MUSIC :)

Hello friends and family,

Last week, my hearing aid was not working well and I could not use it. This was the first time since I got implanted that I had to experience hearing unilaterally (one-sided). It was an eye-opening experience because it made me realize how much auditory benefit my hearing aid gave me and that I do not only rely on hearing through the implant. It was a frustrating few days of not hearing on both sides. I became a little crabby and it made me terribly tired because I had to focus harder on listening. So, I was thrilled to get my hearing aid back and have it reprogrammed. It is actually better than before, I do not notice that one side is more dull and quieter. My personal audiologist said it is probably how my brain is functioning and picking up new sounds with the implant that it may influence how I hear with my left ear.

Often I am asked about how the cochlear implant helps me. Initially, I thought that the implant would fix my hearing and bring it to perfect hearing. The implant is like a very powerful hearing aid. I am still a little hard of hearing especially in situations where many people are talking at once and there is a lot of background noise. However, I do hear much better than I ever had. This morning, I caught myself focusing on the words in the songs on the radio. I usually listen to the beat and most of time cannot make out the words. It was kind of a fun experience to catch myself singing along and figuring out the lyrics. One thing I realized was that lyrics are not sung in full sentences and there is a lot of repetition. There was a song that I used to like, but when I figured out the words, I was like "that's kind of cheesy" and really don't care to hear it again, ha.

I hope this finds you well!
K

Still Small Improvements Here and There :)

Hello everyone,

It has been a long time since I have posted a blog. Things are still going well. I had another mapping appointment on January 5th. It went well, I was able to get a boost in volume and now have room to grow with the volume until my next appointment in July. My audiologist tested me again in the sound booth. She was amazed how much I significantly improved with my speech understanding in noisy environments. At my last mapping appointment, it showed that my hearing aid helped in noisy environments, so at the current appointment I reached that level with cochlear implant only and then improved past that point with both the hearing aid and implant. I appreciate that I do have the hearing aid, even though sounds can seem dull on that side. Just to think that used to be my better ear!

I discovered another new sound the other day. I was pouring Diet Coke into a glass of ice and I heard the loud fizzling sound! At first I looked around confused at what that noise could be coming from, then I saw the glass in front of me. I poured more pop and sure enough it was coming from the glass. I could not believe how loud it was!

Recently, I had a dentist appointment and had not been into the dentist since right before my implant surgery. I was able to clearly hear and understand the dentist with the mask covering her lips. It felt weird to talk this way when most of my life, my dentist have taken off their mask to talk with me. Along the same lines, I went to my chiropractor on Monday and when I was faced down on the table. I was able to carry a conversation while getting adjusted. One more situation...on a weekly basis my teaching team meets with the Reading Specialist to go through a manual to learn new strategies. Normally, I would have to look up at the speaker while she talked and not be able to follow along in the book. I have been able to look at the book and still hear what she is saying without looking at her. Sometimes I forget how much I used to struggle in situations like these, trying to read lips to get information. What I am finding now is that I am losing my skill of reading lips, so that has been hard at times, but I just learn to adjust like I do with everything else.

So small improvements still happening here and there.

Thanks for reading!

Kristine

Clucking...

I have been collecting little moments of new sounds on post-its and when I feel like I have enough to share, I write a blog. These experiences are all very random, but each new sound is just as important and exciting as the first.

For a Halloween get together, I went to my friend Sarah and Xavier Arana's house. Most of the people at the house were profoundly deaf except for Sarah's brother and father. I was in the kitchen on the first floor talking with my friend Lynn when I kept hearing a distracting whirring sound. It was constant and I could not figure it out! After ten minutes, I could not take it anymore, ha. I went into the living room to ask Sarah's brother and father if they heard the same noise. Sarah's brother walked around the kitchen, then walked downstairs to the basement in the playroom to discover one of the kids left on a fishing game. I was surprised that I could hear something that was so far away.

Another situation was at work, my teaching team is still not used to how much I can hear. A custodian just left the portable and my co-worker Sharon ran to the door to yell after him. She was facing away from me about 15 feet at the door. She had a few more requests that she forgotten to tell him when he was in the portable. When Sharon finished and shut the door, she turned to me and started tell me what she yelling about, but I actually heard the whole conversation :).

Last weekend, I went to a hobby farm. The area is beautiful, it reminded me a little of Door County, WI. I walked out to the chicken coop to see if they had laid any eggs.  It was my first time in one of these. I did not find eggs, but I heard the clucking of chickens for the first time.  After that I saw sheep and I finally heard bleating ba ba noises!  It was really cool being so close to nature.  Later that day, I heard a loud lapping sound coming from the other room. It was a dog licking up the water from the bowl.  I guess she is a loud drinker!

