Journey through Advanced Bionic Cochlear Implant UK

Phone and Music with CI nearly 2years on

2010-09-09T12:29:00.006+01:00

Well, its have been a while since I have written any post about my cochlear implant experience.

This year, 2010, have been like a rollercoaster but where do I start my story?
Some of you know about my problem with my implant a year ago which could be the fact that I have fried my brain that I was no longer hearing the low frequencies and had to relearn them again. Its took me at least 4 months to get it back. I have heard other bionic users had similar problem and they have to relearn the sound all over again in a different way. Listening to music again, getting the confidence back to use the mobile phone again and to hold a conversation without lipreading was all too much in one go. So this was why its took me 4 months to get it all back. If this happen to you, you may be lucky to get it back in few weeks or few months. There are some people never get it back. Its sound scary but then we are not a bionic for nothing.

My advise is to keep training yourself but not all at once!

January 2010, I received a call from me mam. The sound of her voice was breaking as she sobs away. I could hear her struggling to get a word out to tell me what was the matter. But I knew what it was. A sadness hit me. I was feeling all such emotions through a phone call. This had never happened to me before. I was still learning to use the phone to understand words and context to enable me to understand the conversation. At this point, I was understanding the way people say the words to express their feeling. This was all new to me. As I listened to me mam, telling me what had happened to Gran and the plan to set up a funeral. Yes, she died.
I found myself crying and struggled to speak. I had to control my emotion so I could concentrate. It was hard but I realised that I was helping mam to comfort her. She had told me that she wanted to let me know the bad news but a txt or an email is never a good way to break the news. A written word can not express the feeling on it own. That's what I had learned.

A sad start but an interesting way for me to learn.

My confidence grew and I am on the phone nearly everyday. I am still nervous around group of people but thats kinda normal for most people who are quite shy. Trouble is I don't come across shy anymore as I used to be. I think its because of my experience of not able to follow what was being say so it may be easier to appear "shy". My implant have change my life in a big way. In a group, I am no longer afraid to ask what I had missed, or if I misunderstood something. There were some moments where I may not be following the conversation and this could be because the topics was boring and I do not wanted to be part of it, or I had something on my mind or simply wanted to switch off for a moment. I am allowed to do this. Just because I have implant, it doesn't mean I have to follow everything all the time. Hearing people do this too. I am a human being.

Recently, I have been clubbing with my friends. This was my first time going clubbing with my implant. I was worried that I would not be able to follow the music because the club are loud and in stereo. I have one implant so therefore hear in mono. I have been listening to lots of music at home, ipod and radio. I had hearing friends who threw me some songs for me to learn. I can't thank them enough coz I am really enjoy learning new songs and finding out what I was missing out. (please keep them coming. Indie rock pop will do me)

So I said that I have been clubbing in Indie rock n roll place. We went there, grab few shots and spirit then head down to the dance floor. I wasn't ready to go on the dancefloor. I need few drinks to get me going. I watched people dancing. I realised these people were students. They looked so young. I soon found out while I was in the loo, chatting to a young girl about the club. I asked out her out of the blue on what she thought my age was. She said that I look about 20. 20! Could you believe that? That made my day! "You just took ten years off me" I told her. Her face was classic. She was shocked. So I went back to the dancefloor with a huge smile and listen to music.

"OOhh Jackson 5 is playing" I said to my mates. They were amazed that I got it right. Few more songs that I recognized was playing. Florance and the machine, Blur, Muse, The killers and many more. I was over the moon. I was finally able to join in with others. Dancing and singing along to the songs.

All that training I did was paying off.

