A HoH’s Trip List: Hearing Essentials

The Hearing Husband and I seem to get antsy if we’re in one place for too long.  Maybe we just get bored with too much togetherness and decide we need to ‘see the family’, hit the open road and climb a few hills. This means we’re frequently packing and unpacking and packing again. You’d think … Read more

Telecoils Will Help You Hear – Yourself!

If I didn’t already have enough reasons to love the telecoils in my hearing aid and cochlear implant – I recently discovered another one. Telecoil and loop systems let me hear myself! As a public speaker and performer, I use the amplification system provided by the venue. Often, hearing my voice as it goes out to … Read more

At My Service!

Welcome to the 7th and final part of the Changing Cochleas blog series – my journey with a cochlear implant.   Service, as defined by online dictionaries, with my additions in italics: A valuable action, deed, or effort performed by a hearing care professional to satisfy a need or fulfill a demand by a person with hearing … Read more

Whazzat?

Welcome to Part 6 of Changing Cochleas – my story of adopting a cochlear implant and the life that follows.   How’s my life going with a cochlear implant (CI)? Well, for starters—although I can’t speak for other recipients—it’s a lot LOUDER. All sounds are louder: the ones that I recognize as well as new ones … Read more

Whazzat?

How’s my life going with a cochlear implant (CI)? Well, for starters—although I can’t speak for other recipients—it’s a lot LOUDER. But at only 32 days since activation, most familiar sounds bear little resemblance to how I hear them acoustically through my hearing aid. The voices of strangers sound curiously alike, as if they’re crying … Read more

Learning What We Need to Learn

As we human beings grow up, we get bigger, hopefully better, although never perfect. Nature likes to throw curve-balls, forcing us to adopt exercise or medicine or body adjustment changes to recover and improve our well-being. Some of us actually transform into semi-technical creatures. In order to hear, I’m a battery-operated person with my hearing … Read more

Changing Cochleas, Part 3: Activation!

February 6, 2017, just one day out of my life, but with so many expectations hanging on it that I was reluctant to get out of bed. Three weeks and four days after my cochlear implant (CI) surgery, this was the day of “switch on”, the activation of the device – and potentially the dawn … Read more

Changing Cochleas, Part 2

Are you one of those people who never looks back, who never second guesses a decision? Well, I’m not. In the 14 months between saying let’s do it and actually having my cochlear implant, I did not regret my decision. But when people asked me if I was excited about the cochlear implant, I always … Read more