KOKESHI.....good luck for tomorrow

[Elibean]

Didn't want to hijack other thread, but do want to wish you the best with tomorrow's switch-on! I used to work with Deaf people, but don't know much about implants. I do know how isolating and traumatic sudden, or even not sudden, deafness can be, an awful lot for you to deal with in a relatively short space of time, by the sound of it. But then I also know you are one brave and resourceful lady.

Wishing you the best possible success from your CI, and an end to isolation asap xxx

Fantastic progress in - what - just 24 hours?! Great stuff with being able to recognise voices on the phone. Good luck with your application for Australia too.

How do your DCs feel about it (or was it nieces, sorry if I've got it wrong)?

I have two young nieces in Sugarland, Texas, and they were so happy. They wanted to let me listen to them playing piano on the phone. Bless them. Music is still unintelligible for the most part. I can get bits, but the whole thing doesn't seem to come together yet. Well it just sounds like a lot of random noise.

The l.o is only 27 months so he hasn't realised I can't hear, just babbles away anyway. I was really upset at the thought of never being able to hear him but it's just amazing to get this result so quickly. I feel totally connected again.

TV is also tricky. I had Jonathan Ross on there adn that bloody canned laughter went right through me. It might have been real laughter actually but it sounded really synthetic!

I couldn't work out out what this clicking noise was for ages, I was really racking my brains. I finally realised that while eating my dinner that it's my teeth! And my breathing sounds really laboured.

I bet this is like watching paint dry reading this!!!

No, no, it's fascinating for me to read this as Dominic can't express himself like this and I'm so curious to get a glimpse of his world.

LOL at teeth clicking, wait till you're old enough for dentures!

Your LO is about Sylvia's age (she was born 01.03.05). They are so cute at this age? Can you hear him yet or is his speech still too quiet? Dominic doesn't always hear Sylvia.

Does Jonathan Rosss actually say his r's when heard through the implant?

I don't know if you'd qualify for DLA but may be worth looking into. We got Dom's new DLA letter through, he gets £60 a week!

He was born on 02.03.05, and I agree, he's just fantastic. I'm really noticing a change in him, he's picking up new words all the time (people have been translating for me) but he mostly just babbles.

Glad my ramblings are helping Christina. It's quite self indulgent I guess but I know if I post it here I can always came back and see my progress, bit like a diary I suppose.

Oooh just heard my ankle crack. My that sounded really familiar. There seems to be a pattern to what noises sound most like their natural noise but I'm not sure how best to describe it. Probably been loads of studies done though?

My car keys don't sound at all like they used to, that's kinda weird. Coming out of the car is actually quite strange because I get a lot of sound that I don't recognise right away. I must have been getting a few strange loooks in the street when I repeatedly shut the car door, locked and unlocked, tossed my keys in the air and opened and shut the gate!

I get DLA already, lower rate for something totally unconnected. I think it's quite difficult (I've asked) to get any extra payment just for deafness. I was quite surprised at that considering how big an impact it has on your life. My DP definitely had to take on the role of carer, it must have been quite exhausting.

Onlookers must have thought you're developing OCD.

Have you set any alarms off yet? Domi set off a few during his first few days with the CI but not since (the kinds at the entrance to shops). He also gets electric shock in the elevator of one of the shops nearby. Also on the plastic slide (where you might want to join your DS, if not for yourself), so we've taken it off for those occasions. Only on a full plastic slide with plastic climbing frame. Not at wacky warehouse where the frame is metal and just covered in plastic. So far no shocks on coming in and out of the car and TBH I've forgotten the protocol to avoid shocks for this.

In fact I haven't found much at all with descriptions of sounds through the CI, apart from a few audio clips with simulations, the only knwoledge I have is from more adult users.

Dominic heard a triangle sound last week. Apparently he said "Blimey! That was loud", as the learning support assistant wrote in her notes to us. (I don't know where he heard that language from.)

That's very stange about the DLA. With Domi's old one he got £16 a week, lowest rate for something. Then we let it lapse a couple of years as couldn't face the paperwork, too depressing to list all the things he couldn't do, then reapplied 3 weeks ago. Now he gets the middle rate for personal care and the lowest rate for something else (mobility perhaps), total £60. I wonder if they processed it as a totally new claim rather than updating an old one. I think it's worth asking again. The forms can be filled on-line nowadays.

