Being a hearing ninja

Greetings all! 

Sorry for my long hiatus in updates - the implant is still working (wonderfully so) and I have not had a breakdown after the shock of going back to work. I've now moved jobs to Obstetrics and Gynaecology (as another part of my GP training) and am trying to fill all the woeful gaps in my knowledge. Definitely need to work on my upper body strength so I am a bit better at assisting Caesarean sections; my limp noodle arms are pretty much useless at holding a retractor for longer than 30 seconds. I am also practising not fainting whenever I see a cervix get sliced into.  I would like to point out however that even in the middle of a vasovagal attack I was still able to hear the theatre nurse saying, "It's the heat of the lights you see..." while I had my head between my knees! Nearly passed out again from the surprise. 

Have also been home to Nottingham for a lovely relaxing weekend of waddling around eating. 

I had a retuning with Ruth a few weeks ago, which was fairly straightforward; she did the usual beep test and rejiggled the inputs accordingly. As we're getting closer to a final map she has only given me 2 programmes to go away with. Writing this has reminded me that I should try moving up to the second one ... goodness me that's loud! It might actually be too loud as the keys clacking are giving me lots of little jolts ... back down again for a bit...

We also did another PTA/audiogram which was pretty good, though the improvement isn't as drastic as the last one. I had been hoping to get into the ideal range on this appointment so I was secretly a tiny bit disappointed. I told Sandra about this when I saw her the week after, and she very wisely pointed out that great audiogram results don't always translate into great "real world" results. She thinks I'm doing far better than she would expect of someone with my hearing loss (i.e. severely gimpy ears since birth). Am v. smug at this. She tried me with some listening exercises which were a bit like a McCormick Toy Test for grown-ups - "put the teapot on the table". We also did a bit of "guess the f or v" (fat/vat) which is viendishly hard. 

I can follow nearly all (95%?) of Harry Potter now, with my eyes closed (when using both CI and hearing aid). Last night David tried reading out random sentences from HP, and with the CI on I got them all! If I slipped the CI off I got a wash of sound but was only able to pick out the odd word. With the CI back on the sound all crystallised into words in the most beautiful way. 

It's difficult to describe how my CI and hearing aid mesh together - I can tell I'm getting different input from both ears, but they don't jar at all. If I try to describe it using an arty farty visual metaphor, it's as though the CI sound is the line drawing and the acoustic sound from the HA is the colour wash - together they give a balanced picture, but without the CI "line" you wouldn't be able to tell what the picture was. (this is the best example I can find in a hasty google search)

The other way I think of it is as though the CI is "top half" sound and the HA is "bottom half" sound, though that's not really as accurate because the CI actually gives a great range across all the frequencies. the ones I notice the most are the new, higher frequencies.

This weekend we popped up to the Taylors' to say hello and were unsuspectingly coerced into various wedding prep duties. One of these was painting signs with Caroline - we were painting side by side but still chattering away, and Caroline was completely flabbergasted when I replied to all her questions without looking at her! I could also hear all of baby Evelyn's adorable squeaks of pyromaniac joy! HURRAY I'M A HEARING NINJA.

I must point out that on some occasions I am definitely not a ninja - it's still difficult to follow what new people are saying, in noisy environments - mumbly consultants in theatre staff rooms, for example. However, whenever I feel myself getting dispirited about this all I have to do is lift the implant off for a moment and remind myself how I used to manage with some astoundingly rubbish hearing, and how lucky I am to have this new and wonderful technology making it all a lot easier than before.

Phone calls! OMG PHONE CALLS. I've never been able to use the phone, ever. My friend Jeanette had a go with the phone the day after her switch on (she could understand speech straightaway but I still think she was very brave!!) and had her confidence a bit knocked because she found it really difficult. Now however she is a phone-using pro. Being a complete pansy in the first place I hadn't even thought about phones until Sandra asked if I'd tried calling anyone. She thinks I am at the stage now where I might be able to manage it, so I've started calling David when I finish work, ostensibly for "rehab" but really to warn him to get dinner ready for his hangry wife. I find it quite hard with just the CI ear, so I tend to use speakerphone when in the car, just so I can use both ears.* 

* David here: be wary of using speakerphone on your phone! It may not be obvious to the HI, but mobiles do some strange things in speakerphone mode to prevent feedback loops - when the phone emits the other person's voice, it has to figure out whether to mute the microphone to stop the sound going back to the speaker. All-in-all I think it can only add confusion to an already alien experience. While we are still trying to figure out the best way to do phone calls, the feeling is to keep it slow, ask simple questions, give simple answers etc.

garden flowers

"Why must I wear this??"

I also managed to understand Janet when she called yesterday and asked if I would like to go for a run, though I now wish that I had feigned incomprehension and put the phone down, because running hurts.

On my next follow up with Ruth we will be repeating my BKB sentence testing - watch this space!

In other news the garden and Hotbin appear to be coping without my fulltime input, and Rhubarb is as cute (and long-suffering) as ever.