I have my 9th month tuning coming up. 9th month you said? Yep. I did lost 4 months of hearing, didn't I? Well I'm going back to be tuned up. Its not easy being a bionic! :P

Hearing Aids Care

2010-08-24T12:59:00.002+01:00

Sometimes we forget about other people who are still wearing hearing aids or they are just getting used to wearing hearing aids. It is always useful to find some tips online on how to looking after their device properly. Or so we should(!). Recently, I have been in contacted with someone who have asked to be my guest to write their article on my blog. I am more happy to help out as long we give out information on our devices, whether they are hearing aids or cochlear implant. So here it is:-

For people with a hearing impairment, modern technology offers plenty of means to improve their hearing. The means and their use vary from one country to the other and is often based on the level of hearing loss. Cochlear implants are more common in developing countries and are often recommended to people with profound deafness, while digital hearing aids are more widely available and are prescribed to people with mild or moderate hearing loss. The UK alone has over 9 million hard of hearing, many of which wear a digital hearing aid on a daily basis. The aim of this article is to provide those who wear digital hearing aids with helpful care tips to keep the aid in good condition for many years of use. With prices average at around £1500 on the high street, these tips are more important than ever.

Here are a selection of useful tips for the new and experienced hearing aid wearer:

1. Handle your hearing aid with great care. The micro-engineered device which uses electrical components to enhance extremal sounds needs plenty of care when handled. This means no shaking it around, no pulling on the tube or microphone when removing it and never sit on the device while searching for the TV remote.

2. Removing the aid when not in use will ensure that the device does not incur unnecessary wear and tear while could often shorten its lifespan. If you don't use it for a long period of time, consider removing the battery completely.

3. When the hearing aid is not warn it should be placed in a safe place away from pets (and children). When ever possible, store the aid in an environment which is not affected by extreme temperatures. Consider using a type of dry safe device which safely stores the aid while at the same time drying any ear wax and removes germs.

4. In some cases moisture could reach the electrical components resulting in a breakdown. The hearing aid should not be warn when showering, swimming and when using a hair dryer, hair spray or other types of spray.

5. Basic maintenance will greatly prolong the hearing aid lifespan. It is important to clean the receiver and vent or tubing openings with an appropriate wax removal cleaner. Removing ear wax will prevent temporary malfunction or permanent damage if it has accumulated over time.

6. Replacing the batteries at the right time will ensure you are never without a working hearing aid when you need it the most. Nowadays many hearing instruments have audible low-battery warning signals – be sure to consult the instruction booklet for what these will sound like.

If you have any tips to offer on how to better care for your hearing aid please let us know and leave your comment below.

Hearing aids care tips by the team at Hearing Direct which offers a wide range of products for the hard of hearing and the deaf including assistive listening devices and digital hearing aids.

New year New sound

2010-01-06T11:51:00.005Z

After meeting a lady last night who were asking me all sort of questions about getting cochlear implant and what sort of sound she would hear. I couldn't help but chuckling to myself. I remember what I was hearing through the hearing aids and boy, am I glad that I am not going to hear it again. I would probably struggle to hear again after what I have learnt through the cochlear implant. The whole sound - its just not something we want it taken away. Its like... its my treasure and noone will take it away.

We sat in the restaurant in Pizza Express and we were comparing what we were hearing around us while we sat and eat our meal (wine was on the table too :) ) Her reaction of being surprised by my face whenever I heard some shattered sound of the plates being dropped or not place it on the table gently just make me jump all the time. Any sound of the high frequencies of knife & forks, glasses, plates or the sound of the chairs making jerking noise just as a person trying to get up.

None of these sound bother me before and this is what this lady was hearing. It was just a noise to her. Nothing was clear and she would have to lipreads all the time in order that she could follows what was being said. She had a hearing dog with her and I was surprised to be allowed to have dog in the restaurant but the manager was cool about it as long it have a coat that said "Hearing dog".
Of course, the manager came over from behind this lady asking if he could get anything for the dog. In a way, he was in the wrong because she couldn't see him to hear him. Lucky I was there to repeat what was being said. Pretty soon, she will have the operation with Advanced Bionic (Yay!! ) and she will be able to hear what people saying without the need to lipread people all the time.

Speaking of lipreading, I have noticed that I lost the abilities to lipread people. When wearing my implant, I look at people face around the eyes but not much at looking at their lips (like most hearing people do to get a picture of what a person is saying. Dunno how to explain this at the moment) Without the implant, I used to be able to lipread brilliant but now I would just struggle. Interesting eh?