Haha, yes OCD that's what I was thinking!

I haven't set off anything yet, I was wondering that just after the surgery because I am quite often alone in the supermarket. I guess I would have been tackled to the ground if I had failed to stop!

I have the guide for "earthing" yourself but I've never had to utilise it. I used to get more shocks from my car pre-surgery so maybe that's connected my circuit or something!

It must be exciting for Dominic picking up words from other people now. I was just telling my sister tonight that I felt really cut off from everything. One of my major sources of information gathering was no longer available and I realised just how much I learned from other's passive remarks and chat. Do you think he's becoming more confident in himself?

I'm so looking forward to off the cuff remarks and a bit of banter. Witty asides and cutting remarks just don't have the same effect when they're repeated 3 times and then written down!

I may ask again about DLA actually, but you're right the form is horrendous. My claim runs out in December of this year so I'll probably wait until they send the claim form. It was actually my sensory impairment social worker that told me my deafness wouldn't affect my claim, but she's not really that clued up on late-deafened people. She works mostly with pre-lingually deaf and knows that stuff inside out. I think one of the problems for me is that my case is so rare, there are probably very few precedents. They don't like venturing outwith what they know.

You know I put the other speech processor to my implant tonight (the demo model that the scientist put in my drystore). It felt like being hit by a bolt of lightening! I thought I'd be nosy and see what program 4 and 5 did. It was just this really loud (way louder than my threshold at the mo, which is quite quiet actually) going off in the middle off my brain! I nearly jumped off the seat. Won't be trying that again!

Thanks for posting Christina, it's really exciting hearing about Dominic as well. My implant centre mostly does children and they have a huge wall of photos of their implantees. It's quite emotional seeing it. My love to Domi xoxox

kokeshi, don't stop posting about noises, I'm enjoying it so much and I know exactly what you're on about!

I had a cold at the time of switch-on, and the Darth Vader breathing was very funny.

I'm amazed - this morning I was doing some writing, and realised I could hear the sounds of ballpoint pen on paper.

Re music: last night I listened to an aria from St Matthew Passion, something with a 1 singer and a strong melody.

The orchestra bits were just a mess, but the singer came through clearly. However, at first it seemed to me as if he was wandering off key from bar to bar. After listening a few times, I manged to "locate" the key and with that as an anchor, I could hear the melody going up and down but ending in the right place.

It's as if my brain is guessing rather than hearing pitch, so I'm going to practise this as much as I can.

Do you have anything similar?

Here's Saturday's update...sorry it's a bit late. Probably just in time for welliemum.

So, I've been really concentrating on music today...I decided to build on my early experience of bagpipe appreciation and ventured with the family to the Scottish Pipe band Championships. It was, erm, loud!

Our first stop was McD's for DP (only!) and I've worked out that the drive thru speaker is a great analogy for the quality of sounds I'm getting through the implant, with the extra chipmunk effect. Twas a revelation...

I also managed to get a flat tyre just at the Park (venue of the championships) and the bloody AA refused to come out (I'm binning them, they're shit), so we were left to our own devices. My maintenance skills are sadly lacking and I mooched about the car (with 3 police officers) until a very kind man came to my rescue.

I realised at that point they're was a dreadful kinda static noise that was drowning out everything else. When I looked up I realised a pipe band was practising right next to me. Wow. Confusing. The drums sounded like fireworks and the multiple pipes just an incomprehensible whine.

After our tyre change I decided to persevere. Going through the park was just lots of noise, unitl I could clearly hear some bang bang banging. We saw a group of drummers on their own and checked it out. I could hear clearly every beat of the drum and even the individual drums doing their own bit. A wee bit emotional, percussion is fantastic for the moment. I felt like I was part of it again.

As we went further though the park the noise just became really overwhelming. There were thousands of people, hundreds of bands practising, a fairground, catering stalls, a beer garden and lots of vehicles. Probably the most sound I've been exposed to for a while. We didn't stay for long as I felt really tired, but glad that I went.

I think it may be some time before I can really appreciate the delights of a full pipe band!

Oh to answer your question welliemum, yes I can quite easily "get" music that I recognise but I think I must be filling it in from memory. New songs are a bit of a problem as I don't have an overview to refer to and can only just about make out the tempo and rhythm but not much else. Hopefully that will improve? Speech is getting better as is comprehension of the TV. Still need the subs though.

