There is a bird somewhere in the vicinity of my townhouse. A couple of Saturdays ago while running errands at 7:30 AM, I heard this distinctive, persistent, repetitive sound. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. It came from the trees. I turned my head and listened. There it was again. I turned my head toward the trees and heard the sound again. It was a "errr, errr, errr," sound, followed by "rrrrrrrr," a kind of trilling sound.
Later I told a neighbor that I thought I had heard a bird from somewhere high up in the trees. She said, "You did hear a bird." The bird is most active in the morning and my neighbor told me the bird wakes her up in the mornings!
Four months, post-implant, I now know what a bird sounds like. I can hear wind outdoors. I am learning to discriminate among sounds. Not all clocks sound the same. Not all key pads beep alike. Not all diesel engines idle alike. Not all car engines sound alike. There are different ringtones for telephones.
People's voices still sound like they are talking with scratchy voices, but I am slowly beginning to hear words and a short sentence without lipreading. I can hear a pot of water bubbling. Even steam sounds different in various coffee shops while listening to milk being steamed in a pitcher.
I can hear a person come up behind me. The sound of some one's footsteps sound different on a carpet, a hardwood floor, a marble floor. I can recognize commercial jingles on TV and am starting to recognize songs on the radio - only the music, the lyrics are still a challenge.
Everything has a sound. I continue to savor each new day. I may not hear a new sound each and every day, but I faithfully wear my sound processor in order to get the full benefit of my CI.
I don't understand why someone would undergo surgery, get a cochlear implant, and then intermittently wear a sound processor. Why bother getting a cochlear implant if you are not going to wear your sound processor? To me, that's like getting prescription glasses and/or contact lenses and then not wearing the glasses or contact lenses.
I'm thinking about buying a bird feeder and putting it in the backyard. Maybe that will allow me to hear more birds and to see which birds call or sing.
Hearing is such a gift. The journey has been a worthwhile one.
