The Tufts NEMC team has been extremely attentive to my needs these past months. Dr Weiro Shao, my Cochlear Implant surgeon, checks up on me regularly and Bob Buchanan, my audiologist always replies to my emails in a timely fashion. I just went to Boston last Friday May 12th, 2006 for my fourth mapping session since activation day. Since day 1, I have learned that the world is quite an exciting place to live in!!
The frogs, I learned, actually sing tunes that cannot be confused with crickets, the rain is a beautiful sound hitting a skylight and I've since learned to use the phone, both mobile & desk versions regularly in my work and personal life using the Auria model with t-mic. I love trips to the ocean to hear the waves and I love answering the phone, playing games or listening to jokes now. Believe it or not, I can actually catch a punchline! Problems in phone use have decreased with time and things are clearer. I may encounter one repeat (if you are lucky) during a phone conversation.
While I have faced a lot of fear in answering phones these past months, I have been extremely open to the new challenges that have come with it in the workplace . First came an extreme wave of anxiety not knowing the difference between a male and female caller or even being able to decipher who I was really talking to. That has since been fixed through aggressive mapping measures and much support. Second came the ambivalence of taking any calls from people whom never announced themselves by name on "hello" and went into a 5 minute diatribe of what they needed before I would realize it wasn't some psycho calling. I was beginning to pass everyone off as a “telemarketer” and now I know what it means to be put “on hold” to the sound of annoying elevator music. Needless to say it’s all good and I've since learned how to handle myself appropriately in some rather interesting and tiny nuances that are often deemed "normal" to the rest of the world. I still experience some difficulties not knowing if it’s my phone ringing, or the nearby persons phone ringing, so I make a conscious effort to look at my phone for the appropriate signals. Another feature I have come to use often is caller ID. It is one I would prefer not to live without anymore. Cell phones are still much easier to use than desk phones but both are acceptable and I have found that not all phones work the same way and I have discovered a simple preference in sound from using one to another.
I take great pride and joy in listening to streaming radio of 94.9 WHOM on the web using the Auria BTE with Direct Connect and testing my abilities to understand what I am hearing by looking up lyrics. No, I do not do this all the time, but it is part of my "daily CI therapy". Turns out all this hard work is finally paying off and things get better everyday. I can hear newscasts quite easily now and never miss the weather report or the daily “killings” around the world. I’ve come to realize that there is far more bad news reported than good news reported. Has our world always been negative like this? It would be nice to hear something good for a change!
Watching TV has gotten easier. I still use closed captions but I can get along without them if I sit and concentrate. TV and the computer used to be a bigger part of my life as it was my gateway to learning and communication. Now it plays a relatively small role as the real world poses a greater experience than those on a “second hand” basis.
For the first 3-4 months post activation, I opted to accept aural habilitation therapy with a therapist ( Pat Slater) and she was absolutely wonderful. It took some time for me to adjust to her European accent. Accepting this therapy was due to my intense desire to use the phone in the workplace successfully. I spent some time listening to a couple of unabridged audio books while reading the book at the same time. I honestly can't say enough to adults out there willing to accept such aural habilitation help. While many other CI friends in my life have stated that it must be an embarassing concept to accept such help when it is often done for children alone, I have refused to accept less than to hear every possible sound or word that I can so I believe practice makes perfect even if it’s done with someone else. Life is just too short to waste!
The past 8 months altogether has given me the courage to ask, "Is this normal?"
