by Rebecca J on 2012-10-24
We just got home from my implant activation. I will write more later, but here are initial impressions. Everything sounds like a bell with a ton of reverberation. My grandma had a Wurlitzer organ that we played with all the time, and it had different buttons to change the reverb. Being the really annoying kids that we were, we always turned the reverb level as high as we could. Thatʼs what Iʼm hearing right now.
Voices sound like low-toned bells. I could hear the audiologistʼs voice, but soft-spoken William is still hard to hear. Every other noise that I hear sounds like a bell: footsteps, typing on my keyboard, William turning the key in the ignition, the garage door. Hereʼs another way to think of it: a microphone thatʼs turned up too high. Just before the feedback starts, the speakerʼs voice sounds whiny and words are not necessarily intelligible.
The volume is turned way down on my processor, so I will start listening at a level thatʼs comfortable and then turn it up incrementally. I can still wear my left hearing aid, which will be very helpful while Iʼm figuring out how this wonderful world really sounds. And thatʼs how Day One goes.
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