Blimey, the world is a noisy place! Welliemum is SWITCHED ON ==== for kokeshi ====

[welliemum]

Hi kokeshi

Here's a copy of a round robiny thing I'm writing - thought you might be interested. Not long to wait for you! I know it's different for everyone though.

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They switched the implant on on Monday and it was a very very bizarre experience. Every sound has an "echo" and at first the echoes were much louder than the actual sounds, so the effect was of total psychedelia. At first I couldn't speak because the cascade of sound generated by my own voice was so confusing.

Then I started to be able to distinguish the voices amongst all the sounds, but they were very quiet and not recognisable as voices - just scratchy sounds.

We went outside and they all kicked fallen leaves for me - it sounded like hissing, and the cars going by in the road made a rustling noise.

We went back to the motel and Mum read "Green Eggs and Ham" to me. I could guess what she was saying, although this was mostly from knowing the book very very well and recognising the cadences.

I had 3 X 3 hour mapping and rehab sessions in Christchurch (on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday) which was exhausting: sitting there for hours trying to judge whether 2 tones were the same volume or not etc etc etc., plus some tests to set the baseline. They seem pleased but have very low expectations at this stage.

But now (day 4) although the echoes are still there, they're assimilating with the sounds so it's easier to find the sound amongst the echoes. I'm amazed at what I can detect - it doesn't feel quite like "hearing" yet. The voices now sound like voices and are getting more natural. Mum sounded American on day 1 and now sounds more Irish - so is moving rapidly in the right direction - and I can easily tell that her voice and DH's voice are different. I'm starting to get an inkling of dd1's and dd2's voices too, but that's harder as I've never really heard their voices.

The weirdest thing of all was that during the mapping session before switch-on, they were playing pure tones to the implant via a cable to check something or other, and I heard the arpeggio of a major chord. It was a very very strange moment. Listening to music is quite beyond me at the moment though.

That's all for now. It's very very tiring but also very exciting. I'll be flying to Christchurch once a week (with dd2) for more mapping fun, so it's a long process.

Now need to address large pile of laundry and unpacking so will stop there!

A world full of Terry Wogans doesn't really bear thinking about!

Phew.

Oh shut!

Pardon? Speak up a bit can't you, it's all gone quiet!

i think that sounds very whimsical and relaxing, myself. the very definition of easy listening, begorrah.

bumping as I think kokeshi is around....

How are you getting on? Not long to wait.... hang in there

I'm here wellienmum, been popping on and off all day. I can't believe how little I've actually done today!

Thanks for asking after me, I'm fine just sitting tight waiting for next week. I really hope I'm not too disappointed, I've been mentally gearing up for this and I just can't wait for some kind of aural stimulation!

I've been dreaming vividly about music every night and I wake up and realise that I can't hear, which is a bummer.

How are you doing? Are you noticing improvements, recognising different sounds? How frequent are your mapping sessions? It's my birthday at the beginning of June so it will be a fantastic birthday present, it has been a mad year. Also going away to Sardinia a couple of weeks later so I have things on the horizon!

Take care and hope you're well. x

Hi kokeshi, good to hear you sounding positive, I know what a stressful time this is.

I'll be very interested to hear what switch-on is like for you. I would guess that you'll have a similar experience to me at first - overwhelming sound which doesn't make any sense - but you've had hearing much more recently than me so I bet yours settles down quicker.

I'm now day 12 and voices sound like voices, except they're very high pitched. People still sound Irish even when they're not! I think this is because I can hear the breath sounds so they sounds more breathy, and also I have hear rrr sounds which I couldn't hear before.

I can reliably tell men's voices from women's IRL, but voices on DVD are harder.

I'm already "getting" tons more than I did when lipreading, which is brilliant.

I'm having weekly mapping sessions at the moment which is a pain as I have to fly there and back in a day with baby and car seat etc etc. Hope you're a bit closer to your implant centre!

It's tiring and hard work but very exciting.

