It is coming up 3 years since I was Implanted and I have no doubts on having it done. I never ever heard a lot of sounds that people took for granted such as birds singing, recongising children's voices, wind blowing through the branches, my almost 17 year old cat, Misty, mewing. When I first heard them.... it never stopped me from contiuning to smile when I hear them even they can be a bit annoying! Misty had discovered that I can hear her as she mews ALL the time.
Having CI had open up new horizions for me such as going to college and doing work experience. I had wanted to work with deaf children but lack of work out in UK means that I had to look at different work that I would never thought i could do due to difficulty with understanding people. However, I am currently working with nine 16-19 year old teenagers with autism at school!! They are extremely challenging but fun to work with, with no facial expression to read, monotonal voices, loud voices, head shaking, rocking etc it was near impossible to lipread/understand them at first and I really thought i wouldn't last at the school, but I rocked on, now I can recongise each teenager's voice without looking, respond to their questions once. If i was with HA, the sounds are white washed, I would have never be able to work with them, I am so glad i took the decision in having CI implanted as hearing with it is like being in 3D and is rich in colour.
I have had always turned off my HA when I ride my horses because it gives a lot of feedbacks when wearing helmet (I had ridden horses for very long time) it was difficult to stay calm on roads especially when I am on my own as I get bit nervous not hearing oncoming cars and what speed they are at, I constantly keep looking behind me. In the past 2.5 years with the CI, I can hear the cars/lorries etc and felt at ease with riding my horses on roads.
Yesterday, I was riding with a friend on country lanes which is no wider than a car's width when I heard whistling/lots of vibrations in engine (probably when they revs up after going round the bends), with tractor in the field chugging away, I asked my friend did you hear that, she said no... I told her that I was not happy and we proceed to get to a field, lo behold just a sec or two it was a motorbike at high speed zooming past us without even slowing down.
I also have made a lot of new friends as they are in similar boat as I am. I have more hearing friends now days as I could get involved more and I haven't lost any deaf friends, as I still sign with them.
for sharing
