While my left ear is slowly waking up, my right ear has been
busier than ever. Three examples. Last week, when my mom was here, she
saw me negotiate two listening situations with ease. The first, the
drive-thru at McDonald's (don't judge.) I used to avoid drive-thrus
(besides for the obvious reason that fast food should be generally
avoided) because they were just too hard to hear. I mean, if I'm hungry
enough to go for fast food, then I'm going to be pretty mad if I get
home and find out that I ended up with a spicy chicken sandwich instead
of the original Chick-fil-a sandwich because I didn't hear my order read
back correctly at the drive thru.
I was driving, so I had to place the
order at the drive thru. Mom was poised with her listening ear
craned towards the open window, ready to jump in if needed just as she
has done in the past. (My mom has been doing this for a long time--she's
great.) And I ordered the food without having to ask the worker to
repeat himself. Mom didn't have to jump in at all. It was so easy.
Afterward, Mom and I were talking about it, and she said, "That guy was a
low-talker. I had a hard time hearing what he said." And I said,
"Really? He sounded pretty clear to me." And then we looked at each
other and smiled, each of us recognizing a small but remarkable
milestone in my progress.
Next, I phoned in a take-out
order for dinner on the same day. (I should pause here and say that we
do NOT usually eat out this much. I promise.) I called a local bakery,
which must not get many take-out orders, because the phone rang forever
before someone answered it. (Mom was sitting at the table next to me,
ready to take the phone from me if the conversation started to go
south.) I told the woman who answered that I wanted to place a take-out
order, and I heard her mutter under her breath, "'kay, let me get a
pen." I heard her mutter. That's a big deal for me. And then I
ordered our dinner without any glitches at all. After I hung up, Mom
said, "Well done, Rebecca!" and we smiled again at another small but
remarkable milestone.
Last example. My musical ear is
coming back, finally. A few weeks ago, I was in a cardio class at the
YMCA, and all of a sudden, I realized that one of the songs being played
was the Village People's YMCA! (Haha, right?) It was so surprising I
couldn't pay attention to the instructor any more--I was just listening
to the music that I recognized suddenly. Also, I recognized the tune of
the prelude organ music at church on Sunday, as well as the tune of the
background music to a video that we watched in Sunday School. It would
seem that, at least for tunes that I already know, my ear and my brain
are working together pretty nicely to help me make sense of it all.
Music to my ear indeed.
AWESOME!! so cool! i love reading your progress reports.
ReplyDeleteI love that, of all songs, it was YMCA that you recognized first. That made me smile. :) I'm so glad everything is going well.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting. I am smiling all over again. Mom
ReplyDelete