A very good book about someone learning to hear with a cochlear implant is Hear Again, by Arlene Romoff. In it the author talks about the first time she heard someone behind her in the supermarket say “excuse me”. Of course, for years and years people in the supermarket would have been asking politely that she move out of their way but she would have ignored them. She would have been completely oblivious that anything had been said at all. So that first time she heard the words and moved smoothly out of someone’s path was a hugely significant moment. Continue reading
Beeeep
I am very bad at checking the pressure of my car’s tyres. I know this is short-sighted and no doubt costs me a lot of money in terms of unnecessary wear and tear. However, I have a deaf excuse. I’ve been telling myself for years that the problem is that I can’t hear the “beep” letting you know that your tyre has reached the requisite pressure. Not my fault that I don’t do it, then. Just another big hassle for hearing loss people.
So, a few weeks before the implant operation, when I went out to my car and saw that one of the rear tyres had deflated quite significantly, my heart sank. Continue reading
Four weeks in
Today is four weeks since switch on. Here’s where things are.
My ability to understand speech has dramatically improved. I still ask people to repeat things and I am still lip reading (I doubt I will ever stop) but the feverish concentration whenever I’m trying to follow speech has gone. It is as if the most extraordinary weight has lifted off my shoulders. I can just TALK to people, with so much less effort. Continue reading
At the hospital
Do you want to hear about the operation? (A number of people have asked). Or rather, what happened in the hospital (I was asleep for the operation). The very squeamish needn’t read on. No, really, it was fine.
First of all, a big cheer for the Listening for Life Centre at Bradford Royal Infirmary (BRI), the base of the Yorkshire Auditory Implant Service. Continue reading
Can you hear me yet?
In late October Nigel and I were on holiday in Ethiopia. It was a group holiday, which isn’t a great idea when you are really struggling with your hearing, but it had been booked and paid for prior to the hearing decline of 2017 described in earlier posts. Overall, we had a fantastic time, but mealtimes were a nightmare. I could talk to one person at a time in a quiet location, but when other people joined the conversation I was lost. Put me round a table with a dozen people chatting to each other and it was utterly hopeless.
One lunchtime, it all became too much. Continue reading
In which I stir a mug of tea
I had completely underestimated how exciting it would be to hear things that are NOT speech. As my hearing gradually got worse over the years many environmental sounds disappeared, but losing them didn’t make me feel particularly sad. There were work-arounds for the loss of some sounds; others I just forgot about.
So for example, when I couldn’t hear the office fire alarm anymore I made sure I didn’t work there on my own. When I was working away from home I’d tell the hotel to alert me if their alarm went off in the night. Continue reading
Switch on day
Neither of us slept much the night before. I was busy imagining every possible catastrophe. Nigel had a strange dream in which he got so confused he had to be admitted to the village care home. His friend Greg came to visit him, but Nigel thought Greg was Gandhi. Because Gandhi is dead Nigel became convinced that HE was dead……..you know how nightmares go….
It was a relief for both of us when it was 6.30 and we could get up and get on with the day; off to Bradford for switch on. Continue reading
Sorry…..
The Limping Chicken (the world’s most popular deaf blog) published another of my bits of writing yesterday. Thought you might like to see it (link below). If you are a non-British reader mystified by the content, Google “things Brits say sorry for” and you will find several elucidating and hilarious lists. Or, for a great piece by a British apologiser living in France, read Emily’s post on the subject, on her blog Lost in Lyon.
(Some of you know that yesterday was also the great cochlear implant switch-on day. I’m doing fine, with everything squeaking away as expected. Blog post in the offing…..)
And here’s the link to the Chicken. See you soon.
Hope…..and expectation management
Hope. That’s the thing. Having this operation has given me hope. It’s given Nigel hope. (There are two of us in this).
Both of us have said that when the answer was “yes” to an implant our posture changed. Instead of trudging along despondently looking at our feet our heads came up. Our shoulders relaxed. Continue reading
So what’s been happening?
Long term blog followers will remember me feeling upbeat in February. I felt sure that my hearing was returning to normal after a bad bout of fluid behind the eardrums. Things had improved massively since an initial period of almost total silence. The doctors had all reassured me that the chances of my blocked ears resulting in further permanent hearing damage were slim. It was just a case of waiting for the fluid to drain. As the blockage gradually cleared I was full of optimism. I talked about “this happy ending”.
But then the improvement stopped. Continue reading
More than a bit deaf 