I’m at yet another intersection in this CI journey. Sometimes I can go thousands of miles on the same road without any curves, bumps, hills, or stop signs. Sometimes I reach an intersection and I’m not sure which direction I will go in next. Sometimes there are tons of bumps, hills, and curves.
Sometimes things seem to get worse with discriminating sounds and auditory rehab. I’ve learned that I usually need to just ride this out because things seem to get much better a few days afterward. It’s like I have to take some steps back before I can go forward. I’m not sure how much of it has to do with the brain figuring out how to process sounds or the mapping itself. I think this time it’s both. I do have a mapping appointment next week so hopefully that will help a bit.
Sounds are always distorted to me but they’ve became more and more distorted lately. At the same time I have been able to sort through layers of sounds a bit better. I think my brain is not sure it’s supposed to do with the auditory information it’s receiving.
Anyways, just because I said I would record some of my personal experiences as I go for myself.
–I was stopped at a red light waiting to turn left and I also had music on. At some point I said to myself “Huh? That beat wasn’t there in that song before. Wait a sec, that’s not even a music beat type of sound.” It took me a minute to realize that I was hearing the turn signal. This may not sound like a wow kind of event to many people. To me, it was wow because I was able to peel apart the layers and tell which sounds were the car, outside noises, turn signal, and music.
–I visited a friend in Oklahoma for her baby’s first birthday (cutest baby ever!). It was interesting to watch how the baby reacted to sounds. She kind of reacted in the same way I do which is…hear something–>look confused—>look around—>find the source of sound–>light bulb moment. She’s about 9 months ahead of me in terms of “hearing.” 😉 I didn’t realize how much babies vocalized!! It was really cute.
–After eating dinner at a friend’s house in Oklahoma the baby was crawling all around the kitchen. At some point I heard something but couldn’t see the baby. I asked where the baby was and she was nearby another friend. I knew what I was hearing was not baby sounds…it was something like a sack being rustled or something being shaken. I ignored it because I’m so used to being “wrong” when I think I hear something. A couple of minutes later it was discovered the baby had pulled out a bag of crackers from a sack and had smashed it to pieces.
–I do wear my CI every once in a while when I go to the neighborhood pool because I’m curious about the sounds. One thing that has thrown me off is that some sounds aren’t as loud as they were with hearing aids (e.g. screaming, yelling, etc.). The pool isn’t as loud as I expected it to be. With hearing aids it was usually just this one constant sound. With the CI I can tell there are words being said but have no clue what they are.
Just a few examples of how I’m sorting through sounds. I do hope my brain starts to cooperate with me again soon or that the mapping next week will help with auditory rehab. It is frustrating whenever I reach an intersection and I feel like I’m just sitting there.
In the mean time I need to go and get some things done before meeting up with friends for some tennis with (it’s been 11 years since I’ve played tennis…shld be interesting!).
Life Is About Creating Yourself 