I've just bashed this out do excuse my poor English, all that piping tired me out. Must go to bed now, have another dayout planned tomorrow (well today!).

Hmmm, seemed to have scared you all away, lol! Ok I'll post another few and if I don't get any responses I'll wait until I'm asked!

Today was programme changeover day. The scientist gave me two program, each with different rates of information being sent (I think that's right) through the processor and the electrode array, stimulating my aural nerve. Some peoples brains seems to prefer less info, and there's also a huge difference in battery usage. I think it was something like 94 hours to 49 hours.

Sundays are special because I have the whole day with the wee one (L) to myself. We go out and just play. We're quite near a loch and he loves being around nature. We throw stones in the water, feed ducks and run around - really simple stuff. It was a bit of a refuge for me when my hearing had gone because he wasn't aware of it, he wasn't talking much and I think it kept me rooted in my "old" life. Everything else changed, even the relationship with DP but I always look forward to Sundays.

So I realised as we were out that I could hear individual things really clearly. I could hear the car changing up and down the gears and my clothes rustling. I even heard the rain hitting off the roof of the car.

When we got to the loch the farmer's market was on, and I really felt like I was getting a lot more ambient sound. It was confusing at first because I'd forgotten about the programme change really early this morning, but I was really aware of more individual sounds. I jumped when I heard the ducks quacking away, and the general hub-bub of the market was quite distinct. As for hearing L, it's just absolutely joyous. I'm getting all his wee individual phrases - the first one was "that way" - and my heart was singing. We ventured into the wee cafe with a soft play area and he made friends with a little girl about the same age. She started chatting away and asking me questions, which I was able to answer! It was just fantastic.

Later that evening we went up to my mum's for dinner (DP came as well), it being the first family dinner since my implant was switched on. What a difference to be able to join in with the conversation. I think everyone was a lot more relaxed because communication has been really stressful for everyone.

Oh just remembered about the birds at my mums'...one thing about this programme is that your common or garden blackbird (parents live next to the woods) sounds like the flock of galahs we used to get at 5am when we lived in NSW! Do you get them in NZ welliemum? Jesus, they're intrusive!

OK, that's me diary entry for sunday - apologies if it's a bore. x

i love it, kokeshi, don't stop. and galahs are noisy buggers, aren't they?

oooh, just rushing by the computer - don't stop kokeshi - I love reading this.

Will post more tonight - it's all a bit hectic.

No galahs here but we have a little flock of chickens, ducks and geese which is amazingly noisy! Am gradually learning to tell them apart. - they all sounded the same at first.

No! Haven't heard those magpies - now I'll have to go back to Aus for another holiday to hear all the birds I missed the first time!

Speaking of ducks, we watched Mary Poppins at the weekend and Julie Andrews is awfully quacky.... I trust this is an implant effect

Oh wow, what a response! Galahs are the spawn of the devil. They look beautiful but that din drove me to distraction! I wonder if we had them in Scotland, they would sing aggressively with a nasal twang without pauses? PMSL at oidledoidledoidle!

I actually had to press the off button yesterday because it was truly frightening. I just realised I had one definite advantage over my hearing friends. Califrau, you're not a fan of the pibgod then?

Night all, have an early start in the morning. Thanks for checking in.

When I lived in Boston, on hearing I was from Scotland, people used to ask me if I knew so and so. I was like errrh, no, it a a country you know...not a village!

I was also asked which part of Australia is Scotland in and whether or not we had television. John Logie Baird would be spinning in his grave!

I love the descriptions. So do you like programme 1 more then? Will you switch back to it or switch between the two?

DS has got only 1 programme ATM. DH told me that tonight he heard some more of DD's electronic computer toy. Not just heard, but distinguished all but 1 of the questions he listened for. At this rate I think we'll buy him a mobile phone sooner rather than later. He's also generally much calmer and more loving and sweeter. He chips in in our conversations. We'll speak between ourselves or to DD and he'll lift up his head from what he's doing and say something too. We can have short conversations from one room to the other. It's wonderful.

Chrstina, that's really fantastic that DS is coming on so well, it must mean so much to you as a family. I was just thinking that today, I just feel so much more connected to everyone. I can't believe how much of a difference this has made already.

