Two years ago I posted about my colleagues who kept mouthing to me for some strange reason, the origins of which I have never fathomed. They’re all hearing, and they all did it because everybody else did. They all, without exception, thought it was really strange, but no-one ever questioned it. The oddest thing of all was that I had never asked anyone EVER to do it. It was quite a shock back then to see that people, far from being keen for me to hear what they sounded like, found it hard to get rid of the habit.
It’s two years since I started this blog, so it’s two years since I was a gibbering wreck waiting for my operation.
At the time I was focusing on the ‘input’ side: what I might get out of the CI in terms of ability to hear, without giving much thought to the ‘output’ – what might happen to my speech. If I thought about speech at all, my main concern was that I’d hate the sound of my own voice. Not because of ‘sounding deaf’ or anything like that, but just that I was worried that I wouldn’t like it.
I’ve been taking part in a clinical study over the last few months on factors affecting audio-perception in patients with cochlear implants.
This study was conducted to determine if cochlear implant sound processors can be adapted to improve speech perception.
Bear: I can’t find any subtitled screenings for The Artist.
Me: *rolls eyes*
See what I have to live with? Bear and his terrible jokes. I should’ve retorted: “No, it has intertitles” (my film buff friends tell me that’s the right word for the dialogue captions between frames in silent movies). Anyway, off we pootled to see it the other night. It’s had a lot of publicity, so tales of disgruntled cinema-goers demanding refunds when they found out they’d paid to see a silent film, were hilarious – surely they must’ve heard about its USP?
My Dad has a funny little habit of beating a tattoo with his teaspoon on the kitchen bench while waiting for the kettle to boil – a far cry from the famous massed drums at Edinburgh. Tap tap tap-tap-tap, tap tap tap. I saw it so often that the rhythm gave away what it was the first time I heard it, while I was out of the kitchen.
I booked a third AVT session (Auditory Verbal Therapy) and Rashed came along to watch. My therapist Jacqueline took me through the Ling 6 sounds, saying each sound and repeating it, then giving me pairs, then sets of three. I was fine with AH, SH, S, but I got confused with the set of EE, MM, and OO. Need more practice!
I had my 3 month review of my second cochlear implant today. It’s looking good and they’ve booted me out until September next year as my maps are stable and both ears are balanced. Sounds seem more solid with my left cochlear implant compared to my right, because this is the older implant with a learning gap between them of 18 months.
My hearing was tested and I have got exactly what my audiologist wants to see for bilateral hearing, an average of -20db.
Advanced Bionics is thrilled to announce that the NEPTUNE™ sound processor has received FDA approval in the United States.
Today is a momentous day for us all. You have all been anxiously awaiting this moment and it has finally arrived! Now AB recipients and candidates have the choice of a Neptune or Harmony sound processor for hearing their best with AB.
Martha Steele
This article appeared in Bird Observer Vol.39, No.5, October 2011. Reproduced with kind permission.
This is a personal story about my journey through stages of birding defined by progressive vision loss and hearing challenges. I have Usher syndrome, an inherited disease that combines retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and hearing loss. RP is characterized by a progression of night blindness, increasing peripheral field loss (tunnel vision), and finally central vision loss, all the result of the retina’s rods and cones dying off. The rate of vision loss varies from person to person, with some individuals nearly completely blind by early adulthood while others have some functional central vision for life. Hearing loss seems to be relatively stable in Usher, although some progressive loss occurs.
