What was your first day with your CI like?

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C-NICE

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I know this question must be old as an 8 track, but I am just trying to get some perspective since my hearing is going south fast. P.S. any digital hearing aid users your input would also be appreciated.
 
well my first day with hearing aids was incredibly overwhelming...i almost freaked out in my art class because everything that i was hearing and i couldn't process it all...after a few days it definitely got better and now i love them! what else do you want to know?
 
my first day with with my first ci was exciting and one i'll never forget! i remember hearing my audi's voice, her sliding an object across the table, the sound of the turn signal in my neighbor's car, the sound of my own footsteps, the sound of tigger's (my guide dog) collar jingling and her paws clicking on the tiled floor, the sound of a diesel truck engine running, traffic, snow underneath my feet as i walked, the clicking of keys on my computer keyboard as i typed, the 4 beeps on my microwave oven, my talking clock/calculator, my own breathing, the click of a lightswitch being turned on or off, a knock at the door, the hum of the refrigerator, a website playing an audio file while it loaded, water running from the tap, the sound of vegetables being cut with a knife, the sound of silverware hitting my plate, boiling water and being able to hear the tv and radio clearly from another room. those are just *some* of the wonderful sounds i heard that day. :D
 
I dont remember my first day with my hearing aid as I was only 14 months but my first day with my ci aged 10 and i remember being able to hear all the cars outside properly, my budgies making a lot of noise, the car indicators etc
 
the first day i wore hearing aids i remember hearing a blowing sound above me. when i asked my audi what the sound was, she said it was the a/c. that was one of the first sounds i ever heard with aids.
 
heh i remember standing in my friend's backyard one day and hearing tree frogs for the first time...scared the crap out of me LOL!
also hearing a cat meow...(hadn't heard that in ages)...
i remember with the aids going outside and hearing the wind in the trees (didn't realize i was missing that either)
 
The first sound I remember clearly with a hearing aid was the sound of leaves crunching under my shoes. Voices I had heard all along, but just a lot softer but those leaves..I stopped dead in my tracks and then went looking for some more to crunch. As for CI...catch me in less than 3 weeks and I will have a long list, I am sure.:giggle:
 
:bump::bump:
cool and interesting thread, asI am going to see the CI team in 2 weeks time to have an assesment to see if im am a candiate...my hearnig has been failiing steadying over the last 3 years due to massive tinnitus hich turned out to be a sypmtom of Merineres' disease - nasty, but i dont get very dizzy, just a tiny bit like i cant ride my MTB as well as I used to.....
hate it when life brings those life-changing surprises (or shock), but guess we have to take the best we can have to offer...
cheers
 
Grummer said:
:bump::bump:
cool and interesting thread, asI am going to see the CI team in 2 weeks time to have an assesment to see if im am a candiate...my hearnig has been failiing steadying over the last 3 years due to massive tinnitus hich turned out to be a sypmtom of Merineres' disease - nasty, but i dont get very dizzy, just a tiny bit like i cant ride my MTB as well as I used to.....
hate it when life brings those life-changing surprises (or shock), but guess we have to take the best we can have to offer...
cheers
Click to expand...
Sounds like we are almost following the same path. Was diagnosed with Meniere's 2 years ago, after it started with the tinnitus and mild vertigo a year before. The vertigo went, but the tinnitus got worse, as did my hearing and I had my CI surgery on Nov. 7.
 
I remember my first day very well. My father's cough came out very beepy and voices sounded mechanic to me. Music sounded like static to me and I remember the sound of rain on the windshield. It took me a long time to learn to hear the difference between a downpour and running water. Motors sounded strange to me because I could hear the higher pitched sounds from them. I could hear myself walking. When I heard the radio, I was surprised to make out a word here and there with more ease than I could pre- operation. I remember being able to hear birds fluttering their wings as they took flight. It took me quite a while to figure out what I was hearing!
 
i forgot to mention that when my first ci was activated, everything sounded metallic and extremely high pitched. i was unable to recognize many of the sounds i was hearing initially, but after two weeks or so, environmental sounds and voices became clearer. one of the sounds that took me the longest to recognize was traffic because it had been 10 years since i heard it last. even though i *could* hear the traffic outside my living room window, i needed someone else to tell me what it was that i was actually hearing.
 
As i was born profoundly deaf and was aided for 30 years, When i was first activacted of course i wouldn't know what the CI would sound like or the high freq's... the audi told me to listen for beeps... she went to each electrode, nothing, nothing so on..... then she went ummm... right try back wards (highs to lows), I conterated so hard then found the beep... Beep beep.... beep beep.... beeep beeep, I was like crikey it's so high! I had few days of constant whine and high pitched sounds it was awful!. On my 2nd intial tuning the Audi changed my programs as i was distressed with the first programs. After i got home, started to hear water running, dog walking on tiles, cat meowing, traffic, and the plane in the sky (pre ci i need to be close to the plane on the ground to hear it's engines!!!) it was a whirlwind moment.
 
i visited someone i know today who has a CI, and he told me its alot of work with CI, its nto a matter of switching on, you'd have to have someone with you all the time to tell you what you're hearing. He says it would take him into another year of learning to hear before even considering to use the phone, as opposed to another woman I also know, she had the CI activated about similar time as him, but she used the phone 'perfectly normal' quite quickly so its all varies person to person. So it is interesting for me to read this thread as I am about to fly over to meet the team and have many questions explored... but after today I am not 'put off' but cautioned, and indeed it might not suit me but I will keep an open mind but if it is going to be alot of work or too much..then i might jsut leave it till later that is if i really lost ALL my hearing i have left
 
yes, learning how to hear with the ci does take persistence and patience. you can't just expect to turn on the ci and hear/understand automatically. this is one of the myths of having a ci. it doesn't work that way. some people take years to develop speech understanding while others can understand speech immediately upon activation. how well a person does with a ci is dependent upon many factors including their hearing loss history, time of language acquisition, length of deafness (people who have severe-profound or profound loss for 10 years or longer tend to struggle most with the ci), etc. making the decision to have ci should be made carefully. if you're not willing to put in the effort required to learn how to hear with an implant, it's probably not the best option for you.

<warning: current mood ---> irritated>
 
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