Had abit of alone time today and driving into the city just realised about how difficult everything had become. Even simple things like ordering food, shopping, talking to strangers were a huge deal to me. I think I did my best to try and accept it but I just didn't enjoy anything as much. Of course you can't dwell on this all the time or you'd just sink into despair but I'm glad - and grateful - I've been given a chance to hear again.

So to answer your question, I'm really noticing a difference with Programme 2 which I changed to yesterday. Sounds are much easier to dintinguish, but I have noticed if it's a really loud noise - like traffic - comes through as a loud clacking noise. I'm thinking it's something to do with the maximum threshold not being very high, so everything louder than that would just be distorted?

Today I was getting X-rays for my Aus visa medical report and I actually enjoyed every interaction. Must have been a bit weird seeing me grinning like an idiot every time I got a question right on the first go. I popped into the studio to see DP who asked me to go to McDonald's for a Happy Meal. I headed for the drive thru with out any apprehension at all. That would have been impossible last week (note to self, will have to do something about DP's junk food habit!).

When I came home I did a bit of work on the PC but went for maximum aural stimulation, having the TV on with my back turned away from it. I'm definitely able to distinguish more and more but I'm not so good at filtering out the extraneous noises to concentrate on what I'm working on, so had to admit defeat and switched it off!

A wee bit later I went for a walk up to the park with L and DB, DM and DF. Just amazing how the birds are really going for it. Something never paid attention to before. I had the first real conversation with DB since I lost my hearing and I felt like I'd met up with him again after being away for a long time. I'm quite close to him but so much is lost when conversing is so arduous. We talked for ages about everything and nothing.

Even my Dad who is a bit of a closed book seems a lot happier, I couldn't lip read him for toffee (and he always took it personally) so it did get a bit strained sometimes. I just realised today that L calls both him and my mum "Granny" which he finds deeply offensive - it was a cause of much hilarity between DB and I. It's just wonderful - and hopefully it will keep getting better and better.

take care all.

Back for another installment! I wish people would say hello, I feel like a bit of a twunt spouting off all this to myself! Just say hello please!

I'm continuing to really notice stark differences every day, miraculously (OK bit of hyperbole there, bear with me!) that loud clacking the was drowning everything else out seems to have resolved itself, so driving up to the studio today was actually rather pleasant. The background static interference that seemed to be there all the time has now gone too. I heard a siren for the first time and it was exactly as I remember it, really crisp and clear, and loud!

I work with DP in the studio but hadn't been going in as much, we have had to put one of our projects on hold for the past 6 months because I'd been to pre-occupied trying to cope with my deafness. Meetings were really stressful and we'd just end up snapping at each other, so in the interest of saving our realationship, I decided to pull back a bit.

Today was our first real business meeting since last year and we got so much covered. We're at a really exciting point in the business and we both felt (probably for the first time in a while) that we'd a lot to look forward too.

I also had my daily trip to the post-ofiice to send all our packages and it was fantatic telling the woman that i could hear her today. She's been really accommodating - and patient - over the past few months but she said she was really happy for me too.

However, I was absolutely shattered by 2pm. I having adjusted to lip-reading, re-learning to hear again seems really exhausting. I was supposed to go and see a counsellor (for the deaf) today but I had to re-schedule. Tuesday is my lip-reading night too but I just came back home and slept for a couple of hours. I was worried when DP wasn't home by 6pm so I had a go at calling the studio. I still haven't worked out the best position to use to the phone, but I got most of the conversation. I probably wouldn't call anyone else at this stage but it's good practice calling DP at this stage.

It's been a great day and I'm looking forward to whatever tomorrow brings. Hopefully seeing some of my friends tomorrow night for the first time in ages, I found it quite stressful to be in company before. I still find it difficult when there's more than one person, people tend to talk over each other and I can't yet distinguish new voices from each other. But it'll be smashing to have a laugh with them again.

Thanks for reading.

Hello Kokeshi!

Very interesting topic, I used to have a friend who was deaf and had an implant, she moved away just after she got it though so I didn't find out how it went (we lost touch) but I always wondered and hoped it had given her back some of what she felt she missed out on!

Hope it continues to go well tomorrow and you have a great time out with your friends. Night!