Because of my impatience, I decided to turn the devise up again this morning. Since the A and B programs have a bit of an overlap, the Envoy Technician told me to go from A5 to B3. Moving on up! I felt like noises at home were comfortable, minus having to blow dry my hair - I had to turn my devise off for this today. However, walking downtown in the city with cars flying by a mile a minute was LOUD! And I mean PAINFULLY LOUD! I was experiencing some sound distortion as I explained before - basically sounds like the noise your phone makes when someone talks too loudly on speaker phone. Walking into work, all I could think was "Uh Oh... I think I may have turned up my devise too soon. Woopsy!" I decided to troop through the rest of the day to see what it would be like.
I had a one-on-one meeting in the morning and, for some reason, had SUCH a difficult time hearing and understanding. Even before my implant, I, for some odd reason, had a difficult time communicating with this colleague of mine. I wonder if people that used to be hard for me to understand will always be hard for me to understand? I sure hope not!
The rest of my afternoon consisted of reviewing and editing a report, so not much other interaction to report at work today. I did receive my first phone call at work since my activation and OH MY F-ING GOD. MY RINGER IS SO LOUD! I mean I jumped like 3 feet in the air and kicked the back of my desk (I even have a scrape on the top of my foot to prove it!). My poor co-workers and office neighbors! What a commotion! The sound of my phone ringing has never bothered me before or startled me like this. I couldn’t believe my ears. The phone rang once and that was all I needed to hear, so without thinking I picked up the phone. I must note that I very rarely answer the phone and this was my first time on the phone at work since my activation. I said “Hello”. Unintelligible noises blasted from the ear piece of the phone and I quickly removed the phone from my ear. I was scrambling to turn my phone amplifier down, which was cranked all the way up. Still… the sound was so uncomfortable I couldn’t understand what was being said. It sounded like every single instrument was playing in the symphony of my colleagues voice. I again scrambled to turn the volume down on the actual receiver. Better, but still uncomfortable. I told my colleague I was having a phone issue and asked if we could chat in person instead.
When I returned to my office, I removed my phone amplifier and tested the sound again. Ahh! Much better. I felt two things at this moment:
The rest of my afternoon consisted of reviewing and editing a report, so not much other interaction to report at work today. I did receive my first phone call at work since my activation and OH MY F-ING GOD. MY RINGER IS SO LOUD! I mean I jumped like 3 feet in the air and kicked the back of my desk (I even have a scrape on the top of my foot to prove it!). My poor co-workers and office neighbors! What a commotion! The sound of my phone ringing has never bothered me before or startled me like this. I couldn’t believe my ears. The phone rang once and that was all I needed to hear, so without thinking I picked up the phone. I must note that I very rarely answer the phone and this was my first time on the phone at work since my activation. I said “Hello”. Unintelligible noises blasted from the ear piece of the phone and I quickly removed the phone from my ear. I was scrambling to turn my phone amplifier down, which was cranked all the way up. Still… the sound was so uncomfortable I couldn’t understand what was being said. It sounded like every single instrument was playing in the symphony of my colleagues voice. I again scrambled to turn the volume down on the actual receiver. Better, but still uncomfortable. I told my colleague I was having a phone issue and asked if we could chat in person instead.
When I returned to my office, I removed my phone amplifier and tested the sound again. Ahh! Much better. I felt two things at this moment:
- Excitement that I could say goodbye to Mr. Amplifier FOR GOOD!!
- Amazement with how poor my hearing was before and how much amplification I needed to be able to have a conversation and hear someone.
When I got home, Fras was playing with Rufus and his squeaky Kong toy. This NEVER bothered me before, but today it was unbearably loud. With the accumulation of "loud" events today - hair dryer, downtown traffic, phone ringing at work, squeaky toy - I decided to email the Envoy Technician to get her take on the situation. She quickly replied and let me know that I can turn up the devise as I feel comfortable, but no sound should be painful, or at least constantly painful. She said it was possible that these noises were "too loud" because I increased the volume before my brain was ready. So, I turned it down again (to B2 – which I think is the same as A5). I had also asked the Envoy Technician if hearing loud noises would damage my "natural" hearing and her response made me 100 times more confident in the Esteem Devise. Direct quote from her email:
“Esteem has a safety feature such that no sound will be delivered to her ear that could cause damage. For example, if someone walks in the room and shoots a gun, the Esteem will only deliver the sound that wont damage her hearing.”
Loud noises would damage the "normal" ear but not mine!
“Esteem has a safety feature such that no sound will be delivered to her ear that could cause damage. For example, if someone walks in the room and shoots a gun, the Esteem will only deliver the sound that wont damage her hearing.”
Loud noises would damage the "normal" ear but not mine!
We greeted the trick or treaters as they arrived and had 6 or 7 groups tonight! Much better than the 1 we got two years ago (when we didn’t have candy) and the no shows last year (when I actually did have LOTS of candy). I just soaked up every minute of it and let the kiddies take lots of candy. This was my second interaction with children and ohh I forgot how much I LOVE THEM! I am still not completely comfortable like I used to be in interacting and communicating with them, and I still cannot understand a lot of what they are saying but tonight made me so happy.
When I turned off the tv and got ready for bed, I realized that my TV makes this high pitch “uomp-woomp” sound when it is turned off. Oh the sounds just continues to shock and amaze me!
No comments:
Post a Comment