My First 24 Hours!

Yesterday morning at 10:00 my cochlear implant was turned on for the first time. Nothing could have prepared me for what I experienced.

On the drive up to Johns Hopkins, I alternated between feelings of excitement, anxiety, and dread. While I was excited, yet nervous, to finally experience my first day of hearing through the implant, I was dreading the worse. What if it didn't work? What if my expectations are too high? What if I end up regretting my decision to have the surgery in the first place? These thoughts tumbled around in my brain as we made our way to Baltimore.

After being stuck in the most horrific traffic jam, we barely made it to my appointment on time. My audiologost, Ryan Carpenter, greeted us with a smile and asked, "are you ready?" I grinned and responded with an eager "yes" and followed him to his office. It was surreal walking down the hall because I knew in a few minutes, my life would be changed forever.

I signed some paperwork and we talked about my recovery. I fidgeted in my chair. Then it was TIME. He placed a large box on his desk filled with equipment and little gadgets. I would take the entire thing home with me. There were TWO hearing aids in there, along with TWO external processors, and EIGHT batteries! I couldn't believe all the equipment I was being given. I was fully aware of the monetary value of the equipment in front of me. I'm grateful to have backups to my backups! God bless medical insurance.

He started to assemble my hearing aid and external processor, hooking it up to a long cord connected to his computer. Then I had my first refrigerator moment -- he placed the external processor on my skull, directly over the magnetic plate. I had a magnet on my head! I played around with it for a few minutes, very amused with how well it stuck to my head.

After a few moments of Ryan describing to me what I'd hear at first, he finally turned it ON. Although he gradually raised the volume, the first time I heard a sound, I jumped out of my skin. I heard a robotic, buzzing noise and after a few seconds, I realized that sound was my voice and Ryan's!

I had to relax for a second, I was completely thrown off guard. Then the fun stuff started. He shuffled papers and I heard it! He opened his desk drawer to retrieve a pen and I heard stuff rattling around in the drawer! He reached into his filing cabinet and as he moved through files, I heard the metal hooks scraping on the file holder. He held a paper over his mouth and made "eeeee" sounds, then "aaahhhh" sounds, and then finally, "ooooooo" sounds. I could tell them apart pretty well. Next, he placed a sheet of paper in front of me with several rows of three words. Then, covering his mouth, he would say one word on that line and I'd repeat it back. With the visual cue, I realized I could immediately pick up on syllables; specifically, I was able to detect 3 syllables in the word "qualification" and they sounded so crisp and acute. While it'd be unlikely I could repeat a word without a visual cue, I was excited because this was new -- acute syllables!

At the end of the appointment, Ryan warned me that when I left his office, I'd hear a constant stream of sound. Matthew would have to help me figure out what I heard. He wasn't kidding! When I put on my jacket, I was startled and it took a second before Matthew realized that what I was hearing was the rustle of my jacket! Then as I left Ryan's office, I acutely heard the rattle of the doorknob. We were very slow leaving the hospital, stopping every few minutes to point out new sounds. An elevator ding. A baby coughing around the corner. Feet shuffling on the lobby floor. A woman digging her keys out of her purse behind me. While I've heard sounds like this before, I've never heard them so crisply or acutely. They are very specific sounds that stand out of me, rather than blending into a background of chaotic noise. I hear sounds, not noise. When we left the hospital, I had my first teary-eyed moment when I heard the wind. Now, I've heard wind before, but not the sound of wind...with my old hearing aids, wind rushing by the microphones created noise and made it hard to hear a person talking--not pleasant. But yesterday, I stood facing the wind, and it sounded so incredibly different. It whooshed!

Last night, Matthew and I had the chance to talk to my family. We called home and I got to talk to aunts, uncles, my parents, and my grandparents. I'm lucky to have such a supportive family!!! I can't wait to go home and share my experiences. After the phone call, Matthew and I had a lot of fun in the apartment. We played music for a little while on the surround sound. He played 10,000 Maniacs for me and I loved it because I could hear all these crazy percussions going on in the background that I have never been able to hear before. Rather than hearing a big mess of sounds, I could detect individual parts of the song. Very cool experience. I heard my dog crunching on her dog food. The salad bag or the potato chip bag crinkles in a way its never crinkled before...loudly and crisply!

Today, I return to Johns Hopkins for my 2nd day of sound mapping with Ryan. I'm excited because he's supposed to make it even louder! Right now, the things that will sound the best are simple sounds. My finger tapping on a desk, a zipper opening and closing, or my lips smacking as I eat crackers and peanut butter! Ryan assured me that within a week, human voices should sound less robotic and more human. But thats ok...I'm enjoying the simple sounds right now because they are all new experiences for me. While I've heard fingers tapping before, never like this.

Crisp. Defined. Specific.

Thank you, everyone, for your continued support and prayers. I really feel everyone's good wishes...I'm lucky to have so many positive individuals in my life to share this experience with. I will post again tomorrow!

Love,
Becky