Welliemum, this is great, thanks so much for the updates. I know you aren't here to satisfy my curiosity but I'm getting so much from all your posts. I'm really, really happy for you because I can only imagine how emotional this has been for you.

This is a weird time for me: in limbo I think. Not too bad but I'm a bit distracted. One thing I wanted to ask you was about flying. Do you have any problems with it? I think I remember them telling me that I would have to switch it off for take off and landing. Also, I guess you must beep when going through customs (maybe not an issue with you htaking domestic flights)? I have a nail in my tibia from an RTA a few years ago, so I set the things off anyway. More than a couple of people have dubbed me "the bionic woman" .

We're off to Sardinia in June so just wanted to pick your brains.

Wonder if I'll have the Terry Wogan effect also?

Oops, kokeshi, just realised I forgot to answer you!

I was told that the implant would set off airport security alarms. They told me to take my processor off and put it through the X ray machine (as you do for keys and coins), and to carry my CI card to prove that I had an implant,

I decided to test this out and have now wandered through airport security several times without setting off the alarm once.

Just thought I'd mention that...

Oh, the Wogans are settling down a bit thank goodness! Doubt if you'll have them, I've never heard of this from anyone else!

I've been listening to music and it's early days, but I can definitely recognise stuff, which is really exciting.

Going to your other thread now....

Oh, and we went for a walk up on the hill behind our house at the weekend and I heard the birds singing. Haven't heard this for years.

IT'S TOMORROW!!! WOOHOO!!! My appointment for switch on is at 1.30pm tomorrow. God, I probably won't be able to sleep tonight!!

That's fantastic news about music welliemum. I hadn't allowed myself to even think about that but I have to admit I do miss it terribly. Films just don't seem the same on mute either.

Aaaaaaaaaaaand the short film that I made last month (despite huge reservations about my ability to interact with my crew etc) is being screened on the 26th of MAy, so I'm really ecstatic about that.

YAY YAY YAY!!!!!!

NO, I haven't...will go and have a look now, thanks califrau!

Hey, brilliant news about your film! What's it about?

The music thing is going to be a long road - I can follow familiar music but it sounds very weird and ugly. I'm very hopeful that this will improve a bit, but of course there will be limits and no-one knows where the limits will be.

Still, being able to hear little bits of music is amazing.

How exciting this is!
Sends shivers down my spine!

Ha ha, now I look like a right attention seeker, threads all over the board!

Funnily enough, it's a film about a young girl's drinking experience. I work with young asylum seekers and they were really involved in the whole process.

They seemed to have a lot of empathy for my situation, I imagine that's because they've had to endure coming to a foreign country, unable to communicate and quite often excluded. Was a real learning experience.

That sounds amazing, wow.

And must have been hard work with lots of communicating.

Respect.

I had a laugh with my friend the drama coach: I chose to work with probably the hardest group of people for lipreadability - teenage (shy, mumbling), heavy accented (those vowel shapes are confuuuusing!), and hyper (can't get them to look in the one direction for more than 3 secs).

Bless them, they were great and we all had a fantastic time.

Well, if you can do that you can rule the world!

I'm so enjoying the fact that some people who were really difficult to lipread, are now so much easier. (I'm still lipreading but getting sound clues too). Suddenly I can have proper conversations with them!

That's my next step welliemum. But first...total board domination!

mwah hahahahahahahahahahaha

I reckon even a little bit of sound would help me immensely with lipreading. I had quite a quick descent into total deafness (as you know) so didn't have time learn new communication techniques. I do not badly now, didn't have a choice!

Yes, you've had a steep learning curve with lipreading. I bet you're much better than me at listening.

In the early days when speech sounded extremely weird I had to remind myself to listen, because I tended to trust what I could see more than what I could hear.

I still regularly make a complete tit of myself misunderstanding things. Can be quite amusing.

Ooooh, 12 hours to go. I will go to bed soon I promise .

BED. NOW.