Thinking back of all the sounds that I was hearing for 26 years through the hearing aids and now I have cochlear implant. How things have change within a year and I must admit that I quite like hearing what I am hearing through cochlear implant.

My 2010 new year resolution is take all phone calls as much as possible and so far I'm doing well so if any of you wanna call me for chat. Call me! :)

New Manda

2009-12-19T20:47:00.002Z

I have learned my mistakes and I willing to move on to a better life. I am sorting out few bits and bobs. If I have lost some friends along the way then I am sorry for whatever the reason that may be. It have been a tough year. A very confusing year I must say.

I'm glad that I got to travel and meet new people. A chance to improve my photography and a way to promote myself to others who may be interesting. I'm glad that I got to meet somewhat a family that I did not know exist. They have welcome me into their family and they have invited me to come along for Xmas.

Here me, after my trip in New Zealand, I have calmed down and thinking things more. I am gonna choose things very carefully on what I will do next.

Whatever you choose, choose life. Seek the challenge and never give up.

New Manda is back in town and she will fight back!

Last 4 months - nightmare with cochlear implant

2009-12-13T20:35:00.003Z

I find myself annoyed of what had happened in the last four months and after I have thought about it further, I realised there isn;t much that I could have done. All the stress, moving around UK, breaking up relationship and in new relationship within 4 months. I must be going crazy at the time. Believe you me, I wasn't exact the best person to discuss about life changing, new plan and all that. I was questioning myself what's the hell am I doing?

The last four months, I was stress enough that I lost my hearing through my cochlear implant by 70% from 20db to 90db. You would have thought after 6 months since the switch on I would be doing so well. So did I! I have lost count visiting the Cochlear implant clinic trying to fix this problem. During this time, I was breaking up with a guy who I felt like I was treating him like a friend rather than a lover. There was no argument. Just confusing. At least we are still friends as we were before we were in a relationship together.

Anyway, while I was having problem with my implant and trying to find a place to stay, I was offered to come to New Zealand to help out my cousin with photography studio. I knew New Zealand was on the card for few months but I was kinda hoping to sort out my life before going there. Never mind, its just meant to be.

So I went to New Zealand for a while. Got to do a lot of studio photography which was great, great view of Auckland while walking along the prom. I had a lot to think about to change my future.

Is there anyone who have Advanced Bionic in Auckland???

2009-10-08T06:34:00.003+01:00

I am writing this blog wondering to myself - Is there anyone in Auckland have an Advanced Bionic cochlear implant? Am I the only one here? Ok I have been in Auckland for over a week now and have been busy setting up a photography studio for my cousin. Now that I am getting to know my cousins properly, I can't help wondering about the support that I may need incase I would have some problem with my implant.

New Zealand and Australia do have cochlear implant center but they only promote Nucleus Freedom. I find this very interesting because of our technology these days should be up to date. We have ipod, car, internet services and so on. So why not different brands?

A month ago, I had some problem with my implant. Four days after my 9th months tuning, I lost all my low frequency by 70% and could no longer understand what people were saying. I was still getting used to high frequencies which I haven't heard for 26 years so without the low frequencies I am lost.

Staff at the centre believed that I may have been stressed or ill. Of course I was stressed. I worry about lot of things. People were booking me for their wedding day and had to cancel due to losing their job. Not easy trying to find the next pay day. Another thing was moving to new location until I know where I would like to stay. I could move anywhere in the world could I?

Now that I am in New Zealand, doing some soul searching, wondering what I can do to support the cochlear implant center to improve their services and technology using my photography skill. Here me thinking..... I am an Advanced Bionic user and I can help Advanced Bionic to promote themselves to New Zealand.

My question to people out there........ do you want more than one choices on which cochlear implant brand to have? Please get in touch and I'll shall see what I can do for you.

Flying abroad - Hearing aids V Cochlear implant

2009-09-28T05:41:00.002+01:00

This is something that most of us have been wondering what to do when going to the airport. Most of us have some frustrating time when going to the airport or the lack of entertainment on the flight. I was thinking about how I have compared hearing aids and cochlear implant. How are they any difference to each other? I decided to look back to my upbringing being a hearing user and often go abroad every now and then. I have now able to say that I have experience the journey with cochlear implant for the first time. Of course, the first time is nerve wrecking as the thought of having metal head is going to set off the security. Will it damage our programs? Will it hurt? Will we be arrested for having a microchip in our head that may hold important information to terrorist? Ok I may go over the top on the last bit but this could happen in the future!!

