Wednesday, July 23, 2008

A new order

I've had my new hearing aid for about 3 hours so far.

Some good things:
-I can hear
-There appears to be better distinction between types of sounds, but I have yet to distinguish it (i.e. I have yet to adjust)
-I do not look like this model from the Phonak hearing aid ad



What is different:
-Some things are louder than others, in strange ways: the crumple of paper is much louder than a voice (which my audiologist may adjust if this doesn't go away)

When I walked out of the office and into the main part of the KY Clinic, it felt like I was entering a war zone, where one side had dragons that they were using to great effect: it was that loud! Everyone else was walking along, oblivious to the war they were in the middle of.

When I went into Kroger's, there were the dragons again, along with airplanes taking off: it was that loud! Jon thinks it must be the ventilation system.

Obviously, I have a lot of adjusting to do. I go back for a hearing aid tweak next week. There may be more tweaking to do after that. It will probably take up to half a year to become completely used to this hearing aid. But I'm optimistic for several reasons:
-I can hear
-I can understand Jon
-I can hear Pope's mews

We don't realize how much we rely on simple things until they are threatened.

1 comment:

d-wain said...

Fascinating. I love the analogy of war.

What's the difference between "aid" and "aide"?