2020. A New Year, and a new decade. Social media is full of people sharing photos and stories to show how the last decade has changed them. For me, this last year has seen so much change, it's hard to think further back than that, let alone a whole ten years. On the hearing front it's increasingly hard to think back further than 8th May 2019, when my CI was switched on and I was launched into my new hearing journey.
My last blog post was shortly after I started wearing the hearing aid again on the right. A couple of days in, and I was finding it very tiring. To my surprise, by the time I reached two weeks of being bimodal (CI plus hearing aid), things were back to normal on the energy front, and my brain seemed to be very comfortable with merging the different sounds in each ear. The transition was so much quicker than I expected. In fact I became so used to it, that just the next week, when I took C swimming, after carefully installing my CI into its waterproof AquaCase, I completely forgot to take out my hearing aid. I didn't realise until after I'd swum about 6 metres underwater. Ooops! This was a big concern to me, given that I have vivid memories of my (analogue) hearing aids failing simply due to heavy rain, when I was a teenager. Clearly the hearing aids have improved since those days, and after me erring on the side of caution and leaving it for a full 24 hours in the drying box before attempting to reinsert the battery, my hearing aid was fine. Phew!
Doing my listening exercises with the hearing aid has been interesting. I think the hearing aid is helping me differentiate a little more easily between mechanical and human sounds, so that's definitely a bonus. I think I do prefer bimodal (CI plus aid) to unilateral CI (one CI, nothing in other ear), even if the sound via the hearing aid is of inferior quality. There is just a greater depth to the sounds I hear, like listening to sounds in stereo as opposed to mono, I guess. While cycling I no longer have a "blind (deaf) spot" for traffic approaching from behind, as the hearing aid in my right ear alerts me to sounds which the CI on the left doesn't pick up.
A month ago, 2-3 weeks after my hearing aid was reinserted in my right ear, I was describing to Stuart what the hearing aid sounded like, compared to the CI. I said "everything is fuzzy and a bit distant, like trying to listen through a door or a window". And then it hit me. I remembered saying something very similar back in the summer, but that time I was describing listening via the CI, compared to my previous (entire lifetime) experience of hearing aids. Hearing aids used to be my benchmark. So for the first few months after switch-on, hearing through the CI was always being compared against the hearing aids. And initially the CI was more fuzzy and less clear than the hearing aids. But now? The CI has become my benchmark. And the hearing aid is more fuzzy and less clear than the CI. That's astounding.
It's pretty cool that 10 months on from a 2+ hour operation, weeks of recovery and then 8 months on from bunging a magnetic device on my head, I am now hearing better than I ever have before. Yes, it's been a journey. It was tough at times. Lots of times, actually. But that all seems to disappear into nothing when I realise what I've gained. I am enormously thankful for the medical skills of the different NHS staff who have cared for me over the last 10 months. I am grateful for the patience of my family and friends. And I am in awe of God, who created this world and inspired these medical interventions, and provided for me over the last year. At church on Sunday, the first Sunday of 2020, we had "testimony Sunday", when different people in the church shared their stories of God's provision in their lives in 2019. I stood up with them, to share my story of how God gave me better hearing in 2019. It wasn't a miraculous instantaneous healing from deafness, that I have hoped and prayed for in the past, but it was still a healing. A unexpected blessing. If you want to listen to what I said, you can find it here. I start speaking at about 4 minutes.
When I set out on the CI journey I deliberately kept my expectations low. I said that I would be happy if the CI gave me the same hearing as I had with hearing aids, because then it would be fixed at that level permanently (no fear of deterioration with age). I really didn't expect much more than that. And if I did, I thought that it would take at least a year, or more, and hours of regular listening practice, to achieve that. I thought this because of things said to me by others who have had a CI, and from blogs I've read. The reality? After just 9 weeks I was already noticing that the CI was better at picking up voices over distance, compared to hearing aids. After 4 months I was saying "it was worth it" to have had the CI, and that any further improvement was a bonus. After 8 months I have had some significant moments of hearing well beyond my expectations....
Between Christmas and New Year I had about a week back at my childhood home where my parents still live. I was upstairs in my old bedroom, closing the curtains, and Mum called up the stairs. Without missing a beat or pausing in what I was doing, I heard her question and responded. Admittedly it was in a context I was aware of (she asked if my younger son C had washed his hands for supper), but it was something I have never experienced before. Being able to listen (over a distance with no visual cues at all!) while carrying on with my task, without stopping to concentrate or look. Amazing.
That same day, Stuart and I then went out for dinner with a lovely couple that I have known for over a decade now, from my days with eMi (Engineering Ministries International). I haven't seen them since before the CI implant. I have always struggled to understand Marietta, because she is from Holland, and has an accent. This has really deterred her from speaking at length with me, and she would often ask someone else to explain to me what she was trying to say. But not now. Not only was I understanding everything she said, I even had some spare capacity to be able to notice the accent and phrases that she uses, that are unique to her. Amazing.
That same evening, as I drove home from our delightful dinner party, Stuart and I talked all the way home. It was dark. I couldn't see Stuart in my lipreading mirror. I still understood most of what he said, above the car engine noise. Amazing.
The next day my Dad took us to the theatre (if you're in Suffolk, check out the Red Rose Chain - they do brilliant theatre productions!) and we had a wonderful time watching their adaptation of The Magic Fishbone (Charles Dickens). I reckoned I understood more than 80% of what was said. It was a small black box style theatre, with the actors literally just 2-3 metres from me, which really helped. But I think that last time I went to an equivalent show, I understood only around 20% of what was said. Just enough to get the gist. Certainly not enough to hear the jokes, pick up on the innuendo, and laugh wholeheartedly with the rest of the audience. Amazing.