Anyway, I have been going through some notes to compare which device is useful in certain areas.

Checking in – to inform the cabin staff to be aware of hearing impaired abroad.

Most people know what hearing aids are and they can be visual able to other depend on amount of hair you have and how you wear them.

Cochlear implant - this is still new to some people who may not seen or heard of it. Although, the staff at the airport, have been trained to know what the cochlear implant are and what to do when there is any problem.

Security department –

Hearing aids - no need to worry about going through the security door. Some hearing aids do set off the beep

Cochlear implant – must have ID to show that you have cochlear implant. Some people have advised me to show the Id and take off the implant to show them to make them aware. But I found its best to show the card and not take off the processor, as I may need to hear what was going on. Especially when travelling alone.
Once showed the ID, you would go around the door and get body search by the staff.

In-flight entertainment – Some planes don’t provide closed caption for popular movie in English but they do provide subtitles for foreign films. I was on Emirates and I was impressed with choices!

Hearing aids - unable to use own headphone (shoe and lead to connect to in-flight headphone plug) unable to hear through the headphone. Painful ear aches due to ear mould. Had to take off the hearing aids to ease the pain. Everything sounds very loud. With no subtitles on movies, it’s easy to get bored so bring book!

Cochlear implant - able to use the headphone the plane provided, no pain in ears. Can feel the air pressure! Staff able to hear me at reasonable level. (with hearing aids I thought it was loud but I always speak quietly when it’s loud)

Long haul journey, rechargeable battery – take spare with you at all time and save power when not in use.

Its really interesting to see the difference!

By the way, I am in Dubai while waiting for the next flight to Auckland.

Happy reading while I am flying!

Difficult times

2009-08-24T11:04:00.003+01:00

Here I am sitting here in the office wondering to myself - what am I doing? Many questions running through my head trying to decide what to do with my life. I can not sit here and wondering away. I have to make decision somehow.

In the last few months, I felt that nothing was gonna happen but the hole underneath me were getting bigger. Day by day, I struggled to climb up. I have many doors and I had no idea which to take. Ever felt like you will have to hold back and wait and see which door will shine the light, ready for you to take the step forward? I am still waiting for that.

It doesn't matter if it related to hearing new sound, or trying to find a job, new life, it could be anything.

My hearing have been better and there were times I wasn't too sure coz I was hearing too much of the high pitches again so went to the C.I centre to solve this problem. We got it fixed and few weeks later, my low pitches fade away (again) making the high pitches louder again. The sound of someone having their glasses in their hand and flick it while talking. That noise is very annoying! But it was not suppose to be loud. Even the sound of the running water is loud again.

I am due to my 9th months in a week and I hope we will figure out why this happen too often.

I was able to use the mobile phone for an hour but still feel like I need more practice with other people. I will test this with few people that I have in mind. I bet they will get the shock.

Going back to what I was saying about waiting for the door to shine it light for me to decide which to use. I have to say that most of the time in the past, I was told to go for it whatever the reason is. In this case..... I can't do that. I am moving out again and probably will move around wherever I will go. Its not the question of when I would settle down, its more to do.... will I be happy to have this kind of life?

There are many choices. Jobs, projects, social life, taking up sport again, a chance to go abroad again and see if my photography will wow these people. I should hope so.

I am sorry that I have not been keeping the blog up to date. It have been very hard lately. I will be moving to another friend who have cochlear implant and I am sure looking forward what will bring. I will soon have more time to write on the blog. I will be doing more work in Ear Foundation and Advanced Bionic before I take up New Zealand. yes New Zealand. Exciting I know.

Let hope things will get better.

