Talking Hearing Loss

Have you seen any of those ‘cochlear implant switch on’ videos? You know the ones I’m talking about.

They all seem to show that emotional moment when someone hears for the first time at the instant that their cochlear implant is activated. People have mixed feelings about these types of videos; some love them, some hate them and others think of them as ‘inspiration porn’. My feelings toward them are somewhat mixed because I never actually had that moment, in fact my switch on was a little bit underwhelming, confusing and a tad disappointing.

I admit it…deep down I was hoping that I got to experience a ‘Oh my gosh I can hear again’ moment but what I got instead was purely a sensation. The best way I can describe it was like, when you can feel faint breeze against your skin or when you glimpse something just outside of your field of vision. I could see my audiologist’s lips moving so I knew she was saying something but I had no connection between the words she was speaking and this sensation I was feeling. I didn’t even know if I was actually hearing anything,

I should have had more patience because my ‘Oh my gosh I can hear again’ moment actually came about 10 minutes after the switch-on appointment. I was about to cross an intersection and the vision-impaired crossing signal started making a tapping sound to indicate that it was safe to begin to walk.

I HEARD that tapping. I really really HEARD that tapping. Man oh man did I HEAR that tapping!!

That tapping was like the voice of an angel whispering the divine secrets of life, the universe and everything directly into my implanted ear!

Did I get emotional? Damn right I did!

From there began a process of learning to hear again from an ear which was “dead” for the past 26 years of my life. I started with simple sounds at first (ticking of clocks, beeping of the buttons on the microwave oven) and then gradually moved onto slightly more complex sounds (the sound of the door bell, my dogs barking, bashing saucepan lids together)

To practice learning to understand speech again, I listened to an audiobook of my favourite novel (Stephen King’s It) through the implant alone while following along with a printed copy of the novel. At first what I was hearing was meaningless but over time I was able to pick up a single word here and there. Eventually one word became two, two words became a sentence, a sentence became a paragraph and gradually I was able to look away from the printed novel for longer and longer periods of time.

To add more complexity to learning to understand speech through the implant, I would also use my daily train rides to and from work to close my eyes and just listen to the various conversations that were happening around me (which is a much nicer way of saying that I was eavesdropping on what my fellow commuters were saying)

A question I often get asked is whether I can listen to music through my cochlear implant. The answer is both Yes and No. So through the implant alone I can ‘hear’ music and recognize and identify a song I have heard before however it sounds very different. The only way I can describe it, is that it sounds like when someone nearby is listening to music at a loud volume through headphones and you can hear it. It’s synthetic, lacks warmth and is only a representation of what is playing.

The interesting thing is that when I am listening to music through the implant and the hearing aid I use in my other ear, IT SOUNDS AMAZING!!!

The cochlear implant picks up the high frequency music sounds like the cymbals and high hats of a drum and the twangs of a guitar in a way that I would never be able to hear through my hearing aid alone. The hearing aid on the other hand gives the music it’s warmth and identity. If I turn off either one of them, the music does not sound complete but when both are on I feel like I am hearing the music the way it was meant to be heard.

The neuroplasticity of the brain is absolutely mind boggling!

There was another significant ‘Oh my gosh’ moment which occured when I was in my car and I heard ‘Wherever I may roam’ by Metallica a few months after I had my implant. This was a song I had heard so many times before but this time, it was like I was hearing it again for the first time and discovering all these new layers to the music. After that I just had to go back to all of my favourite music again and repeat the experience. It was pure unadulterated bliss!!!

If you need a clearer picture of how my cochlear implant gave me back my groove then check this out…

Back in 2013, while I was studying Audiometry, I worked in a Dick Smith store (This was about 4 years before I had my cochlear implant). The laptops and tablets that we sold were protected by pressure sensitive alarms which had quite a loud high pitched shrill. I could never hear if these alarms were going off, even if I was standing right next to them.

Lets jump forward in time about 4-5 years, I have been implanted for several months and one morning at the hearing clinic I work for, I arrived before everyone else and could hear an intermittent chirping sound coming from somewhere in the Audiology office. It sounded very much like the chirp of a hearing aid and so naturally I suspected that my own hearing aid was feeding back (which it rarely ever does). I couldn’t find the source of the chirp and so later when some of the other clinicians arrived I asked if anyone else could hear it. They must have thought I had lost my marbles because no one else could. Eventually I identified that the source of this chirp was a hearing aid that had fallen between two desks and turned on.

It’s a pretty huge change in circumstances to go from being unable to hear a loud alarm to being the only one who could hear the quiet chirp of a rogue hearing aid.

Is that groovy enough for you??

_{This post was originally published 23 Feburary 2019}