Heard a Bird

Yesterday, I was off to the dump. No, not to toss out my collection of old hearing aids but to get rid of various bits of defunct computer equipment that have been piling up in my office.

This was also my first time driving since getting the CI. Usually, I have to turn my hearing aids down or even off while driving on the highway because the noise is so loud I can hardly hear myself think. I expected it to seem noisy in the car with all sort of rattles and squeaks.

But no, the CI hardly seems to notice the engine, road noise or wind noise. Instead, it picks up sounds like the turn indicators, the whoosh of the tires going through a puddle, the squeak of my boot against the clutch pedal. Much better. At one time, I could hear the turn indicators but it's been a few years since I've been able to hear them while the car is moving.

I tried listening to the radio - CBC Radio 2. It was evidently Vinyl Cafe. Now, I wouldn't say that I could understand it at all but I was able to distinctly pick out quite a few words. That's something.

I haven't heard any birds for a year or two now. And the last time I heard one, it was more of a click than a cheep or chirp. So I was interested to see if the CI would pick up birds. Not many birds around right now even though there were a bunch a few days ago. So I stood on the back steps waiting. Eventually, a lone sparrow turns up and starts pecking away at the bird feeder. But it's too busy scarfing down sunflowers seeds to chirp. After a while, it flies off into the neighbour's rose bush to digest. And then - cheep, cheep! YESSS!!

I'm noticing various other sounds around the house: the beep when you push the buttons on the oven is different from the beep that the microwave oven makes. Before, it all sounded the same - a sort of croak, if that.

What I hear in my left ear (hearing aid) sounds quite different from what I hear in my right ear (CI). At first, the two sides seemed somehow disconnected as if the sound was coming from two completely different sources. But already, after only 48 hours or so, the two sides are starting to sound a bit more connected or integrated.

Tomorrow, I'm back to work. I'm a bit nervous about that. Partly because I look a bit, well, different:I'm sure the bald patch over the ear will grow back in a while but right now it looks a bit naked.

There will be two and a half week's backlog of work to catch up on and lots of 'new' sounds and voices to get used to.