AEGphotos photography Services

2009-06-18T16:06:00.027+01:00

Some of you are wondering what kind of service my business, AEGphotos, provide. Well, I am happy to show you what I can do. Here are the sample:

Wedding:

Portraits:

Modelling:

Music:

Event:

If you are looking to capture your special moments, birthday party or any kind of photography, please contact me at info@aegphotos.co.uk

Ear Foundation Newsletter

2009-06-13T14:32:00.015+01:00

The Ear Foundation's Newsletter have finally came out and after all this time I have been working together with them, helping each others to raise the funds for the charity as well using my services in Photography. The beginning of my career have only just began!

Please click on the image to enlarge.

You can see more images of the Sound inspiring at http://www.aegphotos.co.uk/Soundinspiring
Now you seen my advert and I meant what I said about giving donation to deaf charity. If you know anyone who would like subtitles on your wedding, home video, etc then get in touch.

Email Manda at info@aegphotos.co.uk

Drive thru test

2009-06-12T12:17:00.003+01:00

Last night I went out to Southampton to go to the movie to see Terminator 4 with my mate, Charlotte. I arrived at the train station, waiting for her to meet me and get to the cinema together. I thought we would not have time to get some food before we head off to cinema. Charlotte arrived in her car. She must have read my mind somehow thinking we may not get there on time by foot. So she drove along on the way to the cinema, we spotted the Mcdonald. I told her to go in there. I know Mcdonald is not healthy but its just a quick fix.

For many years, I won't have dream on going through the drive thru as I was always nervous about whether people would understand me. Not that I have a poor speech just that I often speak quiet or not pronouncing the word properly. I was used to go into the building and ordered over the counter. Face to face was the easy thing to do. It make sense for everyone who have the same problem as me.

We were short of time and we looked at each others deciding what to do. Over the counter or drive thru?

We decided to go drive thru. yay I heard you applauding me! Charlotte was in the driver seat and I was at the passengar side. As we drove up the til, roll down the window. The staff automatic look at the driver to get the order. I had to lean over for the staff to see me so he would know that I am the one who is taking the order. I gave him my order and he asked me if I want it medium or large. I answered medium (who would want to eat large!!) Giving the order and answering the questions was very quick. But did they get the order right? Surely enough they did!

So why was it in the past that I always get the wrong type of food or drink and now get everything spot on? Was it the fact my speech have improved?

It was pretty nice not to be nervous anymore. I know me mam tried to do it with me at one drive thru that have intercom. I think I panic on that and end up messing up the order so me mam had to take over. Will I be able to do this myself in future? Sure, why not?

By the way, we went to see Terminator 4 and we thought it was quite good as it make sense fitting the stories to Tr1, Tr2 and Tr3 althogether. Don't worry about some gap of the story, just use your imagination. Isn't that what a movie or a story is all about?

Use your imagination. be creative!

How do you find me?

2009-06-12T00:39:00.004+01:00

As I have been looking at my google analtyics latest, I cannot help but laugh at what keywords that people have found me via google search.

Who on earth would type this and find my blog with these keywords:

1) neville the meerkat
2) meerkat wedding
3) the meerkats subtitulos
4) cochlear meerkat blogspot

Now come on then, step forward and show who you are.

2009-06-09T20:08:00.004+01:00

Hey Guys and Gals,

While I was in Manchester, trying to decide whether I should go for the cochlear implant, I contacted Steven Gunn through Contact Network. We met up and discussed about how his brand, Advanced Bionic work. Not wanting to take his word for it, he introduced me to the Manchester Cochlear Implant group for BBQ. There were quite handful of people who have 3 different types of cochlear Implant. This help me decide whether I should go for the cochlear implant myself. Later in the year, just when I just had my surgery, they invited me to come along and take some pictures of their Christmas lunch. One of the members contacted me after viewing the pictures that I took for the group, she asked if I would be interested to be part of the Newsletter about myself and my business. I was delighted to be take part and hope this will reach out to people who would be interesting, not only the cochlear implant but the new found service of subtitles that I do in my business.

So here is it.
Written by me and published in Resound Newsletter.

Please click on the image to enlarge. (won't want you to struggle to read!)

If you are in Manchester or NorthWest area and would like to join / meet the other people who have experience with Cochlear Implant please click on this link. You can find the PDF file of all previously newsletters. I hope you will find them useful.

