Hear and Now...

It's been shown on HBO every now and then, and available on DVD. I have the DVD.
 
What I found very interesting, and touching, too, how the lady
despite being deaf all her life and not expecting anything,
deep down did hoped for a miracle.

She couldn't understand it herself. She entered surgery at 65 fully
prepared not to expect any benefit from CI so late in life.
Both her and her husband decided this is going to be
"what's gonna happen, happens" event.
Meaning, at worst, if there won't be ANY difference in how they hear, they will be in square one is all.

They knew it, SHE knew it, that was their-HER- mindset.
Still, she was so emotional after the surgery and sad and disappointed
that she couldn't hear better with the CI.

Regardless of that, I was surprised and even a bit po-ed at how seemingly (did they? there was no mention of it in the movie)
the couple haven't received any hearing training.
They were told to "take it easy", which is fine, but there was nobody to teach them what sound is what- it looked like they were left to their own devices.

Oh, I do no doubt their hearing friends and most of all family were of enormous help in identifying noises most of the time.
But I recall an audio apptmnt where the couple was tested for speech recognizance, and failed 100%.

No wonder, considering a total lack of speech therapy.
Personally, I believe if they underwent as intensive training as children do, they speech recognizance would increase dramatically.
The question is, though, were the couple even interested?

Think of Beverly Biderman (sp?) who also was implanted late in life,
but trained intensively to understand speech - she was motivated.
And she did have significant success in hearing speech thanks to her hard, dedicated work.

I wonder how is she doing now.
Does anyone know if she ever implanted her other ear?

Fuzzy
 
Not all adults will go through intensive auditory rehab. Some choose to go this route, working with professionals, and others doing it at home at their own pace with programs (such as Angel Sound Training, etc.).

For myself, I've mostly just done my own personal rehab, using auditory rehab software like Angel Sound and whatnot on my laptop and iPad, and just exposing my CI ear to sounds in the environment and that sort of thing. I'm going to see if a friend and I can get to work this summer on my auditory rehab. She has the materials in her library and she is more than willing to work with me (she was extremely excited for me to get the CI), so will see how that works out.

As for Beverly, if I remember right, she's from Canada and in Canada adults are only allowed 1 CI (don't know if kids are able to go bilateral).
 
cdmeggers said:
Not all adults will go through intensive auditory rehab. Some choose to go this route, working with professionals, and others doing it at home at their own pace with programs (such as Angel Sound Training, etc.).


As for Beverly, if I remember right, she's from Canada and in Canada adults are only allowed 1 CI (don't know if kids are able to go bilateral).
Click to expand...

Therapy - I understand, and accept that. but also, it should be also accepted as well more therapy means more CI benefits, it"as simple as that.

I do not mean by that that not participating in extensive therapy is something bad - absolutely not.
An adult particularly (as opposed to a child) can and will choose it's own post-operative training pace, and that's fine. I am just saying, like I did before:
"more mork, more results"- but absolutely a person who's well aware of that
and is making informed choice has every right to do as she/he wishes.
So if you weighed all pro and cons of your decision and decided this is what you want, you know this is what you want and I wish you great success with your plan.

Beverly - I am not sure if it's true about us Canadians being restricted to just 1 implant. perhaps it depends on many factors, perhaps it's different law in every province. at worst you have to pay out of your own pocket for the second one I guess..

Fuzzy
 
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