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What kind of noises does a pharmacy make?
Three days after the processor was activated, it was time to return to work. I was concerned that the unfamiliar noises would make it hard for me to concentrate at work, but decided that I could always turn the sound off if I needed a peaceful break.
I assumed that the hospital pharmacy would be a quiet place, but was surprised to find that it was fairly noisy. I expected the telephone to ring often, and it did, but that noise was not too bad. What surprised me was that I was hearing a constant roar, as well as an intermittent squealing noise. My coworkers became my tour guides in this strange world of sound. They explained that the constant roar was the loud hum of three computer servers in the pharmacy. While they thought the noise was loud, their brains had learned to tune out the sound, so they didn't notice it. My brain was not used to sound, so I could not tune it out, and I heard the roar all evening long. The squealing noise turned out to be a door to another room in the pharmacy. Courtney and Nicole, who worked with me that evening, explained that the door hinges had been squeaking for a long time, but they no longer noticed it. However, Courtney told me later that evening that she was now noticing the sound too, and it was starting to annoy her. Within a few days, the sound was annoying many of the pharmacy employees, and we arranged for the door to be repaired.
The next day when I came to work, a pharmacist named Allyson was sitting across from me. She was concentrating hard, trying to calculate the ingredients needed for a complex IV medication. I heard Allyson thinking aloud, saying "They want that in milligrams" and "They want to cut the potassium in half." I said "Gee, Allyson, I never knew that you talked to yourself when you work!" Her face quickly reddened, she put her head down, and said "I've got to stop doing that!" Later, Allyson's daughter Laura stopped in the pharmacy, and Allyson quietly told her "Dan heard me talking to myself." I said "That's right, I did!"
An Unexpected Benefit
When I returned to work after the implant was activated, it was fun to watch the joy that my coworkers found in experiencing this new world with me. They speculated about which noises I would find annoying, and which I would enjoy. They asked me if their voices sounded like I expected. Kim, the pharmacy secretary, said "I can't sing, but can you get that thing adjusted so that it sounds like I'm a good singer?" One afternoon I was working in the Intensive Care Unit, and kept hearing a recurring sound that I could not identify. I finally asked Beth, a nurse, who explained that it was a heart monitor, beeping because a patient's blood pressure was low. When I asked about the sound, all of the employees within hearing distance turned and smiled. I feel very lucky to have such supportive coworkers, both within the pharmacy and around the hospital.
Eight days after the implant was activated, we had a meeting of our Medication Safety Team, a group that I chair. There were eight of us sitting around a table at this hour-long meeting. Our long-standing practice has been for Kim to sit beside me and take notes. I would read her notes, so that I could follow the discussion. While this worked fairly well, it was an awkward way to chair a meeting, as we would all sometimes need to pause for Kim to write a sentence and for me to read it. However, on this day I found that I was easily able to follow and participate in the discussion. At the end of the meeting, it suddenly occurred to me that I had not once looked at Kim's notes. Kim noticed too, and had a broad smile on her face.
Practicing Listening
Cochlear implant audiologists say that it's helpful for novices like me to practice listening. While the sound brain is loud enough, it can be tough to decipher. I've practiced listening by having the radio on while in the car, and by trying to match the words to the captions while watching TV. One day while I was passing through our family room, the sound from the TV caught my attention. Trisha Yearwood was singing "Georgia Rain". With the aid of the captions, I was able to understand the lyrics and hear the music.
I have also signed out several unabridged audio books on CDs from our local library, and obtained the accompanying text for each. I started with "The Sky is Falling" by Sidney Sheldon.. At this writing, I'm about 50 pages into the book. At times, I've been able to follow it for about 30 seconds without looking at the book, and my understanding seems to increase as we move along. I'm very happy with the progress that I'm making.
Click here to move on and see if I heard the ocean
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Journey out of the muffled kingdom? Page 9 |
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Table of Contents Page 1: Why an implant? Page 2: The Journey Begins Page 3: Surgery Page 4: Awaiting Activation Page 5: Sound! (6/8/05) Page 6: Into the world (6/8/05) Page 7: Sound, Day 2 (6/9/05) Page 8: The Sound Booth! (6/9/05) Page 9: What's that sound? (6/17/05) Page 10: Five weeks later (7/14/05) Page 11: Final thoughts (7/14/05) Page 12: Four years later (Sept, 2009) |