I am well overdue for updating the blog and I am very sorry but what can I said? People are demanding for my attention! Right let me just think back on what have been happening.... mmm ah yes.
It was about two weeks ago I believed, when I went for the hearing therapy to practice on sound and hearing speech. I had to do some book test to see if i follow the reader. I had no problem with this. I used to do this with me mam when I was young. Now then, Karen, my hearing therapy, was gonna make the test tougher for me. She gave me a sheet of paper with words that said.... "In the morning, I...." I had to listen to the rest of the sentence and repeat what was being said. I thought this may be too soon as I had my implant for at least over a month since the switch on. To my surprised, I actually passed my test 5 out of 5. I was amazed. I wish you have seen my face when I did it. I kept wondering how did this happened?
Later that week, Giles came along with me to Poulton-Le-Fylde where I grew up. I remember the village being so quiet, not much traffic around. Just the countryside. Nice and peaceful. All this with my hearing aids and now with the cochlear implant.... Well, its deffo not quiet at all! We walked around through many parks and I was hearing all sort of things that I could not pick my fingers on... What is that noise? I asked Giles. Giles then told me its the birds. We saw two little birds singing their little hearts out. They were really loud! If you are interesting in seeing what we get up to during our trip please click on this link "Our day out"
Another amazing things have happened. I went to the Ear Foundation in Nottingham with the rest of the Bionic Group as well all the other cochlear implantees and wannbe who I have met online for the first time. We have chatted about the experiences we had with the implant and to meet the experts who designed the Advanced Bionic (thats the product that I have) and Phonak who designed the hearing aids, wireless microphone and loop systems. Now then, I was really interested in wireless microphone FM which would be useful for me as I often meet my clients in noisy environment, or go to seminar where there would be so many people about and I need to hear small group of people. I am hoping to get one of those. Its not gonna be cheap!
Another equipment as Katie has mentioned on her blog about using the telephone. We learnt a new way to practice on the phone using the bluetooth ear hook. Its not attached to the mobile phone as the mobile phone do have bluetooth setting in them so this make it practical for people like us to use the phone and actually have conversation with someone. When I tried it out with a guy using another phone in the same room, he asked me to switch to T setting and see if I could pick up what he said. He turned around to avoid me cheating as I may lipsread him. So he asked "What are you having for dinner?" I repeat what he says. I was spotted on. I was amazed. People said that coz I had my implant for over a month and that it was too early for me to pick up anything on the phone. They were amazed that I've managed quite well.
I'm really pleased with the process that I have come so far. People may not realised how much effort we have to listen to everyday sound, the figure of speech and speak clearer as much as possible. I lipsread most of my life and still trying to break that habit. I will get there somehow.
Showing posts with label photographer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photographer. Show all posts
Wednesday, 4 February 2009
Thursday, 18 September 2008
My view before being implanted
Hey everyone,
Thought I should start the blog about my journey to the cochlear implant. Some of you already know that I will be having the operation very soon. Date have not yet been confirmed.
I wanna write about my view of sound that I do hear with my hearing aids and how i can look back to this after i had the implant switched on. Thought its a great idea. Don't you think? Glad you agree with me.
The sound that I can hear right now i am in my room in Manchester 2nd floor apartment. The window is open and i can hear the sound of the traffic going by all the time. mostly the sirens go off all the time. I can tell the difference between the police, ambulance and fire engine sirens. if you don't know the difference well I could explain. The ambulance sound like wailing its sound goes up high and went low again in a slow pace. fire engine is nee naw nee naw most of the time. the police was tricky one to explian really they have two sort of sounds. one of them is waazz wazz and its very loud. very annoying. i had to shut my window to block it. the other one .... i can't remember ... need the police siren to come back so i could tell you. i will come back to you on this.
my door to the hallway is behind me and i could hear my flatmate and my neighbour (both hearing) chatting in the kitchen. don't ask me what they said coz i dunno. i just know who is talking by the tone of their voice. thats how i can managed to hear things set by tone.
the more i am used to that tone the more i understand it.
I am very much a music lover. music is a great passion of mine. I do hear music but hearing the lyrics for the first time is very hard to understand so bascially most of my life i had to learn the lyrics over and over til i knew all the words. its may be annoying to some people hearing same song all the time but in the long run i was tuning myself in to this song. understandly the meaning of the song and lyrics to go with it. the tone of the lead vocal singing in low and sad or high when they are reaching out that kind of message. it gave me a shiver with the hair standing up on my neck. its that powerful.
Oh i would love to compare how this song will be like with the implant. Most of you called CI but i rather called them implant as in computering term word (I'm a geek, incase you dunno. yea a cool geek:) ) I will let you know my view after i hear some music with the implant. can't wait
Coldplay is really cool band and i would love to go to their concert. most of the time in the past I went to concert to see Robbie williams, Ant & Dec, Scissor sisters and many more I used my hearing as an excuse to get to the front. It worked and i lipsread the artist most of the way so that I could understand what they were singing or talking about. some i missed out of course.
I went to music festival couple of times and i have enjoyed but i missed out quite a lot..... :( the sound was too loud for me to adapt what was happening and had to relies on what my friends were singing a long to. not much fun but after few drinks and it goes in to your head what does it matter anyway? :)
Get down to the sound was the quote from bill and ted movie. incase u didn't know!
its also from a song in heavy metal band. awesome!
sound i can hear are mostly background noises but if the background is loud and a person is talking to me..... forget it i can't hear this person no chance. i was trying to train my brain to focus on this person with my hearing but had no luck. i have 4 settings on my hearing aids. set one normal sound. set 2 cut off background (to make it quiet) set 3 T loop system mainly use this to listen to my ipod cable free T-link set 4 fm direct connect suppose to use ipod for this but i hate being connect to anything. unless I am in places where t loop system will cause feedback which mean i won't hear music from my ipod.
for the first time I will be using the fm setting when i go on plane to aus in a month time. i just hope my ears will handle the air pressure on the plane for a long time as i had many bad experience in the past. the pressure to my ears was unbearable painful and discomfort. I switched off my hearing aids while on the plane as i find the noises too much plus the batteries seem to ran out very quickly.
must leave a note to myself here......... Manda....... remember to bring your spare batteries!!!!!
i could write forever about sound that i hear but i won't brag about it right now.... just looking at my blog..... its quite long to read. ah well I hope this doesn't bored you. Happy Reading.
Manda
www.aegphotos.co.uk
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