Before I get to the topic on hand…I will be running the Breaking the Sound Barrier 5K tomorrow for the benefit of the St. Mary’s School for the Deaf. Even though I wasn’t a student there, my CIs give me the incentive to make this a special race.

And now to the topic on hand….here is a recent exchange with someone I am mentoring on the Bionic Ear Association (BEA) website…

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Hi Sam. Very good of you to follow up on this. I met with the audie Monday for 9 months follow-up visit. She made “dramatic changes” to the maps (her words) and said it was well worth coming in for the appointment. She also wants me to try the other HiRes program. I forget whether it is P or S. I was using the one favored by long-term deafness. I am to try the other strategy for two weeks and then switch.
I have to say hearing with the CI is like reading glow in the dark letters as opposed to reading black on white. Same information, just a different way of getting into my head. She also said it will take 4 to 5 years before I realize full use of the CI, something I was expecting to hear from our conversations with you and my research prior to CI. I wanted to be that “special” one with the dream activation. 🙂
Back to the subject at hand – the audie boosted my levels so I hear better – just need to “like” the sound the CI gives me since it gives me more information than the familiar HA. I don’t like rustling papers – they hurt. The audie said she cannot strike a balance between human speech and papers. I can’t say I liked that answer. Reading books is part of my daily rehab and wincing as I turn the papers as quietly as I can….That is not normal.

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My response…
It is interesting you mention the rustling paper as an annoying sound. To me, its more of a welcome sound because it is something I have never heard all my life. The more I hear it, the more my brain knows it is an “unnecessary” sound and it tunes it out. It doesn’t tune it out completely but instead, it chooses to ignore or minimize it. The same can be said for a lot of other sounds in my every day life…the ticking of clocks, the car engine, road noise, water running, etc.
We are like snowflakes with our CIs. Each and everyone of us is different. I don’t think there is a right or a wrong but instead, its a matter of how we exchange information with the Audiologist and how that is interpret into the computer program that makes our maps. No matter what, I always practice the 3 Ps – Persistence, Perseverance and Patience!
Sam

So please don’t forget…and those 3Ps can apply to anything you do in life…Persistence, Perseverance, Patience.