Naida<\/a> I have slowly got used to it and am much happier with it now than I was when I first started wearing it. The volume is incredible, I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing more things than I ever have before. I even heard the baby crying upstairs last night as the telly was off and there was no other sound \u2013 something of a novelty to me, having always needed to rely on the flashing light before. I\u2019ll carry on using the light of course, if there\u2019s any noise downstairs I still can\u2019t hear noise from upstairs, but wow \u2013on that occasion, to have heard her all by myself, and to be able to run to her without the need of someone else to tell me she was crying, was just fantastic.<\/p>\nHowever there have been issues with clarity, especially in noisy environments. Although I\u2019ve got used to the slightly different way that everything sounds (that you get whenever you try a new aid) what I couldn\u2019t get used to, was the difficulty in singling out voice in particular, in noisy environments such as the supermarket, or in a restaurant. Everything was just distortion, too much sound wrapping round each other and my head couldn\u2019t work head or tail what was going on.<\/p>\n
They had a look and installed a program which I can set the aid to, in noisy environments and this is something I cannot wait to try out. Depending on how I get on, it may or may not work and if it does, sorted. If it doesn\u2019t do the job, then I\u2019ll simply go back next time and let them know and they\u2019ll try something else. How exciting though, that technology has improved so much that they can just do something at the flick of a switch!<\/p>\n
The second problem I\u2019ve found is that as it\u2019s such a powerful hearing aid, I\u2019ve had a lot of problems with feedback, especially when I wear my hair down, which is something I like to do on occasion! After explaining, and demonstrating to them what happened when I closed my hand in nearer to the aid on my ear, they programmed in an \u201cadd on\u201d which is basically an anti-feedback program which has helped no end! Wow.<\/p>\n
I then had to do another speech recognition test, where I had to listen to the computer, with no lip pattern and tell them what I heard the voice say. Last time with my old hearing aid I got 42%. She didn\u2019t say what I got this time, but she did say it was a lot worse than last time, with my new hearing aid. I wasn\u2019t surprised, I got hardly anything that the computer said. I found it quite hard actually, it\u2019s a bit embarrassing and you feel almost sheepish and like you\u2019re letting them down, sitting there just shaking your head at each sentence when they\u2019re looking at you eager for you to catch something. I know that\u2019s silly, but it\u2019s similar when you\u2019re having a hearing test and you realise that although you can\u2019t hear anything, you know they\u2019re putting some sounds through and you do an uncomfortable shift in your chair as you wonder if they think you\u2019re putting it on.<\/p>\n
This may or may not make sense to you, but it is a good and bad thing that I got a worse result with the speech recognition result compared to last time. It\u2019s a shame that the hearing aid hasn\u2019t provided the clarity that I require, but it does prove that the hearing aids just aren\u2019t going to tick every box for me with what I need. I need the volume that this hearing aid does indeed provide (yet still I\u2019m wanting more!), but the more volume that the hearing aid gives, the more it reduces the clarity of what you can hear. I imagine that if your ears could take incredibly loud voice, the louder it got for you, the harder it would be to make out what was being said? You\u2019ll have to correct me if I\u2019m wrong, but that\u2019s how I am understanding it at the moment. The old hearing aid was great for clarity of sounds, but what good is clarity if I can hardly hear anything to make out as the aid is too quiet? <\/p>\n
So, this does mean that a CI is looking more and more appealing, along with clarity will also be volume and vice versa. I am feeling all the more sure each time I visit the HARC at Selly Oak that a CI is what I want.<\/p>\n
My second appointment, straight after the hearing aid re-jigging was with the hearing therapist again. She explained that she\u2019s found a lady who lives in the next town to me, who had a CI in 2007, and who had a 3 year old daughter and she had similar worries to me. I\u2019ve got her e mail address now, I\u2019ll e mail her this week and arrange to meet up. How nerve-wracking! But I know it\u2019ll be really good for me at the same time.<\/p>\n
We talked some more about how I feel about the CI and what my expectations are. I had to complete a couple of questionnaires and the hearing therapist went through my results. My expectations of a CI, it appears, are quite realistic mostly, but in some areas it seems that I am underestimating what a CI can do. A CI will help immensely with understanding voice without lipreading, to me this just seems impossible, can this really be the case? Will I, for the first time in my entire life, be able to understand the radio? I may not (in which case I won\u2019t miss it) but it\u2019s certainly not impossible and some people have found that they can learn how to listen to the radio after a CI when they couldn\u2019t before. Oh my goodness me, wow. I have visions in my head of now being able to listen to the traffic news and therefore know on the days when to avoid the motorway home from work and take the back routes instead, how brilliant would that be not to be stuck in a humongous jam on the M6 just because I didn\u2019t have access to that information?<\/p>\n
Using the telephone, watching the television without subtitles (something I would never dream of doing at the moment) and following in social situations, could all be easier. It\u2019s not going to wave a wand and make me hearing, but even just a small improvement will be such a big deal for me. Once I\u2019m an established CI user, I won\u2019t have to put quite so much energy into understanding people, lipreading and following what is going on, so I\u2019ll have more energy and brain space for other things. I may last longer and not be the first to go home. I will find events where I have the children easier, as if my head has to turn to check on the baby whilst a fellow mum is talking to me, I will be less likely to miss what was said in those split seconds. This is all a dream to me. I have always \u201cjust got by\u201d but I\u2019ve missed out on so much. Too many jokes have gone over the top of my head where I\u2019ve just smiled and laughed pretending i got it so not to come across as gormless or stick out like a sore thumb, or if someone repeated said joke to me it\u2019s never quite as funny the second time and you\u2019re left giggling at the joke long after everyone else has finished being amused and the natural flow of the banter has been interrupted. I\u2019d much rather have caught it first time round. There have been so many times when, with a group of hearing friends having a rapid conversation or debate that it\u2019s taken me so long to work out who is talking, that someone else is talking instead and I simply cannot keep up. Often I find myself taking a break from it all, and having a look at my phone, or going to powder my nose even when I don\u2019t need to. Taking that break means a fresh start when I return to the group \u2013 it\u2019s more of a natural interruption to ask following a trip to the ladies; \u201cWhat did I miss?\u201d.<\/p>\n
The hearing therapist was really positive about my chances getting of a CI being agreed to and I\u2019m so excited about the prospect of life with one. I know that it will take several months after switch on, to get used to the new sounds, to learn everything again and it\u2019ll all sound horrific to start with. But I just know it\u2019ll be so so worth it in the end. Please keep your fingers crossed for me that the scans go well on the 2nd October (I have a CT and a MRI booked) and after the consultant receives the reports from all the people I\u2019ve seen so far, they give me the go ahead. My toes are crossed too. It\u2019s hard to walk these days.<\/p>\n
Going on from today\u2019s post, I\u2019ve got another in mind that I\u2019ll write tomorrow about BEING the deaf one. So please watch this space x <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Had my next set of appointments today at Selly Oak. Came away feeling really good about it all. I was really nervous about going today because I had both girls with me, and my husband couldn\u2019t make it to help out but in the end it just reinforced what a fabulous team they are there. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31,"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24\/revisions\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thedeafone.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}