Loud

"The water running...LOUD. The water draining from the tub...LOUD. The pressure being released when you open a soda...LOUD."

It's amazing what you tune out or just get used to when you're a hearing person. David is experiencing all of these things now, and I just smile, sometimes I giggle.

I'm tickled by the progress David has made in a week. I spoke to him yesterday with a paper in front of my face so he couldn't lipread. He understood the majority of what I said.

He doesn't wear his hearing aid at home anymore. He's wearing his processor at work more often now too. (The funniest description is of what a crowd of people sound like. "Like a bunch of birds chirping at each other.")

What do I sound like to him? At the moment, Mickey Mouse. That's a start!

There are little things that we don't notice too much as hearing people. The sound of a kiss, a gasp, walking in the hallway, turning on a light, the wind rustling through the leaves.

I'm bursting with pride when I see how dedicated David is to making this work to it's highest potential for him.

May 21, 2008

Yesterday was amazing.

David is already improving by leaps and bounds with his implant. He's turning off his hearing aid and just listening.

He heard Eloise humming, shaking her water cup, shaking her rattling toy, saying babababababa. He heard Jaime singing and could tell that he was singing. He heard the different tones on the piano. He heard the water click on in the dishwasher.

He heard me gasp when he kissed my neck when we were hugging.

I can't wait for the speech therapy to begin. His progress is much better already than I expected it. They tell you not to get too excited for the intial activation, so we were guarded.

This technology is simply amazing.

What a gift for our family.

Hello Readers

It's been awhile. I chose not to blog the day to day musings of a recovering implant recipient.

We have been anxiously awaiting "Activation Day". That day was yesterday.

David's appointment was set for 1pm and we started a bit late due to horrendous traffic on I-95.

Martha and Maureen were both there. Maureen has been David's audiologist since he was an anklebiter (2). She came down for his activation, which meant a lot to us. It's hard switching audiologists after so long. Fortunately, Martha is also wonderful. She called to check up on David during his recovery. He's a person to them, not just another file.

Now, on to the exciting part.

The activation took a couple of hours. For the initial maps, they set the comfort and threshold levels on the implant, made sure that all 22 electrodes were functioning and set volume.

Right now his four programs are just different volume levels. As he gets used to how things sound, more advanced programs will be put in their places.

During the activation process, David was able to describe how the tones sounded (this is a very very good sign). He said one sounded like a gong, another like the alarm on a truck backing up. He also heard his own voice. He said that he sounded hoarse, and it was interesting watching him try to find the right words. In the past he's told me that he wasn't able to hear himself speak.

David was getting very tired during the activation process, but kept plugging along.

Once we got home, he was pretty overwhelmed by all of the sounds in the house, so he went outside to water the garden. He turned his hearing aid off. When I came out, he told me that he heard birds. Too many birds! I laughed and told him it was always like that. He asked me if the water hose always made that sound. He heard a neighbor's child yelling from another house on another street. He heard Jaime yelling from the play scape. He heard Eloise blowing raspberries from my arms (that one made him smile his amazingly charming smile).

He's not yet recognizing speech as speech, but that will come with time.

In two weeks we go back for another mapping session. Until then, David will be working out all the new sounds that he's hearing.

Stay tuned!