A day after the operation

Hello World!

The Bionic Manda is here at last. I am relief to be back home now the hardest bit is over. I never thought I would have gone through this, but first I must tell you how its went.

The day of the operation:- I went in to the hospital an hour half early. This would give you a clue of how much I actually get any sleep which was actually none whatsoever. I was so scared and were walking around the room trying to find a way to get some sleep but the operation was playing on my mind. My flatmate, Simon, didn't even get any sleep and were all worried. We then left the house at 5.30am and we had to be at the hospital. We pretty much walked most of the way. We got there an hour later, showed to the bed at the ward then were waiting to find out when I would be going under.

I was supposed to be second on the list but the person who was to go first did not arrived on time and were not nil by mouth longer. I was nil by mouth since 7pm the night before. I could carry on eating or drinking til midnight if I want to but thought it would be wise not to eat or drink anything after 9pm

So I was first to go and they prep me up. By this time I was shaking like a leaf. I was so scared but I knew I would be in their safe hand. I went in at 8.45am and were out into the recovery room at 11.15am. The nurse woke me up half an hour later and i was telling her that I had a lovely dream about the Coldplay gig. She was laughing. A girl who has gone for cochlear implant and she dreamed about music. That might sound a bit odd to her, I guess.

Anyway, 5 mins later I was back in the ward and I was demanding for food, drinks everything. I was so dry I could drink out of the horse buckle. I wanted anything and everything. The doctor came by and told me how it went. It was perfect he says. Excellent news. He told me that I would get some dizzy spells and some bad taste in the mouth. Some people get this for a while and there was no knowing how long it would last. I had them in the first 4 hrs and after that I was fine. The taste disappeared and that was because I was eating and drinking so much. The more I eat the better it taste. For the dizzy spells, well what can I say....I had to ask for the nurse to help me walk to the little girl room as my balance were all over the place. The more I visited the better my balance would be. I would advice everyone to do this when they go for the operation. Keep your body active as much as possible.

This is me, happy to be out of the operation and very much proud of my new hair style! My friends and family all thought I looked quite trendy and very cheeky. I do what I do best is entertaining other people including the people in the ward and the nurses. I could not sit in my bed too long as I was not used to sitting in one place. That just to show you how active I am! Anyway the ward was very cold at night and I couldn't sleep at all. Well I have managed to get at least 3hrs sleep with a little help from my ipod using my other ear. It was the discomfort of my head being so heavy from the bandage and the pressure i feel in my ear. It feel like as if I was on the plane and the air pressure was so tight I had felt like blowing my nose to pop it but I would imagine it would hurt. I would avoid this if I were you. There is some kind of white noise that I hear inside my head and its very annoying. I don't normally get them . This is what we called it the tinnitus. It make ringing type of nosie. a bit like marigine without the flashing yellow light. Before the operation and whenever that I don't wear the hearing aids and I'm fully awake, I would get a little tinnitus. Only very quiet but not annoying. This is usually mean that the brain is looking for it feed. A feed to hear. Once I have put on the hearing aids it would disappeared. Without the device the tinnitus would get worse. I would imagine I will have this until my switch on date. I can't wait.

Reading this back, I must admit that I am glad to be home before my birthday. Glad to have it all over and done with. Glad to know that I have many friends who have been very supportive. Thank you guys. My phone haven't stopped buzzing during my stay!

For those who are curious about the size of the scar or how much hair I have lost... well... it was massive! They have shaved everything! I am kidding! Nah its only small. They have shaved a little just behind the ear and the scar is around the same length at my ear. Just think of it, 8 years ago people had their operation and they had lost half their hair and now, its quite small. I'm really pleased!

To Simon, my flatmate, thanks for being there for me all the way and sorry if I have worn you out for being worried. Now thats over, we can begin the journey of the Bionic World. Here I come!

How do we hear?

Earlier today I was chatting to this lovely young lady who had her implant six months ago and she was asking about what is the difference between the high and low frequency. I thought it was very interesting as i knew the difference of the sound from flute, volin, to the bass sound. although some hearing aids do compressed the sound to reach to our level so we could hear what most hearing people were talking about. For me things I have never hear sound are like frog in high pitch, crickets anywhere around these sound area. if there are any more sound around these high pitch, please let me know so i could check it out for the first time!

Anyway, as I was saying... its all depend on the memory whether we heard sound before we lost our hearing and how long ago. if a person were born deaf then there is no memory of sound does that person have a good chance to hear anything with the implant? you would said no. but to be honest with you, there are loads of people who have been born deaf with no memory have been implanted. They never heard sound until they have their implant. its amazing. I often wonder how much they hear with the implant. Its still a mysterious.

This young lady, I then gave her this link to see the sample of what sound would look like as well hearing it. This is a great sample where we can test of what we can hear. Please go ahead and check it out. The link is http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih3/hearing/activities/lesson3.htm if you are hard of hearing and need caption.. remember to click on the symbol that produce caption for you to follow.

You can even get to play around with the sound too. just don't annoyed people who still have their hearing with the high pitch. Just because you can't hear the high pitch doesn't mean it won't bother anyone else! lol you have been warned!

