HearPeers Heroes Mary Beth Posted January 30, 2023 Author HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted January 30, 2023 That’s terrific! Enjoy your chat! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tim Posted January 31, 2023 Members Report Share Posted January 31, 2023 Fellow recent implantees, I just had to share my first "Ah-Ha" moment as Mary Beth likes to call it. It is Day 4 after activation. I can't handle a radio or phone call on my implant alone yet but that isn't surprising. In fact, I have yet to be able to recognize a single spoken word from another human being yet and felt like things were moving slowly. I had put in 3 hours of time on rehab apps on Saturday and again on Sunday then after work today did more tonight. Generally I'm doing a lot of Hearoes and Word Success. Getting a little bit of progress and noticed that I'm not having to click "Repeat" nearly as often as I did on Saturday. Slow but it is progress. One of the exercises in Hearoes looks at swapping two words in sentences and that motivated me to go further. If I could hear and process a full sentence, why not try an audio book. Well, that and hearing about Theo's success with audiobooks by day 6 (I'm still jealous of Theo being able to do NPR already!) I pulled up a book reading app and set it to do automatic text to speech (I know - harder than a professionally narrated audio book!) - set it to highlight each sentence as it was read, slowed it down to VERY slow. (No numbers but near the slowest option.) Then started it up and IT WORKED! I was able to follow along and recognize the words with the visual hint of seeing it on screen. I was beginning to think it would take me weeks to get to this point but now it it will be interesting! I think it will take me a while to do it without being able to see things on-screen or at normal speed but things are looking up! I still find using the CI every waking hour exhausting - it gives me all the more appreciation for those that do rehab, whether it those that came before us in the CI community or those that are going through daily physical rehab. It is hard work! Every night I feel like I've spent the whole day doing heavy yardwork. Now I want to go ahead and download some more interesting books than "Practical Data Science with R" or "Alice in Wonderland" (what I had on the tablet I was using!) Tim Jimit, Kylie and Mary Beth 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Kylie Posted January 31, 2023 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted January 31, 2023 That's great Tim! It's motivating to feel you're progressing. I also enjoyed watching YouTube or Netflix with captions for a change from books sometimes. Especially documentaries and similar where they were less speakers to adapt to. Then over time I would turn the captions off then on again, for little tests of how much I could understand. Mary Beth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Kylie Posted January 31, 2023 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted January 31, 2023 That's great Tim! It's motivating to feel you're progressing. I also enjoyed watching YouTube or Netflix with captions for a change from books sometimes. Especially documentaries and similar where they were less speakers to adapt to. Then over time I would turn the captions off then on again, for little tests of how much I could understand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Mary Beth Posted January 31, 2023 Author HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted January 31, 2023 Terrific @Tim. Your first WOW moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jason77 Posted February 5, 2023 Report Share Posted February 5, 2023 Want to encourage every one of you that is being activated around this time. My activation was a year ago on January 25. It’s amazing to look back over that year. It’s a lot of work in the beginning and can be exhausting and frustrating. Start slow and give yourself grace when you need it. Just because someone else heard words the first day and it took you 3 weeks doesn’t mean you won’t get to the same place 6 months down the line. My CI has opened new worlds, new opportunities and curbed lots of anxieties. Wish you all the best on your journey’s. Mary Beth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tim Posted January 11 Members Report Share Posted January 11 Today is my one year anniversary of surgery and wanted to post a short reflection. This seemed like an apt topic thread to post it. On January 10th, 2023 I had surgery and took the critical big step in my SSD hearing recovery journey. I wish that I had kept a hearing diary (physical or electronic) of how things changed over time and successes. Instead I can go back and look at posts in Hearpeers and see how things have changed. Little moments like my first phone call on my CI, the first song that was recognizable, etc. It would have been nice to get the implant earlier and be further down the road to recovery. I'm still shocked to be able to do audiobooks directly to my CI. I've done over 15 books now. It has given me more opportunity to do books than I've had in many years. With each one, I get to feel extra satisfaction that I'm doing rehab exercise too. My progress is likely typical - neither a superstar that had a golden activation nor someone that had limited benefit. Everyone's journey is different but I"m happy with how my trip has gone. New challenges (ex. CI) has given opportunities to learn new things like the 3D printing project for the Rondeo charging cradle for the Rondo and the in development open source hearing practice app (more info soon!) Technology is moving slowly but ever upward. I started losing my hearing in my bad ear over 15 years ago. In fifteen years, we may look back on the current CI processors in the same way as the processors of 15 years ago seem. I'm eager to see the eventual improvements in size, connectivity, battery life, and digital processing. Given 15 years of technology advance and aging on my good ear, perhaps by then my CI side will be my good side! A year later and I still have only met one other person in real-life with a cochlear implant in the last twenty years. On the other hand, the online communities have been wonderful. I want to thank everyone again for their help and support in the journey - especially @Mary Beth and my clinic's staff but also so many others! I'm working on returning the favor by lending a hand when I can to others. Looking forward to where the journey takes me in the next year. Mary Beth, NathalieM, Lauren and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Kylie Posted January 11 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted January 11 What a lovely reflection @Tim! Thanks for sharing. Mary Beth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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