One last story, I was asked to go outside to see if I could hear the calls of migrating of the Canadian geese.  At first I could not hear them, however it had started snowing.  The snow was coming down in small round pellets.  I could hear them hitting my jacket and things around me. It was fascinating to hear snow for the first time.  Then, another huge flock of geese were flying near us and I thought to turn my sensitivity on my implant to the highest number of 20, (normal people hear at a 10) to see if I could pick up some of the calls.  Sure enough, I was able to pick up the high pitch honking noise of many geese nearby.  

Thanks for reading!  

Leaves :)

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I reported. I have a few new sounds to report! My brother and sister in law was in town a few weeks ago with my twin nieces and nephew. As you can see I have posted my first photo of my cochlear implant with my brother's. Now we look a little more alike :).

The first thing we did when they arrived was drive in the minivan to a park near by. I was sitting in the front seat giving directions, which is hilarious because I am TERRIBLE at directions! Anyways, my twin nieces and nephew LOVE to talk and they were very excited about heading to the park. They started asking a lot of questions and usually I have to turn around to face them to understand what they are saying. For the first time, I was able to look straight ahead and answer their questions. This was when my family noticed how well I was hearing!

Other new sounds... I was drinking out of a fruit box (yes, I still like fruit boxes just like a kid) and I heard an unusual sound, then I figured out that it was me sucking the juice out of the box. It is loud! Last night, I heard the click of the buttons when pressing the remote to change the channels. A little annoying!

The sounds I enjoyed the most happened last week when I was on a walk. It was a gorgeous fall day and the leaves were starting to fall on the ground and there was a little breeze. As I was walking, I heard a scraping noise and I looked around to see if I could figure it out. Sure enough, I saw a dried up leaf moving across the pavement. It was so bizarre that something so small could make such a loud noise.

Afterwards, I stomped through the leaves and it made such a loud crunching noise. It sounded so crisp! Then, I sat on a bench in the middle of the park and heard the leaves rustling in the trees! That was my favorite of all since the visual audiogram (a chart that shows hearing loss) that I have used with my students had a visual image of "leaves rustling" to indicate what a high frequency sounds like. I have always wondered what rustling leaves would sound like, it brought tears to my eyes when I finally heard it. I can't wait to hear the sounds of winter!

My latest sound discovery happened today when I was at work. I was in the office with my other co-worker and friend, Amy. She is the other member of the team with a hearing loss. Amy has a mild to severe high frequency hearing loss and wears hearing aids. Most of the time, she hears much better than I do, but today I was able to hear something she couldn't. This was a little funny. I think I have bionic hearing now! For the past month, I have heard an unusual tap sound occurring almost every second. I have repeatedly asked staff what it was and they could not identify the sound. Today I finally figured it out! It was the second hand on the wall clock!

Third Mapping Appointment on September 19th

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since I have blogged on here. The beginning of the school year is always a crazy time of year. The last time I blogged on here was the day before school started. At that time, I mentioned that sounds were becoming more natural and that there were no new sounds to be learned. Well, I was in for a treat! Different environments most definitely bring different sounds! My first week back was spent getting used to all the new sounds in my office which is in a portable. I appreciate the patience of my co-workers as they tried to identify all the nonsense sounds that I was hearing!

I work with eight other people and the first week is usually crazy getting inservice materials ready for our new students. Just to name a few things I heard...eight other people clacking on their keyboards at once, the dings of the incoming mail on our work e-mail, various cell phone rings and beeps, shuffling of a lot of paper, tons of stapling, computers whirring, refrigerator and electronical equipment humming in the corner, various voices talking around me, the leaf blower outside of the portable, crinkling of many snacks, the microwave running...I was sooooo exhausted by the end of the day that whole week! Talk about overload! I had to give my ears a break, so I took out my hearing aids often.

A month has passed since my first week back at work. Things seem to be much easier. I am understanding new staff and my students' voices a lot better. I am not constantly straining to hear like I was before. On Monday, I gave an inservice to a 2nd grade classroom. It was funny to be able to explain the cochlear implant by showing my head and taking off the speech processor. Usually I had a mock implant or photos of someone with an implant. The students were very fascinated with the magnet sticking to my head.

Another thing others have noticed is my speech. According to others my speech seemed to have improved greatly over the past month. My cochlear implant audiologist noticed this the most. She was amazed of how different the voice was in a month. Other friends have described my voice as being more clear and articulate. I guess I am hearing myself a little bit better these days, ha.

Anyways, on September 19th, I headed back down to Mayo to have my third mapping appointment. It was similar to first two of identifying sounds and making sure they are comfortable for me. Then, she adjusted my programs and made suggested new things to try. She said the quality of my hearing will continue to improve with the new map.

Lastly and the most important part of the visit was getting tested with my cochlear implant. I have posted my audiogram above. I scored within normal ranges with the implant! It was weird to see normal levels on my audiogram! Very exciting! It didn't hit me that I have been doing so well hearing until I did this test.

