Carla B - Awareness Network Volunteer

I got activated this morning!! Many thanks to Ally for what to expect because that is pretty much what happened. After setting the low and high tones for each cochlear implant CI, they turned on both and it was an earful. Loud horrible clanging of cymbals & bells along with screeching and other craziness!! Both audiologists and my husband Kevin kept asking me, "Can you hear us?", I'm like, NO, all this craziness is all I can hear but after 10 minutes, I realized that the loud echoing bells were their voices. I couldn't hear myself yet but after 30 minutes I could hear the voices of all three of them but they all sounded like cartoon voices, very high pitched to me but I could distinguish between the three of them so that was great! I even heard the dial tone on their phone. We walked out of there and I told Kevin I needed to use the restroom and now that was amazing! I heard my zipper, the roll that the toilet paper was on, the toilet paper "crinkling", the water running...Later on I heard shoes squeaking on the phone and people's voices.  At lunch time, Kevin said he noticed that I wasn't making as much noise while eating. I told him I was too loud so I was trying to be quiet while eating!!  (I must have been a noisy chewer!! LOL)

Then I had to attend a celebration party after a funeral for my 101 year old great-uncle and that was way too much for me. There was about at least 50-60 people packed in the house and I really couldn't understand any voices or anyone, just a lot of sounds and it was overwhelming. I even tried the Noise Program with the Auto-Sensitivity (My Program 2) and that did help lower the volume some but still no understanding) We were only there for an hour. I was so relieved when we left.

In the car, Kevin turned on some music and I was amazed! The song was turned on a little lower so that we could still have conversation and I was amazed that I could hear and talk to Kevin and yet still hear the music at a lower level that wasn't distracting or interferring with speech, like my old hearing aids did. The hearing aids basically boosted everything at the same level so people's voices would try to compete with the music and everything would be at the same level.  I could hear the instruments in the song, the high-hats, the cymbals, the snare, the bass drum and I was so impressed that I could even hear that only 4 hours after activation!! The singer was still echoing and weird, like everyone's voices.

Well it's the end of the day at 9pm after being activated at 10 am and I'm very very tired!  I've been very tired since 6pm after being out all day listening to everything! In a way, I'm glad to take these processors off shortly here before bed because my ears and brain need a rest! LOL

I'll write more later... It was a good day I think...