a timer to wake me up, or when I am traveling, I take a portable battery powered alarm clock that I clip to my nightshirt and vibrates to wake me up.
The HUGE difference between a cochlear implant and a hearing aid, is that a hearing aid makes sounds LOUDER, while a cochlear implant bypasses the damaged nerves and sends electronic impulses to the cochlea, which in turn sends a message to the brain, which perceives it as "sound."
I think this is why I have the sensation at times that I am hearing "sound" through a tunnel or that sounds are echoing, or that people are talking as if underwater.
Deaf people are extremely visual. When I saw my friend's cats open their mouths and HEARD the sounds, "Maaaaah," and "Meeeee," I knew that the sound was the cat's meow. THAT's how I was able to identify the sound. If I don't know the sound that I am "hearing," I am intelligent enough to ask a hearing person, "What is that sound"?
I don't think Hearing people give Deaf people enough credit. When I heard the ticking of the regulator clock for the first time, I immediately stopped what I was doing and focused on the ticking sound. I noticed the ticking sound was coming from my left. I thought what is in this room that would tick? Then I saw my German regulator clock with the weight sitting on my desk, and had an "Aha" moment. I then recognized the ticking sound coming from my clock.
Getting used to a cochlear implant is a PROCESS. It is not instantaneous hearing at all. I still have to figure out what the sound is. Because I WASN'T always profoundly deaf, I was able to recognize the sound of wheels rolling on a grocery cart, and avoid a grocery cart collision.
Each new sound will become familiar to me over time. I will "bank" that memory of that particular sound into my hearing memory, so when I hear that sound again, I will know what it is. Hearing and understanding spoken speech without lipreading is still a challenge. I have only had the cochlear implant turned on for four days. This is still a process, and one that is going to take a while. While some sounds are surprising and unfamiliar to me, and even sounds noisy, I was very prepared to take this hearing journey. I have absolutely nothing to lose, and everything to gain.
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