Then she tested me by giving me a variety of words with different voices. I recognized 68% of the words and 85% of the phonemes. My sentence recognition with the implant only was at 95%!! I scored a 58% when I first qualified for the implant, so this is a huge change. My tests also showed that I demonstrated significantly better performance with the cochlear implant and hearing aid in the noisy condition only. Overall, my implant is doing most of the work. My next mapping appointment will be in January 2009.

After my mapping appointment, I met with my cochlear implant surgeon and he said he was pleased with the progress I made and impressed as well. My scar looks good and there are no concerns.

This Friday, my brother Scotty, sister-in-law Tracy as well as my favorite little kids in the world are coming to visit! They will be the first family members to see me with the implant. It will be neat to see if they can tell a difference from before. Then following weekend, I will be in Atlanta visiting my other brother David with my parents. I am so looking forward to spending quality time with my family. Thanks for reading!

The world is getting a lot less noisy :)

I am still working on uploading the videos from when I was first activated. It does not seem to be working for some reason. I will keep trying! Thanks for your continued support! The world has become a lot less noisy! I am becoming used to hearing sounds in my environment. It is not as overwhelming as it has been. The fans have definitely toned down :). Sounds seem much more natural and sometimes it is hard for me to remember if I heard a certain sound before or if it is new for me.

On Friday night I was playing Pictionary with nine other friends who are hearing. A lot of talking was happening at once especially during "All Play"! That night I asked Sarah if she noticed if I was hearing a little better than before. She said it seems like it a little but it was hard to know because it was a noisy game! My friend Ben later told Sarah that he noticed stutle differences. He noticed that I did not say "what" as often as before or do the frequent nodding acting like I heard it (I know I am terrible!). I felt less tired and more with it.

Today, I was at Sarah's house getting ready to go on a walk. I said I had to use the bathroom quick before we went on our walk. As I closed the bathroom door, I heard clear as day, "Oh Kristine". I thought, she wants my attention, so I opened the door then walked out. I looked at her, thought for a second, and said, "could I have heard that before?". She said no and she was surprised I heard it too! It was a funny experience, I am hearing through walls! Sometimes wonder if I have bionic hearing!

Then, we went on our walk for an hour. I have gone on numerous walks with her before. Usually I ended up getting a stiff neck from turning my head to read her lips while walking at the same time. So, when we walked today, I noticed I did not need to look at her when walking. I heard everything she said while looking straight ahead. This did not feel natural for me, ha. I was not sure what was normal, so I asked her, "people who do hear normally, do they look straight ahead while walking with someone?" It was a funny experience and I was able to see more on my walk!

Every Day is a New Day!

I think I am still in shock or it has not hit me that I can actually hear fairly well with my right ear. I sometimes think it is a temporary thing and not forever. That I am trying out a new hearing aid or something. It continues to be a bizarre experience of hearing sounds that a normal person would hear. I always thought I could hear very well with the support of my hearing aids. I guess I thought the hearing aids gave me normal hearing, but actually it brought my levels up to a conversational level. At this level I did not hear all those soft and high pitch sounds that actually alert you of what is going on in the environment.

Everyday is a new day and I continue to discover new sounds and new ways of doing things. Today, I was in one of my bathrooms curling my hair and my implant went flying onto the metal of my curling iron! I thought this was hilarious! So, I now know to not curl the hair with the implant on! Then when I was in the bathroom, I heard a buzz from the other bathroom which let me know that the dryer completed it's cycle. Then, I was in the kitchen and I heard the same buzz three times which meant the washer was done. Crazy!

Tonight, I had the opportunity to go back to my old part time job of being an advocate for a teenager who has Autism. I worked at the Jewish Community Center and the camp for three years. This camp was in Minneapolis and it was Art Fest week. This was my first time being around many teenagers (about 100!) with the implant on. The noise did not bother me too much and I was able to understand most of the teenagers when they talked to me.

One interesting discovery was hearing my camper talking to himself and making noises while walking behind me. I guess he must have always done this in the past and now I actually hear it. It brought a smile to my face, I was able to understand his behaviors a little more. Then, we walked out to the outdoor pool. From across the pool, I heard someone calling my name. It was my old supervisor and he along with myself was surprised I actually heard it!

After swimming, all the campers gathered around the campfire to sing songs. The first song was the Hebrew version of Happy Birthday. It was Israel's 60th birthday this year as a country. I have heard this song numerous times during my three years at Camp Butwin, but I truly understood the words. Tonight, I was able to sing along :). There were many other Jewish songs that I never could grasp in the past, but I felt like I discovered the Hebrew language for the first time tonight! I was actually able to sing along! On top of that I was able to hear people around me singing the songs which never happens. It always sounded garbled and this experience allowed me to feel included.

One of my biggest fears of getting the cochlear implant was losing my identity as someone in the deaf world. In the past week, I have found that nothing has changed. I am still going about life the same way I have in the past, hanging out with friends who are hearing and deaf. My friends are my friends no matter what with the implant or not. I feel very fortunate and this whole process made me realize how lucky I truly am with the never-ending support of friends. Thank you!