A Whole New World (Again)

Its been twelve days since switch on and its safe to say that life has taken a great new twist with the cochlear implant.

I reported in the last blog that right when they switched it on I could hear almost everything people were saying even if they sounded like they were doing the helium party trick or were auditioning for Alvin and the Chipmunks.

But switch on is just the beginning of the journey back.

In the first week I decided to try out as many situations in which to use the implant as I could.
First up, a visit to the cinema. Now as anyone with a hearing loss will know, a subtitled showing of any film, let alone a new release is as rare as a supportive Ofsted inspector, a goal for Liverpool, a motorway in Cornwall, or a win for England in a cricket one day international. Even when there is one you either have to be unemployed or   have no social life at all to go and see it as they are on at very obscure times.

With this as the case, I knew that to go and see "The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies" with the family, it would have to be with no subtitles. To my surprise, I found that more than 50% of the dialogue was understandable. Considering that you cannot depend on lipreading in a film as the camera always cuts to another scene as someone is speaking, or has voice overs or people speaking off camera, this again shows how amazing the implant is in bringing back word recognition and understanding.

As I stated in the last blog, one of my aims was to listen to music again as its been missing from my life for two to three years now. I experimented, as they tell you, with some familiar songs. Using my phone's you tube I played "One" by U2 and Mary J Blige. I had placed the phone on the table in the kitchen. The song sounded half decent and Bono and Mary sounded Ok apart from being transformed briefly into Pinky and Perky (those of you old enough will know of whom I speak). Later I played it again using the headphones which was an even better improvement. To be honest I felt quite emotional listening to the song again after it had been going round in my head for two years without being played.

The following Sunday there were two more musical experiences. The first in church where two carols were being sung (not at the same time). Now Christmas is a great time for these experiences because of the familiarity. We sing the same traditional songs and the songs played in shops and on radios are often the same. In church they sang the songs "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" and "O Come all ye Faithful". To my great wonderment I was able to pick out the tune (something I've definitely not been able to do for about three years at least) and sing along. Christina was a good sound test as I was able to sing in her ear to test out whether I was singing in tune. Her honest assessment was that although not perfect, it was largely in tune. Well I'll definitely take that after a week of activation!

On that same day, we went down to Canary Wharf. On the way through to get the car I stopped and listened to a busker, acoustic music is better at present as my brain makes sense of all the newish sounds so guitar and voice is definitely preferable to bands with electric guitars, drums, bass, keyboards, etc at present. Although I am aiming towards the latter. The song the guy was singing was "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone". Absolute classic and although not a song I listened to a lot before deafness took over, it was certainly familiar and pleasant. I waited till the end of the song before telling the guy how that was the first live song I'd listened to in about three years that I'd heard clearly. Emotional moment. That song is fast becoming my favourite and I frequently play it over and over in my head.

Another experience that came as a pleasant surprise was when we experimented talking on the phone. I realise that Christina and the boys will be easier to hear as their voices are familiar but to be able to hear them quite clearly on the phone was a liberating experience to say the least. Not done that for two or three years and have been depending on the useful but limiting text and email messages.

Finally I want to mention my one week tuning session at the hospital. I asked if it was possible to tune out the high helium voices but advised that this will sort itself out over the next few months as my brain remembers how things and people are supposed to sound. However, I was also asked to repeat the word recognition test.

If you remember, during an earlier blog post I mentioned that when being assessed for a cochlear implant I had to perform a test where I had to repeat a sentence read out from a speaker where I couldn't see the person speaking. You may remember that I scored 5%! Well this time the result was rather different. I heard the person's voice as clear as a bell. Result: 98%!! Then 93% when they added some noise in the background.

So all in all a great week and a half in which I have experienced lots of the amazing world of sound again. Birds, wind, music, speech...... and I am sure that there is much much more to come as I continue on this journey. I have been told that there will be lots of ups and downs along the way but the only way is up as they say and the Lord is there every step of the way with me. He has also provided amazing family and friends who continually offer their support.

Merry Christmas everyone.....and if I don't write another blog in 2014, have an amazing new year and may you be truly blessed in 2015.