2019 and my CI journey has been a pretty amazing year. I'm looking forward to seeing what 2020 brings! I plan to continue with the usual sound recognition practice homework, but I will also be listening to audiobooks, starting with my boys' CD collection of Roald Dahl stories! I'll start by reading the text as I listen, but then will listen again - and again if need be - until I can follow the story without reading. Practising so I can get better at listening without lipreading. That's the next goal.
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| Wed 8th May 2019 - a significant date for me... |
My last blog post was shortly after I started wearing the hearing aid again on the right. A couple of days in, and I was finding it very tiring. To my surprise, by the time I reached two weeks of being bimodal (CI plus hearing aid), things were back to normal on the energy front, and my brain seemed to be very comfortable with merging the different sounds in each ear. The transition was so much quicker than I expected. In fact I became so used to it, that just the next week, when I took C swimming, after carefully installing my CI into its waterproof AquaCase, I completely forgot to take out my hearing aid. I didn't realise until after I'd swum about 6 metres underwater. Ooops! This was a big concern to me, given that I have vivid memories of my (analogue) hearing aids failing simply due to heavy rain, when I was a teenager. Clearly the hearing aids have improved since those days, and after me erring on the side of caution and leaving it for a full 24 hours in the drying box before attempting to reinsert the battery, my hearing aid was fine. Phew!
Doing my listening exercises with the hearing aid has been interesting. I think the hearing aid is helping me differentiate a little more easily between mechanical and human sounds, so that's definitely a bonus. I think I do prefer bimodal (CI plus aid) to unilateral CI (one CI, nothing in other ear), even if the sound via the hearing aid is of inferior quality. There is just a greater depth to the sounds I hear, like listening to sounds in stereo as opposed to mono, I guess. While cycling I no longer have a "blind (deaf) spot" for traffic approaching from behind, as the hearing aid in my right ear alerts me to sounds which the CI on the left doesn't pick up.
It's pretty cool that 10 months on from a 2+ hour operation, weeks of recovery and then 8 months on from bunging a magnetic device on my head, I am now hearing better than I ever have before. Yes, it's been a journey. It was tough at times. Lots of times, actually. But that all seems to disappear into nothing when I realise what I've gained. I am enormously thankful for the medical skills of the different NHS staff who have cared for me over the last 10 months. I am grateful for the patience of my family and friends. And I am in awe of God, who created this world and inspired these medical interventions, and provided for me over the last year. At church on Sunday, the first Sunday of 2020, we had "testimony Sunday", when different people in the church shared their stories of God's provision in their lives in 2019. I stood up with them, to share my story of how God gave me better hearing in 2019. It wasn't a miraculous instantaneous healing from deafness, that I have hoped and prayed for in the past, but it was still a healing. A unexpected blessing. If you want to listen to what I said, you can find it here. I start speaking at about 4 minutes.
When I set out on the CI journey I deliberately kept my expectations low. I said that I would be happy if the CI gave me the same hearing as I had with hearing aids, because then it would be fixed at that level permanently (no fear of deterioration with age). I really didn't expect much more than that. And if I did, I thought that it would take at least a year, or more, and hours of regular listening practice, to achieve that. I thought this because of things said to me by others who have had a CI, and from blogs I've read. The reality? After just 9 weeks I was already noticing that the CI was better at picking up voices over distance, compared to hearing aids. After 4 months I was saying "it was worth it" to have had the CI, and that any further improvement was a bonus. After 8 months I have had some significant moments of hearing well beyond my expectations....
Between Christmas and New Year I had about a week back at my childhood home where my parents still live. I was upstairs in my old bedroom, closing the curtains, and Mum called up the stairs. Without missing a beat or pausing in what I was doing, I heard her question and responded. Admittedly it was in a context I was aware of (she asked if my younger son C had washed his hands for supper), but it was something I have never experienced before. Being able to listen (over a distance with no visual cues at all!) while carrying on with my task, without stopping to concentrate or look. Amazing.
That same day, Stuart and I then went out for dinner with a lovely couple that I have known for over a decade now, from my days with eMi (Engineering Ministries International). I haven't seen them since before the CI implant. I have always struggled to understand Marietta, because she is from Holland, and has an accent. This has really deterred her from speaking at length with me, and she would often ask someone else to explain to me what she was trying to say. But not now. Not only was I understanding everything she said, I even had some spare capacity to be able to notice the accent and phrases that she uses, that are unique to her. Amazing.
That same evening, as I drove home from our delightful dinner party, Stuart and I talked all the way home. It was dark. I couldn't see Stuart in my lipreading mirror. I still understood most of what he said, above the car engine noise. Amazing.
The next day my Dad took us to the theatre (if you're in Suffolk, check out the Red Rose Chain - they do brilliant theatre productions!) and we had a wonderful time watching their adaptation of The Magic Fishbone (Charles Dickens). I reckoned I understood more than 80% of what was said. It was a small black box style theatre, with the actors literally just 2-3 metres from me, which really helped. But I think that last time I went to an equivalent show, I understood only around 20% of what was said. Just enough to get the gist. Certainly not enough to hear the jokes, pick up on the innuendo, and laugh wholeheartedly with the rest of the audience. Amazing.
2019 and my CI journey has been a pretty amazing year. I'm looking forward to seeing what 2020 brings! I plan to continue with the usual sound recognition practice homework, but I will also be listening to audiobooks, starting with my boys' CD collection of Roald Dahl stories! I'll start by reading the text as I listen, but then will listen again - and again if need be - until I can follow the story without reading. Practising so I can get better at listening without lipreading. That's the next goal.
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