My First Sounds....

On Monday, August 27th, my first sounds were......BEEP, BEEP, BLIP, SCREECH, DING, DING, DING!!!! For every word or sound spoken that is all I heard!! I was not expecting this at all! I thought that I was able to hear before, I would hear some sort of voice, but instead, it was all bells and whistles all day long!! You can imagine my disappointment and shock that these sounds were my first! I did not take this first day very well. As a matter of fact, I went into great depression that night, I REALLY wanted to hear my kid's voice, if not exactly just something of their voice-but no, nothing but bells came out of their mouths when speaking to me.

In all fairness, I was warned by my Surgeon to not expect much. He said that with me being "deaf" all my life, my brain will not be used to these sounds! I told him that I had hearing aids all my life and I have heard sounds before! He said with a hearing aid, all the sounds come at you at once and hearing aids just increase as best at they can of what is around you. Cochlear Implants, takes the sound directly where it needs to go through-the cochlear as natural as possible. He told me it will be normal to hear these bells and whistles, my brain is re-wiring itself creating new pathways to understand these new sounds (our brain is pretty amazing-as my daughter said-"God is a genius for making our brain that way!!")  He said this is all a process. I must do my therapy on the computer for one hour each day and I start at the lowest setting right now and work my way up to the hearing that my ears are allowing me to hear-which I will show you where I am at on the audiogram at the end!

But let me explain better what is going on here. When I got my new hearing aids in college, a switch from analog hearing aid to a digital hearing aid, it was a very overwhelming experience to hear things differently. So if one were to clap their hands in front of me, I would hear that sound but it would be a different tone and I could hear that CLAP CLAP and be overwhelmed by the new sound I could hear of the clapping. With a cochlear implant, since my brain doesn't understand these new sounds, when the kids were clapping a couple of days ago, I heard BEEP BEEP BEEP! My brain is trying to comprehend the sound. It wasn't until day four I actually heard the CLAP CLAP and no more bells! Now you understand this process? Imagine having to do that kind of thing for EVERY sound EVERY word spoken! Whew! This week has been rough, busy slowly I have been adjusting and after all the tears and frustration, on day five, I can proudly say that I am accepting each sound that switches from BEEP to the actual sound as a gift from God! 

I am switching my attitude in the mornings, from "I am dreading putting that thing on me!" to "What sound am I going to hear today?!" But I tell ya, some days it is so overwhelming, I can only turn my implants on for 3 hour and that is all I can take! Just remember, I am homeschooling, so do you know how many sounds happen with two kids, a baby, and a dog?! (laughing) They are all strengthening my ear skills for sure! 

So what can I hear now? I am still hearing beeping and screeches and bells for sounds around me that I am not sure what they are, but here are some sounds that I have been able to enjoy this week-the FIRST week!

I can hear my baby talk-dadada, lalala and a little of her laughter!! 
My kids voices no longer sound like bells but their voices-it sounds robotic right now and so I affectionately call them my little robots!
I can hear hubby's voice completely-robotic too!
I can hear my footsteps as I go up the stairs.
I can hear the clicking of the keyboard as I type this.
I can hear my voice-robot again!
My dog's bark sounds sharper and strong.
Today I was able to hear the wind outside!
NEW SOUNDS: I have never heard my cell phone ring! OH MY GOODNESS!! / I never knew how sharp a dripping faucet sounds in my kitchen-Now I am going to get that fixed for sure!!

These sounds are all muffled and I can comprehend them: I can't hear my baby crying (probably a good thing right now!), I can't hear music, I can't hear the tv, I can't hear dishwasher or washing machine-again all these sounds are either muffled or beeping. 

Sounds I cannot STAND to hear: the washing machine, water from the faucet, opening any chips/cracker bag-the crumbling makes my skin crawl! These sounds SCREECH in my ears-I am sure my audiologist can help lower these sounds for me. 

Whew, what a first week for me! I get very overwhelmed in public so I am sorta bummed that worship and soccer games will be a challenge and may be put on  hold for me right now. But like my hubby said, this is just my first week, just imagine where I will be in just one month! So onward goes my adventure of discovering God's world around me!

I took a hearing test right after activating my implants and guess where I can hear (but right now they are starting me at the lowest setting working me up to this level) just like YOU!!! Check my audiogram below: By the way the black line is where a normal person-you can hear, the red is where I am at with my implants turned on, Green is where I have been all my life with hearing aids and orange is where I became completely deaf just one year ago: What do you think??!