Hurray for Having 4.5 Senses

Just got back from dinner at Wild Wings. Gums are still a little sore from the wisdom teeth operation, but they're definitely getting better! Couldn't wait any longer to sink my teeth into some real meat, so I had to go to Wild Wings tonight.

I'm surprised my head is still attached to my body. After all of the procedures it has had to endure (I know only two, but gosh it feels like a lot more!) in the last month, you would think it would have moved on to greener pastures a long time ago...but I am happy to report that my head is still firmly attached to my body and it's not going anywhere anytime soon. Now, whether or not the heat and boredom has finally gotten to my head, that's another question that I'll leave that for you to decide!

After Wild Wings I got a chance to walk on the beach with one of my absolute favorite people...really a nice night to go out on the beach. The tide was on its way out, leaving a lot of fresh, smooth sand with absolutely no footprints or anything. We were on Sullivan's Island walking towards Charleston, with a full moon behind us. Not only could you see the new Ravenel Bridge lit up (still quite a sight to see!), but there was a bit of a storm over the penninsula and you could see lightning flashes from cloud to cloud. It was definitely cool to see.

I am not telling you this because I want you to think I have it made should I ever decide to take a girl out on a date...I mean, really, how many girls (at least from the South) could pass up a chance to take long walks on the beach at night under a full moon? With all the free time I've had to go boating, walking on the beach, or just enjoying the Carolina Lowcountry around me, I have given lot of thought to how truly wonderful place thisplace is in which I live.

Fortunately for us, when God created the world, he created Man to enjoy it. In order to have the ability to enjoy this world, He also gave us the ability to interact with our environment through the use of five senses. The majority of us have full use of each of these senses, but there are MANY among us who have limited or no use of any one of these faculties.

Maybe it is more pleasing to enjoy the world around us by utilizing each of our five senses. But for me, living here in Charleston - with the beaches, the marshes, the way the sun and the moon reflect off the water, happy people, warm weather, the smell of pluff mud and salt air together, and much more - could not be a more enjoyable experience. Thankfully, I am realizing that even without the use of one of my faculties (hearing, obviously), my total, overall experience of the world around me is affected very little. I have realized over the last few months that I don't need the ability to hear to be able to enjoy life and to take pleasure in my surroundings. Sure I may have a little difficulty hearing the waves crashing on the beach or the seagulls crying for more food from a shrimp boat headed to Shem Creek among other things, but there is much more to life than being able to hear these things. God has done so much with this world, that it is impossible not to enjoy certain sights or certain tastes that don't require the use of two or more of our senses to enjoy.

I really do love living in Charleston. I've had a few friends from out of town visit, and it is such a joy for me to be able to share with them this place that I live. But, I've especially realized what a great place it is now that I live in Clemson more time out of the year than I do in Charleston. As much as I love living in the shadow of the Blue Ridge mountains, with freshwater lakes aplenty, there's a part of me that's always tugging me towards the coast again. When I'm in Clemson, I miss the smell of the salt air, I miss the taste of a Lowcountry Boil and REAL seafood (and not the wimpy, pitiful excuse for jumbo shrimp that they serve at Charlie T's in Anderson!) and just the general sight of the Charleston skyline and Cooper River Bridges at sunset.

But then again, when I'm in Charleston, I miss having barbecue once a week like I do when I'm in Clemson. I certainly miss the concrete outline of Death Valley, my Mecca of college football. There's also something to be said for the experience of feeling and enjoying a crisp fall evening, whether watching a football game in the Valley or hiking through the mountains.

Who am I kidding? Sometimes I feel like I'm supposed to be pretty mad at the world for all this crap that's happened to me lately...for having such a boring summer and having to go through this operation and everything. I guess what I'm saying tonight with all of this is that I am just too thankful for so many things that I find it hard to be mad or upset or frustrated about the events of late in my life. I have way too much going for me, not the least of which includes a wonderful family, the best friends, and two wonderful places to call home...all under the watchful care of God.

Thanks for enjoying my ramblings...hope it made some sense!

Second follow-up and wisdom teeth

Last Tuesday (almost a week ago) I had to go back to MUSC for the second time following the operation. By this time, I'd worn my implant for two whole weeks, and it was time to do a little readjusting. I am fairly certain I mentioned in a past entry that I had four programs on my processor unit. Each subsequently numbered program made the volume louder. Whenever I felt like things were starting to get too quiet overall, I would bump the program up to the next one and hopefully continue to increase the threshhold at which my brain could handle incoming sounds. By the time I made it back for the second follow-up (last week) I was up to program 3 and probably would have bumped up to number 4 if I hadn't had to go to the hospital the next day. In any event, Abby readjusted these levels so that the current level (number 3) became number 1. I now have three more levels above number 1, each one louder than the last...about two days ago I moved up to program number 2. However, before we did this, Abby made me listen to some beeps and count the number of beeps (just like I did the first time I hooked up my implant). Although I don't know exactly how she does this, I know Abby uses my responses to create the best type of programs for my implant.

