Out into the World!

Into the Noisy World!

Leaving the clinic, I heard the elevators beeping at each floor. I was hoping to encounter a "talking elevator", but had no such luck. We stepped out onto a busy sidewalk. Buses were running, trucks idling, valets parking cars, and people talking. As we walked by small groups of people, I could hear their conversations, although I didn't know what they were saying. A man walked by chatting on a cell phone. As we waded through this blizzard of sound, my family eagerly watched my reactions.

As we climbed in to the car, Emily and Alex got out their cell phones. They called one phone from the other, and handed it to me so that I could try to talk to them on the phone. I did make out a phrase or two, but not much. I wasn't expecting to hear anything on the phone yet, so I didn't mind.

We stopped for take-out submarine sandwiches on the way home, and headed to Highbanks Metro Park for a relaxing picnic lunch. At that point, a quiet park appealed to me much more than a noisy restaurant.

Coming home I heard the turn signal clicking. For some reason, I really enjoyed that sound. I guess it was the kind of "simple music" that appealed to me. Driving along, we experimented with simple sounds, such as slapping our thighs and knocking on the car window. Alex wanted to try the car radio, but I was not ready for that yet. At one point, I heard Emily's voice in the back seat. Turning around, I saw that she was singing. She was surprised that I heard her. When I heard my family laugh, it sounded like music.

I was anxious to get home and hear little Ryan, our two year old. Unfortunately, he woke up from a nap as we arrived home, and was in a "grouchy two year old" mood. As I sat down with him, he started crying loudly, and wouldn't stop. Wincing at the intensity of the noise, I finally took the implant off and left him to cry in peace I tried again about 15 minutes later, and we had a nice conversation, with him sitting on my lap facing me. He told me about his morning at the playground with Grandma and Grandpa.

Checking e-mail at home, I learned that a computer mouse actually makes a clicking sound. I didn't know that! I expected the keys to be noisy, and they were, but the mouse sounds surprised me. My daughter was sitting at a nearby computer, and I reached over and happily clicked her mouse repeatedly. I went to an "English as a Second Language" web site and read along with several conversations as they played on the computer speaker. I had to repeat each one several times, but was able to follow them.

I was very tired by that point, so I decided to nap for an hour or so. After the nap, we went to visit Shelly's parents, who were spending the night in a nearby hotel. Ryan swam with them, and there was too much of an echo in the pool room for me to understand much. As we rode the elevator in the hotel, I heard Shelly's Mom (who was facing away from me) tell Ryan "Push the button until the light comes on."

Since it was suppertime, we went to dinner at Bob Evans. At first it was too loud for me, but I switched the processor to the noise suppression setting and was able to converse with the others.

Traffic noise was annoying to me that day, but the most annoying thing was the sound of my own voice. My hearing dropped so gradually that it's hard to pinpoint the year when I stopped hearing myself talk, but it's probably been 15 or 20 years. I'm not used to hearing myself talk, so it's like an announcer is talking in my ear, loudly repeating everything that I say a millisecond later. There's not really a delay, so I think my brain just needs to learn to process the sound more quickly. It's hard to concentrate on my thoughts and my words, with the echo in my ear.

That night, when it was Ryan's bedtime, I snuggled with him and watched a captioned TV show. It was fairly easy to follow the conversation, using the captions as cues.

It was a very good first day, although was stressful to encounter so much noise that I was not used to. I'm used to peace and quiet, and I think my heart rate drops when I turn the sound off. Hopefully I will adapt soon.

On to Day two in the world of sound

Home

Contact me

Journey out of the muffled kingdom?

Page 6

Me wearing the beige processor and brown headpiece