Patience, Patience, Patience

I have a few more things to add to my list of things I have heard recently, so I'll share them with you now:

- I heard the sirens of an ambulance almost as soon as I saw the vehicle on the road today. Usually, I see the vehicle, and it passes me, and THEN I hear the sirens!
- Heard Alan whistling in the car on the way to Clemson.
- I always knew referees blew the whistle several times at the end of a soccer match, but I never knew how many times, or even when they blew the whistle. Now, when I play Fifa 2004 on my Xbox, I can hear the ref blowing his whistle to signal the end of the game, or even to call a foul on a player!
- John was brushing his teeth in the bathroom, about twent feet down the hall...not only did I hear him actually brushing his teeth, but I heard him turn the water on and off several times.

I know there's more...but they are escaping me right now.

The fact of the matter is, my hearing is improving in a huge way, mainly because of my newfound ability to hear high frequency sounds. My ability to understand these sounds, however, is still needing some work. I have no trouble hearing people calling me or hearing people talking close by...however, I am still lacking the ability to understand those voices.

To prove my point, I should tell you about the results of a hearing test I did recently. I actually visited the hospital on Tuesday, a week and a half ago, but since then, I've had a few exciting things happen that have kept me extremely busy and pre-occupied...things have finally settled down to the point that I could take the time to add some more to this blog! :-)

The following gets a bit technical, and I will add a disclaimer here stating that while I am fairly positive that I'm getting the terms and information down straight, I'm not an audiologist, so I might get a few simple facts wrong, but the larger issue remains the same!

The first test we did was with a series of beeps, that helped determine the shape of my audiogram. An audiogram is basically a chart featuring decibels (the level of sound, or how loud it is) and then frequency ranges on the x-axis (from low, to high, as you move to the right on the axis). At the very top of the audiogram (I'm thinking around the range of 20-40 decibels), there is a shaded box. This box signifies what is known as the conversation range. Normal conversation between humans occurs in this range, and for a person with normal hearing, they can hear equally well across all frequencies at the top of this range.

Before my operation, in my left ear, I could her low frequency sounds at several decibel levels below the conversation range. As we moved across the frequency range, towards higher frequencies, my hearing dropped drmatically, to the point where there was no response to any of the highest frequencies.

The results of the test over a week ago showed a remarkable improvement! My ability to hear low-frequency sounds has moved to the top of the conversation range, and there is actually a fairly straight line moving across towards the high frequency (which is good, because it means I can hear equally well at different frequencies), but as it gets to the highest frequencies, it does drop off a tiny bit. However, this is to be expected, as I am still in the process of getting used to the newness of these frequencies. Nonetheless, even with this slight dip, there is a significant improvement in my ability to hear high frequency sounds, and that's what matters!

When it comes to listening comprehension, however, my hearing in my left, implanted ear is still leaves much to be desired. The next test we did involved listening to a recorded voice saying twenty sentences. My job was to repeat the sentences, and because they were recorded, I could not read any lips. I didn't get many full sentences right, but I did get parts of some sentences, to the point that I think I scored around 18% for the first twenty sentences. The next twenty sentences, after I'd gotten a bit used to the man's voice, I think I scored just below 40%! I must admit, I was very frustrated during this particular test, as I could hear the man talking, but could not for the life of me know for sure what he was saying. I was flat out guessing and doing my best to create sentences that at least sounded like what i'd heard!

The last test I did was repeating fifty recorded words. Unfortunately, I got ONE word correct out of those fifty. This may sound horrible, and it certainly did to me, but Abby told me partial credit gave me a score of about 18%. In this test, partial credit comes from getting certain sounds in a word right. For example, if the man said 'feet', and I repeated 'meet', I'd get partial credit for at least getting the 'eet' sound right. It's important to remember, also, that people do not converse in single word sentences. Whereas the sentence test I described a paragraph ago may be more accurate in determining how well I can converse with others and not lipread (obviously not too well, yet!), this test is more accuraate in showing Abby what sounds I am having trouble understanding and what sounds I can hear just fine. Finally, the national average for regular implant users in this test is about 40%, which means I'm already halfway to the status quo, and I've only worn my implant for a little over a month!

If you are still reading, thank you for not being too bored! It took me awhile to figure out how to type all this in a way that it might make sense, and I'm still not sure if I did that.

I have some other things I'd love to share, and I should be posting those in the next few days or so.