Then came something new...something that I should have expected, but didn't. I once saw a video of a guy who had received his implant, and a week later was able to identify days of the week and months of the year when they were said out loud...without reading the lips of the person who said them. I had to do the same thing last week. We started with the days of the week, and if I might say so, I think I did fairly well. Abby would cover her mouth and name a day of th week for me to identify. Because all the days of the week end in the same sound ("day"), the trick was to identify the initial sound. For someone like me who has a severe hearing impairment, this can be quite difficult. Much of what I have had to do in the past (prior to implantation) was like filling in the blanks of a jigsaw puzzle. A lot of times when a person starts to speak, I miss the first word or two of what they say, and as I quickly change my focus to them, I can pick up on the latter half of what they have said and then make an educated guess as to what the first word or two were. Fortunately, in the English language, most sentences start with a non-essential word like "the" or something to that effect. In any case, with Abby saying only a single word, there was a great emphasis on the initial sound. There were a few tricks, however, to identifying the words. Saturday is the only day of the week that has three syllables...and since I can identify syllables, anytime I heard three, I knew it had to be Saturday. Also, "s" sounds are not sounds I've been able to hear before, and so whenever I DO hear an "s" sound (because of my implant!), it stands out more than most. For this reason, identifying "S"unday was pretty easy. But, it was very hard to distinguish between Thursday and Tuesday, because both are two syllables with a strong "s" sound in the middle. Nonetheless, for the most part, I did fairly well.

Then came the months of the year. I thought this was going to be extremely difficult, but I am happy to say that it wasn't as bad as I thought. Of all the months, the one I struggled the most with was April (go figure, the month of my birth!). While it's tempting to say I used my super-duper detective skills to figure out all of these words, I have to admit, my implant should take the credit. I really felt like I was beginning to understand these words...as if I could actually HEAR them and not have to guess at them. Granted, even though I had a 1 in 12 shot of getting things right, not to mention I could cycle the months of the year through my head really fast, I think my success is a very good indication of how far I've come with this implant. Abby seemed to think so as well, as she told me I was making extremely good progress for having only worn my implant for two weeks! Good news!

Words are still distorted, but there have been a few times where I've heard someone talking and thought I was still wearing my hearing aid (which, of course, makes voices much easier to understand) only to realize that I am only wearing my implant. There's definite progress, and although it's taking longer than I would hope, I'm a pretty patient guy.

Finally, I had my wisdom teeth removed last Friday. I've spent the weekend in and out of sleep...playing a lot of video games and watching TV. I'm not in a lot of pain, but my face is very swollen and my jaw is pretty sore. So, hopefully sometime in the next few days I'll be able to get back to some REAL food. Thank goodness for Orange Snack Packs, Orange Jello, and Orange PowerAde from two of the greatest people around!

How fitting that we end this entry with Orange...

Speaking of...only 47 days until Clemson Tiger football! Almost better still (but not too much, because I know my mom reads this thing :-D )...33 days until I go back to Clemson!!

Picture update

This post doesn't have anything to do with the fact that I'm deaf nor is it even Clemson related.

Just wanted to let you know that I posted some new pictures of my trek over the Mt. Pleasant span of the new Arthur Ravenel bridge here in Charleston. If you haven't seen the bridge yet, it is an absolutely impressive structure that will definitely inspire pride in all of us who are blessed enough to call the South Carolina Lowcountry, "home".

The pictures can be found here: Cooper River Bridge Photo Album

Hope you enjoyed them!

By the way, I lied, it's almost impossible for me not to mention Clemson in a post...so without further ado...

54 days until I can see the sights and hear the sounds of Clemson Tiger football once again! (speaking of, I hope you enjoy the Tiger Rag music in the background!)

Finally, I am proud to say not only did many Clemson graduates and undergraduates participate in the construction of this new bridge, but a Clemson graduate was also the head contractor, one of the most important people in the entire project! With that said, here's a taste of some of my favorite Clemson kids and me representin on the Arthur Ravenel!

Who knew my fan was so noisy?

So I've had my implant on for almost two weeks (and unfortunately I'm realizing I've failed to post in just as long!).

To say the least, it's been an exciting two weeks. However, it has had its share of frustrating moments, but since I'm not allowed to complain, you won't hear much of that here!

