My thoughts one week prior to activation

R

RonJaxon

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Well, it's actually 9 days away but that's close enough to a week. :)

I'm sure all of you who have a CI know what I'm probably feeling right now. I know that all of you who have a CI had different degrees of hearing loss. Some deaf and some just HOH. As for me I've basically lived the first half of my 39 years of life hearing (With HA's my hearing loss was minimal) then the last 20 years of my life I've been deaf. So I have a perspective of both the "Hearing world" and the "Deaf world" in some ways. In short, I remember what it was like to be able to hear.

So right now I'm feeling a lot of excitement and anticipation. But at the same time I'm juggling the knowledge that I need to keep realistic expectations. I know that with my degree of hearing loss and the amount of time I've been deaf means no one really knows how well I'll be able to hear when I get switched on. And no one knows how far my hearing can "advance" over time. I've been doing a lot of reading, asking a lot of questions and talking to a lot of people who have a CI (Both on line and in person). Some people have amazing results right away and can understand a good amount of speech. Others can't understand speech right away but in time their ability to understand speech improves. Still other people never really obtain the ability to understand much speech at all. I understand these things so I have to keep my expectations realistic.

So here's what I'm thinking right now. I'm quite sure I'll be able to hear a lot of every day sounds when I'm switched on. Those are the sounds I'm focusing my excitement and anticipation on right now. My activation day is 3 days before Christmas so I'm looking forward to hearing things like the wrapping paper when the presents are opened. Sounds in my car and in my house. My dogs barking (I'll probably have to tell them to shut up. LOL).

These little everyday sounds are what I'm mostly looking forward to right now because things like this are likely within my grasp. If I can hear peoples voices that will be great. I know there's no way to know if I'll be able to hear or understand them. I look forward to that but I'm not focusing on that right now.

Thanks for listening. :)

Ron
 
Wish you all the best, Ron. Please report back.

All those sounds like wrapping paper and dogs barking??? hehe, you may be looking forward to them right now, but I think you'll be very grateful for the fact that you can take the mic off and not have to hear them from time to time. :D
 
TheWriteAlex said:
Wish you all the best, Ron. Please report back.

All those sounds like wrapping paper and dogs barking??? hehe, you may be looking forward to them right now, but I think you'll be very grateful for the fact that you can take the mic off and not have to hear them from time to time. :D
Click to expand...

LOL

I taught one of my dogs to "Sing" on command. I say "Sing a song" and he does what you see on this video.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RjVIXXaqro]YouTube - Chaos Singing[/ame]

Drive my family crazy. They'll probably get paybacks when I am switched on. LOL

Ron
 
Best wishes for a successful activation! Hope that you enjoy your holidays full of new (restored?) sounds.
 
Please don't run away after. I want to know what happens. :fingersx:
 
Best of luck with everything..
 
I'm excited for you, Ron! Perhaps one of the best Xmas gifts in a long time, hummm....all all turns out excellent for you!....Merr Xmas and Happy New Year!
 
Ron you have a very cute dog. He must be good company for you. Ha, now you may reap the rewards of such a trick. Hoping all goes as you wish it to be. Keep us posted as we are wishing the best for you. Merry Christmas Ron!
 
Glad to hear your expectations are realistic. I also read your other post where you can see both sides to CI, including the risks. Many people get mad at me when I mention CI actually has some risks and possibilities of a negative outcome. They are very biased and only see the positives.

Since you have no residual hearing, you don't risk hearing worse. CI candidacy used to be this way before they made it lax. Any improvement with CI would be amazing compared to 100% silence. No one can predict how well youll hear, but im wishing you luck and hoping you at least hear lots of environmental sounds and also the sounds help you with lipreading. Im not against CI but not biased either as I can see both the pros and cons. You did your research and made an informed choice and you know exactly what to expect and are realistic. Props to you for this. Good luck!
 
Ron, good luck with your activation, make sure you are well rested because I found my activation tiring!

Thanks for sharing the video of Chaos. What an awesome dog. My little dog (Chihuahua/Terrier mix) sounded so funny for the first few months I had my CI I would crack up just about every time he would bark or growl.
 
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