Sound booth

Into the testing booth

After the processor was all set, Debby asked me to go into the sound booth to see what level of sound I could hear. When I first visited Debby in February, 2004, she had tested my hearing wearing my old hearing aids. With my left ear, at some frequencies I was unable to hear sound even when the testing device was maxed out. In fact, at times I could feel my eardrums vibrating, but could not hear anything. With my "good" right ear, my loss wearing the hearing aids ranged from 75 to 100 dB. Debby had explained to me at the time that a person with normal hearing would test between -10 and +25 dB on this test, and that a realistic expectation with a cochlear implant would be to score between 35 and 45 dB.

As we went through the test, I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Debby and Claudia were often glancing at each other in apparent surprise. When the test ended, Debby came in with wide eyes, and said "I want to show you something!" She first showed me the tests from 2004, and then pulled out the new results. My scores ranged from about 5 to 25 or 30 dB. Thus, purely on the basis of the volume of sound that I heard, my implanted ear was now testing in the "normal" range. Understanding that sound is another matter, and that will take time, but the volume definitely seems to be there.

Heading home, I stopped for a nice visit with my Dad. Our conversations are usually slow, as I don't understand him very well and he has to sign many things to me. This time, however, I could understand about 90% of what he said.

After arriving home, I went out in the back yard to pick up some sticks. Immediately I heard a chirping sound, and looked up to see a bird sitting on a branch about 15 or 20 feet above me. As I gathered twigs, I often paused to listen to the pleasant sound of the birds.

Reflecting back over the two days, they've been joyous and exciting, but also tiring and stressful because of the stimulation that my brain is not used to. It's a good stress, and it's a nice feeling to know that my understanding of these new sounds should slowly improve over the next few months.

Riding to the Ice Cream Shop

(June 10, 2005) The next day Alex, my 18 year old son, and I decided to ride our bicycles 11 miles south to the nearby town of Waldo for an ice cream cone. We took turns pulling little Ryan in his buggy.

As I put my helmet on to start the ride, it immediately knocked the headpiece off of my head. I tried a few more times, with the same results. I finally took a screwdriver and used it to break off a chunk of the soft protective material in the helmet, making a space for the headpiece. This helped, but I also found that the strap in back of the helmet also caught on the headpiece. I was able to solve this by carefully pulling the strap away from my head as I tugged the helmet on. This worked, although the headpiece did fall off a few more times when I turned my head. I learned to put my hand on the implant before turning my head.

I was concerned that the wind noise in the implant would be unbearable, but it was not too bad. The processor seemed to lower the volume to shut out some of the wind noise, also reducing the sound of cars and nature.

As we returned, we saw one of Alex's high school teachers, Greg Candel, working in his yard, so we stopped for a visit. In 1998, Greg purchased an old Grange Hall and has converted it into a beautiful home. The building started as a church in 1879, and was converted into a Grange Hall in 1915. Greg gave us a fascinating tour of his home, and explained the stories behind some of the historical furnishing. I was happily surprised that I was able to hear and understand almost everything that he told us.

Soon after we left, Alex remembered that he had a commitment at 5:15, so he rode on ahead while I pulled Ryan home. Alex didn't have a way to carry his cell phone, so I offered to put it in my bicycle jersey pocket for him. Cycling near our home, I was puzzled as I heard music as I rode down the street. Reaching home, I put the cell phone down next to me and sat down to rest. I heard the same music again, and realized that it was the ring tone on the cell phone. The sound was pleasant to me, and Alex told me later that it was from "Sweet Home Alabama". Later when I told Shelly about the experience, she said "I'm not sure what song he has on the phone." I replied "It's Sweet Home Alabama". Shelly incredulously said "You can identify songs now?"

On the next page, "tour guides" help me identify sounds

Home

Contact me

Journey out of the muffled kingdom?

Page 8