So the bells are still there...but they don't seem as loud or uncomfortable as they once were. There seems to be more substance to the bell sounds, so rather than JUST hearing bell sounds, I feel like I'm finally starting to hear something else...except it's competiting with those bells.

It's very hard to explain, and to be honest, part of the reason why I haven't posted is simply because I don't know how to describe the sounds I'm hearing. I can tell you, however, that despite it sounding like bells and being completely non-understandable, I am hearing a LOT of things with my CI that I did not hear before.

At first, with my implant, all the sounds around me ran together into one giant cacaphony of bells. Eventually, my brain began to sort these noises out, and some noises started to distinguish themselves from others. At times, when it was very quiet, I'd think maybe my implant had stopped working or something, and I'd remove my magnet just to see if I was actually hearing anything. It always surprised me that what I thought was silence was not so silent. When I remove the magnet, even when it feels like it's quiet, I notice a DEFINITE loss of sound, which means that all those background noises that made so much noise at first are starting to become just that, background noise.

So, after a few days, certain noises that were not a part of the background started to stand out from the rest. These included a whole host of things, but most importantly this meant voices began to stand out a little more. Unfortunately, I am unable to understand these voices. This is completely expected, and should change even more over the course of the next few weeks and months. What is really interesting is that when I know what's being said (i.e. if I can watch closed captioning, read along a passage in church, or just by reading someone's lips) I am actually able to tell what word is being said and when it's being said. This may be easy to do with lip-reading, but when I focus on the captioning while watching TV, I have found that I can tell what word is being said and when. It's all about the baby steps!

There's a whole lot more to be said, but I need some time to break it down into manageable chunks...perhaps I shouldn't wait so long to post! ;-)

Before I go, however, I want to leave you with a list of sounds that I have heard in the last two weeks. Much of these past two weeks have been of hearing sounds and then trying to locate the source of the sounds...here are some of the results, most of them surprising.

- A few days ago, sitting on my boat in a canal behind the Isle of Palms, I first heard a boat enter the canal. The occupants docked a few docks away (about fifteen to twenty yards away) and sat in the boat for awhile. Eventually, I realized that despite the distance, I could hear them talking!
- Once, while on my couch in the den, I heard a noise, looked up, and realized I could hear the key turning in the lock as my mother entered the house. Holy cow!
- In my car, I heard my blinker. I always knew blinkers made a noise, but never could hear it...until now!
- While playing video games in the den, I suddenly realized I could hear someone talking. I asked my dad, who was sitting nearby, if someone was talking, and he broke out into a huge grin before telling me that my brother and mother were having a fairly quiet conversation in the kitchen. Not only were they in another room of the house, but the noise was enough that I actually noticed it while completely engrossed in a Halo game!
- I have a cat who is typically very affectionate, but she does have a mean streak in her. Once, while playing with her, I made her mad and she hissed at me...I heard her hiss. Hissing is such a high frequency "s" sound that I never really did hear it with my hearing aid, but I heard it with my implant!
- It took me awhile to figure out that the annoying, repetitive noise I keep hearing in my room is nothing more than my ceiling fan rattling. We probably just need to tighten the screws to keep it from rattling so much...but it didn't really matter in the past because I couldn't hear my fan in the first place to know it was rattling so much!

So many little things are standing out, and it's amazing and exciting! Please keep praying that these sounds will begin to clear up and that I will continue to be patient through this process...it is far from over!

Pictures from the hook-up!

The first picture on the left shows me sitting next to Abby, my implant specialist. She has just turned on the implant device, which in turn is connected to her laptop. We had to spend some time going through some programs and determining what I could hear and could not hear right off the bat. Mostly it consisted of me just raising my hand when I could hear the beeps or actually counting the number of beeps. Although the sounds didn't make much sense, it was nice to be able to hear anything out of my left ear for a change. At least we know the implant is working!





The second picture shows the device as it looks attached to my head. As you can see, it is a bit larger than my hearing aid. There is also the magnetic coil attached to the processor behind my ear. The magnet in the coil attaches to a magnet inside my head and holds it in place. This connection allows for a transfer of sound signals to the implant inside my head. The magnet definitely takes some getting used to as it's a very weird feeling to hold the coil close the internal magnet. It feels as if my brain is trying to attract the magnet to the side of my head...not a normal thing, by any stretch of the imagination! In any case, here's hoping the hair on my head continues to grow back!



These pictures, one other, and the pictures from my operation week can also be viewed at my photo gallery. See the links on the right side of my page for the hyperlink that will jump you to that particular photo gallery!