To me i can't hear over 8hz it just sound dull or silent to me. I often wonder what sound from everyday life would produce anything with this high frequency. if you know any, please let me know. I know guitar do it.
the sound of everyday look like this

Table 2. Average Intensities of Everyday Sounds

Sound                    dB Level              My point of view
hearing threshol      0               dunno the meaning of this?
breathing           10 who would want to hear darth vadar?
rustling leaves 20 don't hear this
whispering 25 don't hear this either
library 30 library? just sound of footsteps and book falling off the shelves and lot of "shush"

refrigerator 45 my guess is humming?
average home 50 same as hearing threshold?
normal conversation 60 depend on the tone of the voices
clothes dryer 60 it make a hum noise in low frequency
washing machine 65 does it vibrate like mine does? lol
car 70 can hear the start up engine but won't know the difference if there is something wrong with it
vacuum cleaner 70 very annoying blow dryer sound
busy traffic 75 does drown out the conversation
noisy restaurant 80 also drown out the conversation
outboard motor 80 loud
inside car in city traffic 85 can hear oncoming traffic while in the car as it pass.
electric shaver 85 this goes back to 198 something I've watched pop using it. can't remember how it sound
screaming child 90 want to shut it up as soon as it scream. hurt my head
passing motorcycle 90 love the sound of a bike
convertible ride on freeway 95 noisy whistle noise to me as well wind
table saw 95 sound like scratching
hand drill 100 whirring sound
tractor 100 same as engine to me more of a hiss in between i think
diesel truck 100 dunno the difference
circular saw 100 machine whir?
jackhammer 100 a hammer? bang bang mind your thumb
gas engine mower 105 loud and very annoying
helicopter 105 if it come while i am talking to you, i pick up this over your voice no matter what
chain saw 110 not heard it yet
amplified rock concert 90–130 double echo to me distort and all that. just feel the vibration and would be fine
shout into ear at 20 cm 120 sorry can't hear you mate have to lipsread
car horn 120 was told i jumped while driving so i must have heard it.
siren 120 three different sound to this. also drown out conversation
threshold of pain 120–140 depend on the tone of the voices
gunshot 140 not heard it in real life. will movie count? nope ok
jet engine 140 hurt my ear. no hearing aids during this point
12-gauge shotgun 165 same as gunshot
rocket launching 180 should be loud right? lol
loudest audible tone 194 if it a women ... she would be silent to me.


I hope this help a great deal to people who are interested in how some deaf people hear in everyday sound but remember everyone are different. I have my hearing stable since 1983 so I have learnt to use what i got and learn new sound as much as possible. If I have never heard it before, don't act so surprised, we are willing to find out the sound as soon you tell us what it is.

Source of my new service

Thought I write a post about my service for a change since its been on my mind in the last few days.  

The last few days I have been thinking about advertising in number of places with the deaf charity , RNID, SEE Hear, Deaf News and they are all asking like lot of money to place the ads apart from see hear (emailed them 8 times but still no respond)

You may be wondering what I am doing wrong... basically I think I know why.  I grew up being in hearing world with no connection or any idea what deaf connection there were until now. I've joined the yahoo site about the cochlear implant recommend by Alison from facebook.  I thought it was interesting how people get together and talk about their experience I've never knew existed.  Its lovely to have that little connection.  

Anyway, I had few people saying that my new service with subtitles are excellent idea and only wish they had it few years ago.  Well what can I said?   I was still in Uni back then :P

How I came up with this idea is that I met a girl who used to be my best friend in primary school and had not seen her for 15 years.  She has got married a year before and were showing me her wedding album and then the DVD slideshow provided by another photographer.  

The DVD slideshow were very nice. lovely music, singing softly,  showing all the colour images  (not much effect I would say) just simple looking kind)  then half way through the DVD , it was showing the speeches. My friend, then fast forward it. 

 "Wait an minute, what are you doing?" I said

"Sorry, but I dunno what was being said. Its no point for me to watch through all that"  she says.

This got me thinking.....   She got an wedding album, a dvd slideshow with images and speeches that she will never know what was being said.    isn't that a waste of money to have speech on it if she can;t hear what was being said?   

So I went away, did some research looking for subtitles service in weddings.  nope not one.  

I believe it is time for a new change. plus  I hear there is a lack of funding for the deaf charity, deafness research. They are always looking for funding, new service, new staff, support, technology, spaces, notetakers, hospital funds.  The list just go on.  I remember growing up and i was in main stream school   and I was supposed to have a notetaker in my classes which I didn;t received.  This is coz of lack of staff and funding.  Apparently I did very well with some help from my hearing friends.  Thanks mates! :)

Subtitles test -  to be honest.... I self taught myself on how to get subtitles on the videos, movies and everything.   So now that I am ready for the challenge..... This is where I need you all to come in...

You know a lot of people who  would be interested in having subtitles on their dvd slideshow.

Please download this image which its a flyer  and you can then pass them around to people or give a link to this blogspot or to my website.  Bear in mind, that the first 100 customers will get subtitles free. So don't miss out.

I'm not doing it for me.. alright I enjoy the challenges. Thats all I want really.  

The real reason is to help people like us who will be growing up having the most available support they will be needed.  

 Together we will make the difference.