More sounds - especially environmental sounds

This weekend while running errands, I heard the sirens, horns of a fire engine post-implant. The sounds were coming from my left (my left ear is implanted) and as I turned my head at the traffic light (which was red), I saw the fire engine and recognized the sounds coming from the fire engine. The sounds that I hear post-implant may be familiar or unfamiliar. The difference is, none of the sounds are necessarily amplified or "loud." While wearing hearing aids, I would have literally have had the fire engine riding my bumper in order for me to "hear" the horn honking and sirens.

Hearing with a cochlear implant is so different from hearing with a hearing aid or two. The other day I was doing laundry. I was watching television, and realized I could hear the environmental noise of the washing machine and the dryer in the laundry room area along with the television set in the basement. I haven't yet learned to "tune out" all environmental sounds. As I am typing this blog entry, I have to stop and listen to the regulator desk clock "ticking," as I have learned to "tune it out." I am learning to do that when the heat pump cuts on and off. I am aware of the sound; but my brain is processing it as "background noise."

Singing - particularly commercial jingles - the singing and the music are starting to "come together." Singing still sounds as if someone is singing with a scratchy throat, whether it is the radio, CD. TV or a video clip. Music is sounding more like music, in bits and pieces. I still do not recognize speech in its entirety if someone talks to me with my back turned. I cannot yet hear and understand an entire sentence without the aid of lipreading. I can hear words in bits and pieces with my back turned, just not the entire conversation. I still rely on my CapTel phone to "cue me in," when using the telephone. It has been 69 days since my cochlear implant was turned on. 

I can measure the progress. I have consistently worn my sound processor daily since November 11th, for eight hours a day or slightly more. I can remember what sounded "wild and crazy," during my first 24 hours post implant. From hearing "voices underwater," to hearing speech and voices connect, in a little over two months, my noisy world, is sounding more and more familiar each and every day.  My office door definitely squeaks when someone enters the room. Post-implant, I turn my head when the door squeaks, and no longer startle when someone comes in. I rarely collide with someone turning a corner in the hallway or when turning a corner of a grocery aisle. I hear people walking up and down the corridor of my office building with my office door closed. I hear environmental sounds of construction from my office window, and recognize the noises for what they are, instead of opening my office door in an attempt to localize the construction sounds.

So far, so good. Yes, just about everything has a sound post-implant. My cochlear implant and sound processor are functioning as they should. My job is to focus, listen, identify what I hear, and store more soundfavorings in my hearing memory, much like a data bank.  There's a pattern to every sound.