6th Months after the switch on

2009-06-07T17:53:00.006+01:00

6th Months after the switch on

For those who have been waiting to hear about my 6th months review. It have been an interesting 3 months since I last had my tuning in Manchester in March. I had a lot of trouble with transferring from Manchester to Southampton as I was moving down south with Giles. Although I did noticed that my low pitches were a bit down and tried to contacted the Southampton to arrange an appointment but Manchester did not send the transfer form to them. I did not know why but I went to complain to Manchester and demand that they would get this fixed out. Thankfully, they have sent the disc to Southampton and arranged an appointment for my 6th months reviewing.

Anyway, after I have looked at the hearing graph and compared the previous graphs. I was right. My low pitches have fainted away. I was a little disappointed with this as I was trying to get this fixed out before my 6th month review but what can I do? Anyway this is my result.

The tests was interesting enough and I was amazed that my lipreading skill and listening together have improved up to 81% from 76%and non lipreading 7 listening have increased 64% from 52% and noisey background which I have not done before is 32% . In all these tests, I was listening for the words and context for me to be able to follow what was being said. It was kinda different from Manchester because I was in a room by myself looking at the window but could not see through it as it was black. A person could see me from another room. It was kinda scary. I was to listen to the sentences and repeat them all as much as I can. Few of them I couldn't understand but I said what I think it was being said.

I was told that my next appointment will be in 6 months. I don't think so!!! I will notice my low pitch will decreased again like it did at the beginning and I will get that sound level nice and smooth. I will get this fixed out.

It is really dificult to know what is the loudest of a single beep even though I knew the difference between the low and high pitch. But what is the loudest? The staff said that I would find it like a headaches. I think I need to contact the clinic again and get this sort out. I was there for over 2hrs and I was shattered to be bother to do more tests. I will let you know how I got on.

Meerkat has gone camping

2009-05-18T17:25:00.025+01:00

Meerkat has gone camping in the countryside somewhere far, far away in the galaxy. I had no idea where I went to but I didn't care as long as I would enjoy myself. The weather forecast was a bit unsettle but then camping was all about "come rain or shine" Just let it be. So Meerkat went camping for two nights. As Giles and I prepared to put our tent up, all I could hear was this tweet tweet and chirping all day long. There were some other kind of sounds such as traffic, wind blowing, trees creaked, people walking or children laughter in the background. There wasn't many children while we were there but I have seen them playing about on their bikes.

Anyway, the new sound that I have came across. I was quite amazed that I heard this. I know I went camping for many years. I used to be the only Brownies in Scout cub (Back in the day, girls were not allow in Scout) Mucking about in the rain, singing at the campfire, doing games and so on. How I missed camping!

Well do you wanna know what I haven't heard before? Oh ok I'll tell you. ya know how people always said back in the days that they could tell how they knew the kettle have been boiled by some kind of whistle. Well, for the first time ever I actually got to hear it. I couldn't hear the water bubbling like I used to but that may be to do with my low pitches need tuning again. Isn't amazing that I could hear the kettle being boiled without the need of looking at the lights or switch? But of course you couldn't take the electric kettle to camping could you? This is a nice change for me. :D

Here are some pics from our camping weekend:

Happy Camping from the Meerkat and Mr Shirty!

Using phone with Cochlear Implant

2009-05-14T16:32:00.009+01:00

Everyone is always asking how a person with a hearing loss will be able to use the telephone. Just that little word that scared the life out of us. "Would you phone a taxi? " "Phone? me? phone someone?" No way. Its impossible. I have been profoundly deaf most of my life and I relied on lipsreading. Never mind trying to listen to someone without lipsreading. How would I manage that?

For many years, I've managed to avoid using the phone and get someone to speak on my behalf but these days, noone would speak to that person on my behalf anymore for data protection legal reason. Me mam used to call the bank in the past and we had a lot of trouble to get someone to provide us a service we required.

