Monday, October 3, 2011

5 years on

Here is my take on the difference between normal hearing and the CI:

The sound is different to normal hearing, it is a bit more robotic. There are still difficulties with background noise. Hearing people might be able to hear conversations across the room.. I can't, people need to be fairly close to me so I can hear.

I can talk on the phone, so I don't need to lipread. I can hear sounds like sand falling on floors, but sometimes need to ask what it is if I don't recognise it.

I prefer having subtitles for movies and TV, usually because the background has music. But that is my preference, I know some CI users who manage without it.

I make it sound awful, I've just listed all the drawbacks!

BUT - the CI gives enough dB that speech can be understood without lipreading and that is such a blessing.
It gave me a confidence that I had lacked, I am now sure of myself that I have heard something right and can join in group conversations better, rather than hanging back wondering if I've heard correctly and looking like a dickhead if I'm not on the same subject.
There are a lot of sounds (like computer beeping, doorbells) that I can hear again and little things like that make the CI all worth it.

It is definitely one of the best decisions I have ever made to get implanted, being late-deafened in in an oral family, it has improved my quality of life immeasurably!

There is a wonderful webpage which shows hearing people what it sounds like to a CI recipient: http://www.pbs.org/saf/1205/features/Interactive/intro1.htm

So, saying all this and saying how great the CI is, I would recommend it to people, especially to people in "hearing" families but I'm not going to scorn people that don't want one, it is a very personal decision afterall!!

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Dogs and cords do not mix

Last night, we were watching Red Riding Hood. This didn't have subs, so I connected the CI to the TV (via a cord), to make things clearer/louder for me.

Anyway, about halfway through the movie, Taffy decides she wants to go outside and walks into the cord, ripping my CI off my ear.

Apparently I scared the hell out of everyone (Stu, Taffy, birds) when I yelled out at Taffy to get her to stop. Oops. I am a bit protective of my $8000 ear piece :P

Found it on the floor, minus the little clear earhook that helps it balance on my ear. I didn't realise they came off :P I even have spares in my CI box of tricks. But Stu found my original one so it could sit on my ear again and I made sure the cord was on the ground properly so Taffy could walk OVER it, not THROUGH it.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Reddit again

It seems that Reddit has posted my vid again.

HI REDDIT!

And since all my mobile phone posts, I actually got myself an iPhone which doesn't have T-switch at all but I can hear well enough if the volume is up really loud. Still prefer sms's. But I love all the apps :)