Saturday, August 31, 2013

Summer's End - August 31, 2013

It is hard to believe that this is the last day of August, let alone the fact that summer is ending. It has been a very hectic, busy summer.  I continue to progress in hearing with bilateral cochlear implants.

Recently I traveled to a nearby city to meet some friends for dinner.  It was late when I returned home around midnight, and it was dark.  This was my second nighttime solo trip on a busy interstate with four to six to eight lanes. I dropped two of my friends off at a light rail station before returning home, and while it was kind of touch and go, I didn't do too badly in understanding my friend's instructions on which exit to take. Her husband was in the back seat.

My trusty portable GPS was a lot more accurate than her iPhone GPS!  I can hear and understand the GPS pretty well now, although I do travel with a Google Maps or MapQuest printout from my computer for back-ups.

Three years ago, I would not have dared drive on a major interstate at night.  I also could not understand verbal directions other than turn left, right, let alone understand verbal instructions from a portable GPS. When I dropped my friends off, I programmed the GPS to go home, and did not have any back up.  I just followed the GPS and I was home about an hour and fifteen minutes later, with absolutely no problems.  I did not get lost.

I thought it was pretty funny that all three of us were people with hearing disabilities. I mean that's pretty comic: three deaf adults in a car on a major interstate, it is pitch black outside, and me receiving verbal directions on how to reach a light rail station??  My friend has bilateral CI's, her husband does not, he wears hearing aids for now.

With bilateral CI's, I have a lot more confidence, and definitely gained more independence.
More and more, I am trusting my cochlear implants to do their job, and still discovering new sounds.

Earlier this month, I had dinner with a friend who also has a cochlear implant and she was visiting.  I drove her back to her hotel so she could take an early morning flight back home. I drove on the interstate in pouring rain at night.  I ordinarily would not have done that before cochlear implants.

I am a better driver in the daytime than I am at night.  I do not enjoy night time driving, but I will and can do it.

As for recognizing new sounds, even with bilateral CI's, I am hearing new sounds.  Last night I was at my computer going through e-mails, and I heard a tinkling melody.  I was in my home office, and realized the tinkling melody was coming from an ice cream truck several blocks away, and smiled.  Another sound of summer.

Slowly, but surely, I am gaining more confidence as a bilateral CI user.

After living with deafness for many years, it has been an experience shifting from a mindset of a deaf woman who wore hearing aids with limitations, to a mindset of a independent deaf woman who wears bilateral cochlear implants, with little to no limitations.

Conversations are easier, even in restaurants.  Phone usage on captioned phones is easier. phone usage on my iPhone 4S is easier, and with the few uncaptioned phone conversations I have tried, it is the phone menu prompts and voice messages that trip me up.

That's really okay.  I used to be a deaf person who couldn't hear on a cellular or smart phone at all.

Bilateral Cochlear Implants are something else. My world has just exploded by leaps and bounds in nearly three short years.

What a technological miracle.  My joy in hearing knows no bounds.  My heart is full.