Time went by and technology have improved. I have discovered this amazing product which its prefect for anyone who have hearing aids or cochlear implant. Any Brands! Advanced Bionic, Freedom or Med-le. Its work! All you have to do change your setting to T coil (loop system)

This product is called Geemarc Bluehook and it work just like any bluetooth we have seen everyday. Bluetooth ear peice we have seen driver who use it as handfree to have conversation via mobile phone. Like Bluetooth, this product can be use with mobile phone without attaching the wire to the phone. You set up your mobile phone to paired the bluehook together and you can use it forever as long you have the power switched on. You can also use it with computer/laptop. This idea came along to stop people using the direct lead to the computer that is plugged in to the main power and to avoid an electric shock. Get this product for around £50 at this website

So far, I have contacted my partner, me mam and friends, for ten minutes each. So each time with practice, I would improved myself to listen and learn how we communicate on the phone. I use this quite a lot and never went anywhere without it so I won't be out of reach incase anyone need to get in touch. Phone call is actually a lot quicker than typing sms. I use it to listen to music on my imac and noone else could hear what I am listening to. Great, eh?

Katie - Louise Bailey isn't confident on using the phone so I let her to try out my bluehook and see if she can have conversation while on the phone. I was using this to distracted her while I was taking pictures of her. I hope she will be growing with confident to be able to contact anyone with this.

At present, I am doing a project to promote Advanced Bionic in our everyday life and what we can hear, use, sport or music and whatever age we are. I want to photograph you. Please contact me to model for me.

Here are the rest of the images that I have done so far.

AEGphotos is supported by Prince's Trust and Ear Foundation
Http://www.aegphotos.co.uk

Music through Cochlear implant

2009-04-24T12:53:00.013+01:00

I know I love to talk about music and I have noticed this have been the top topic for people who are interesting what music would sound like through cochlear implant. Well after 4 months since the switch on, I can honestly tell you that the sound quality is getting better. I may not hear the best of a woman singer in high pitch any clearer but I have been force to listening to music without lyrics to follow the rhythm. The more that I would listen to the high pitch the better the sound quality will be. The brain needs to learn to get the rhythm perfectly. I wonder how long that will happen to me.

Recently I have been attending to the music concert for the Deaf held by the Ear Foundation sponsor by the Advanced Bionic. I was doing a job for them to capture the event. Some of the musicians are either: - deaf, deaf and blind as well hearing. They came to show people that they could play the music no matter what their disabilities are. We had a deaf and blind person, Russ Palmer, playing the piano and guitar. He undergoes an operation for cochlear implant in 2004 and carrying on with his music fearing he would lose the sound quality. For 5 years, he had been developing his singing tracks and his music so he could fulfill his musical ambition to hear and experience new sounds, as well to perform as a musical artist. I was amazed on how he played on stage. It was such a nice flowing gently rhythm.

(Russ Palmer)

(The Deafness)

Other deaf players are the band, The Deafness, from Mary Hare School. Mary Hare School is one of the well-known schools for the deaf in UK. I do not know much about the School myself, as I have never went to a Deaf school. The Deafness, were all played by deaf musicians playing, drum, bass, singer and backup singer. They have performance at the Royal Albert Hall, which was highly recommended in public by Ed Balls. They have also performed at the National School prom, Paul Weller, Sugergrass and Kate Tunstall. I wish them much luck for their successes.

The other musician is a hearing person who plays a flute. I am not trying to offend anyone but I do find it sound awful to me. I know its very high pitch and its sound to me as if it screaming my head out waiting to be exploded. Maybe it was out of tune? How do I know if its out of tune? Maybe its because my hearing range have not yet reach it level, maybe that I am not the only one who can’t stand the sound of the flute.

If you know any nice sample of what flute should sound, can you send me a link?

At least we know who is following my step! Cheers Katie!

Am I hearing right?

2009-04-24T12:50:00.003+01:00

Do you ever wonder if you are hearing right or that when you have a little doubt that you may be missing out some sound that you once heard it before?

Whether you have recently lost your hearing or you just have cochlear implant, it is always useful to get yourself check out to make sure you are not missing out much. It might be because your device is slowing down that need repair or that you are not feeling ill, tired and often find people repeating the same sentence back to you. I may wear the cochlear implant after wearing them for 4 months and I still get people repeating themselves to me even though I heard them first time. Without getting myself annoyed, I often remind them that they repeat themselves how many times they have said it. Although, I have discovered that it will not make any difference. They still do it!

