Well after hearing with my new mappings for four days, I definitely hit the Mother Lode of all mappings.
It took a very talented audiologist and reading about other CI recipient's dislikes, likes and suggestions. It reinforced the fact that hearing with cochlear implants is totally unlike hearing with hearing aids.
Mistake Number One: Thinking that increasing VOLUME was going to give me the Dolby Surround Sound effect. Didn't happen. Fact was, it made things worse.
Mistake Number Two: Not asking for 100% T-mic sooner.
The realization that my "hearing memory," consisted of what I remember "hearing" with my hearing aids on or off and not "normal hearing." I haven't heard "normally," since I was about two years old.
The realization that I WAS born hearing after reading over medical reports from childhood.
Here's one that was telling. I was two years old. "Imitates dog barking. Responds to loud clapping. Presses ear to television to hear it." If I had been born deaf, I wouldn't have had a hearing memory at all, because you have nothing to draw FROM.
Your brain never forgets to hear. Hearing Memory is something else all together, and hard to explain. If you are a music lover and buy a luxury car, you are going to have quality stereo sound in that car. Listening to classical music in your Mercedes-Benz, Lexus, or BMW is going to sound like listening to classical music in a concert hall. I will have to win the lottery before going into a dealership to buy a new Mercedes-Benz, Lexus or BMW.
I was in the kitchen earlier. I heard a blue jay calling. This time, I not only heard the blue jay calling, I heard the rhythm in the bird song.
I never did like digital hearing aids. To tell you the truth, I preferred the analog hearing aids.
Many CI users prefer to use mapping programs that are quieter when driving in traffic.
Not me. When you are driving through eight lanes of asphalt going 55-65 mph, you better believe I want mapping programs that allow me to hear in Dolby Surround Sound. Absolutely. I want to hear that 18 wheeler truck 3/4ths of an inch next to my car shifting gears and getting ready to pass lanes BEFORE I see it in my line of vision, especially at 5:30 in the morning.
Last night when I was driving home, I could hear two emergency vehicles a mile away before I saw the sirens. I knew they were coming in my direction and I wanted to respond appropriately.
If I had been wearing my ancient ten year old digital behind the ear hearing aids, those two emergency vehicles would have had to have been riding my car bumper before I heard it.
Lessons Learned. Hearing bilaterally with cochlear implants is indeed a process.
It still amazes me at how deaf I am without my cochlear implant processors on. The fact that I managed to even SUCCEED when I did is phenomenal.
Just Amazing.
No comments:
Post a Comment