August 30th,
I wanted to write a quick note before I forget. USE FORWARD FOCUS! I was in a workshop for teachers today. There was mainly one speaker. I decided to use the FORWARD FOCUS app on my nucleus 7 smart app on my iphone. It is under the program tab. It works so well!!! It brings the speaker's voice to my cochlear implants. I heard her with no problem at all. I will be definitely using this feature in future meetings.
The other tidbit I wanted to share was this. A fellow teacher told me my speech was much clearer, more enunciated. It was not that my speech was bad before but she noticed that I am enunciating clearer speech. I do not notice this. However, it was funny that she said that because a friend of mine got her second cochlear implant a year ago. Her husband had said the same thing about her. He noticed her speech was much clearer.
It will be interesting to see what other people say and notice.
Sounds are still echoey and it is taking my brain a min or two to process sounds. My left one didn't realize that the noise was the sound of my printer printing paper!
'Til next time,
Deirge
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Tuesday, August 28, 2018
The Weekend
Saturday, August 25th, 2018
I went to dinner with a couple of friends and we were going to see a play called, Silent No More at the Goodman Theatre. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. It was so inspiring and I found that I could relate to so many of the panelists. It is a collection of inspiring life stories by individuals with hearing loss.
Two things I want to mention: my friends and I were walking down to the Goodman Theatre on a beautiful day and I was in the middle of my two friends and I realized wow!! I realized how great it was that I could hear from both sides of my ears. It has always been a struggle when someone is on my left ear and I could not hear them. Now I can!
The second thing I want to say is that I am so glad that I attended Silent No More. It reminded me of own journey with my first cochlear implant and the panelists stories inspired me to be patient and to be strong once more. Attending events like this reminds me that I am not alone in my journey.
Sunday, August 26th, 2018
Nothing remarkable happened to me on this day.
However, I was watching TV at night-almost about to go to bed when my battery in my right ear died. I kept watching the TV with my left ear(the newly implanted one) for auditory experience. It sounded very echoey. I was getting frustrated and wanted so much to have the speech be more clearer. I can tell someone is speaking on the show and when someone is done speaking. I just have to remind myself that it will get better and the brain needs time to process sounds it has not heard in 38 years.
I will be going back to work Wednesday, August 29th . Teachers have meetings Wednesday to Friday. It will be interesting to see how I will hear in the meetings. I hope to use the new FORWARD FOCUS application on the iphone app. This will allow me to focus more on the speaker's voice and drown out the noises behind me.
I ll keep you posted!!
I went to dinner with a couple of friends and we were going to see a play called, Silent No More at the Goodman Theatre. If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it. It was so inspiring and I found that I could relate to so many of the panelists. It is a collection of inspiring life stories by individuals with hearing loss.
Two things I want to mention: my friends and I were walking down to the Goodman Theatre on a beautiful day and I was in the middle of my two friends and I realized wow!! I realized how great it was that I could hear from both sides of my ears. It has always been a struggle when someone is on my left ear and I could not hear them. Now I can!
The second thing I want to say is that I am so glad that I attended Silent No More. It reminded me of own journey with my first cochlear implant and the panelists stories inspired me to be patient and to be strong once more. Attending events like this reminds me that I am not alone in my journey.
Sunday, August 26th, 2018
Nothing remarkable happened to me on this day.
However, I was watching TV at night-almost about to go to bed when my battery in my right ear died. I kept watching the TV with my left ear(the newly implanted one) for auditory experience. It sounded very echoey. I was getting frustrated and wanted so much to have the speech be more clearer. I can tell someone is speaking on the show and when someone is done speaking. I just have to remind myself that it will get better and the brain needs time to process sounds it has not heard in 38 years.
I will be going back to work Wednesday, August 29th . Teachers have meetings Wednesday to Friday. It will be interesting to see how I will hear in the meetings. I hope to use the new FORWARD FOCUS application on the iphone app. This will allow me to focus more on the speaker's voice and drown out the noises behind me.
I ll keep you posted!!
Activation Day!
August 24th, 2018
This was a major day! I called activation day. Activation day is when my audiologist, who is a wonderful Audiologist with her own practice called, Chicago Hearing Care, turned on my new cochlear implant. It is the N7 made by Cochlear. My audiologist and friend, Marcel Luna, asked me to write a blog about my second cochlear implant journey. So this is my attempt at apprising people of how its going and not to be scared. During my audiology appointment, my audiologist had to turn my new cochlear implant (implanted in the left ear) off and left the right one on. I definitely noticed a difference! I am now wearing two N7s which are bluetooth. This means music on my phone and phone calls can be made straight to my cochlear implants. There is also a very cool app from Cochlear that you can download on your iphone. The app lets you control volume and lets you see battery levels. I will talk more about how I use the app in the days to come.
On this same day, I was meeting family at the Kerryman for dinner. We sat outside. It was a challenge to hear as anyone knows downtown, Chicago can be quite noisy with people honking and ambulance and police sirens. However, I took it as a learning experience. I did notice since my batteries were brand new and not fully charged, one of them died. I definitely noticed that I needed both of them to hear. One was not enough. That is a scary revelation to realize. Luckily , I still had my N6 with me and that helped me the rest of the night. One more thing, I used my gps on my phone to help me get to my spothero parking before dinner and the gps spoke directly to my cochlear implants. That was neat!! NO more putting on the phone clip.
I also got a pretty neat backpack from Cochlear and a tv streamer, extra batters and a aqua accessory! Also neat is the usb charging plugs for my batteries. You can charge your batteries anywhere you have a usb port so now I can charge one in the car!
This was a major day! I called activation day. Activation day is when my audiologist, who is a wonderful Audiologist with her own practice called, Chicago Hearing Care, turned on my new cochlear implant. It is the N7 made by Cochlear. My audiologist and friend, Marcel Luna, asked me to write a blog about my second cochlear implant journey. So this is my attempt at apprising people of how its going and not to be scared. During my audiology appointment, my audiologist had to turn my new cochlear implant (implanted in the left ear) off and left the right one on. I definitely noticed a difference! I am now wearing two N7s which are bluetooth. This means music on my phone and phone calls can be made straight to my cochlear implants. There is also a very cool app from Cochlear that you can download on your iphone. The app lets you control volume and lets you see battery levels. I will talk more about how I use the app in the days to come.
On this same day, I was meeting family at the Kerryman for dinner. We sat outside. It was a challenge to hear as anyone knows downtown, Chicago can be quite noisy with people honking and ambulance and police sirens. However, I took it as a learning experience. I did notice since my batteries were brand new and not fully charged, one of them died. I definitely noticed that I needed both of them to hear. One was not enough. That is a scary revelation to realize. Luckily , I still had my N6 with me and that helped me the rest of the night. One more thing, I used my gps on my phone to help me get to my spothero parking before dinner and the gps spoke directly to my cochlear implants. That was neat!! NO more putting on the phone clip.
I also got a pretty neat backpack from Cochlear and a tv streamer, extra batters and a aqua accessory! Also neat is the usb charging plugs for my batteries. You can charge your batteries anywhere you have a usb port so now I can charge one in the car!
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