Acoustics

I work in a building that was built in the 1930's.  It is made of granite, marble and houses about five thousand employees in the building.  I always wondered why sounds, voices, phones, everyday noise sounds so loud in this work environment. Voices often sound distorted.

Acoustics!  It took me nearly three years to figure this out. Being deaf with cochlear implants, with no hearing memory aside of what I remember what hearing with hearing aids were like, acoustics make a huge difference.

When I am outside of the building, while everyday sounds are still noisy, it doesn't bounce off walls or floors. I can hear just about everything in this building, from the squeaking wheels of the mail cart to the clicking of high heels, to the soft squishing sounds of rubber soles on shoes, to phones ringing in nearby offices, to the squeak from the hinges on my office door, paper being shuffled.

According to my decibel meter app on my iPhone, what I am "hearing" is what one would hear on a normally quiet street or in normally "quiet" conversation.

There's nothing quiet about working in this ancient building, trust me on this one.

Who knew Acoustics would be such a big deal? 

I am so deaf without CI's, that I no longer hear thunder, or the roar of jet engines when I fly.

My world isn't totally silent without CI's.  I still have Tinnitus, but it is more like white noise.

Acoustics IS a big deal.  Music played on my cheap factory installed stereo radio/cd player sounds lousy.  If I listen to Spotify, Pandora, iHeart Radio on my iPhone or my laptop, it sounds far better to my CI implanted ears.

I never cease to be astounded at cochlear implant technology and what I discover, like Acoustics for instance.

Next month I return to the Cochlear Center for mappings.  The brain is an amazing thing.  While it takes a couple of weeks to get used to mappings, it is nothing like Activation Day, where everything I heard was a strange sensory experience!

I think back on that November day in 2010 and just laugh.  What is true about CI users is the fact that you constantly change and evolve in hearing with cochlear implants.  I am recognizing more and more without captioning, especially watching television news.  While using the phone and refilling prescription medicines, I am familiar with the menu prompts.

But Acoustics!?  What a hearing concept!

Amazing what one learns!  What a hearing surprise!