Maybe I was giving them a blank look without knowing what to say back and people often have to repeat themselves. Me mam often told me that I do that but how else do I respond???

Any advise anyone?

3 months on from the 1st switch on

2009-04-22T15:40:00.002+01:00

I was meant to update my blog lately but March was an extremely busy month for me due to having to work many weddings and packing my stuff for moving houses. Let just go back to the day that I went for the 3rd month review.

My third month review went surprising well. I came in early as usual and went in to have my hearing therapy for them to see how I am coping with the general sound we hear everyday such as able to following a person reading out a book, repeating word after word, tell a different in pronouncing a word and to test my skill on the telephone. I may not be confidence on using the telephone but I gave a shot. Karen the hearing therapy staff told me she would said in context of time, day and a restaurant which could be anything. If I did not hear some of the word, she taught me to think step backward to find a way to get that person to repeat in different way.

This is an example:

Karen: Hi Amanda, Its Karen,
Amanda: Hi Karen, How are you?
Karen: I’m fine thanks and how are you?
Amanda: I’m fine, what are you up to?
Karen: I am thinking if we could go out for lunch this Tuesday at half 12, are you free?
Amanda: Lunch? This Tuesday? Yea sure! Where shall we go?
Karen: How about Pizza Express?
Amanda: I heard the Pizza but I’m not sure what you said the last bit. Its deffo not Hut though. Could you repeat that for me please?
Karen: Pizza Express
Amanda: No I am deffo not hearing what I think you are saying. Can I ask if it’s near the bus station?
Karen: Yes it’s near the bus station. Would you like me to meet you at the bus station?
Amanda: That would be great. I will see you there at 12.15pm is that ok?
Karen: That’s fine. See ya
Amanda: Bye

That was the end of our telephone test. I was surprised that I could actually following the conversation but that is just the beginning. I wonder if I would be able to follow the conversation without knowing what people would say. This would be a real test.

Then we went on to do the beeping sound and see if I respond as soon the beeps come.
Result:

Now that you can see how much things have improved. The average human hearing is between 0 dbl to 20 dbl. The Cochlear implant only programmed to reach up to 20dbl, which it’s pretty good in today technology. I am sure in future these will improve.

Lipreading and non-lipreading test is also part of the test. We used TV screen to watch a person and lip-read them to see how many words we can get. And for non lip reading, the TV screen is blank so we won’t cheat.
These are my result:

Lipreading test:
3 days after implant: 42%
3 months: 76%

Non-lipreading test:
3 days after implant: 6%
3 months: 52%

I’m really impressed that my non-lipreading has improved a lot and I am able to have conversation with people who I am familiar with, across the room without lipreading.

Icom

2009-02-27T02:37:00.018Z

For many years, while in school I have dislike using the microphone because of the way the teacher wear them around their neck. The microphone would then be rubbed against their clothes causing the static sound and the sound of the teacher breathing.... just make me want to throw the microphone away. If I ever been asked by a teacher of the deaf to see if I was using the microphone.. I simple take the microphone with me but they were never been switched on. Who would want to hear someone breathing down your ears? or the sound of static and miss out what was been said? Deffo not me.

Anyway, few years go by and technology have improved. I came across this product, iCom, through Ear Foundation in Nottingham by a guy who works in Phonak. A company that design most of the devices that hearing impaired relied on. A new hearing aid, colour on the moulds, sound quailty on the telephone, microphone and so on. I quite like the name of iCom as its quite close to Apple Mac brand name, but that's not the real reason why I like it. iCom was build for the hearing aids user but since there are many cochlear implantes, they adapted the technology to be able to work together no matter what devices we have. Hearing aids or cochlear implant and other devices. Here I will explain why this is a fanstasic product.

What does it do?

iCom is a product that we called a FM System wireless microphone using the latest technology. The microphone bit is a little stick where it can be hang on a person's neck speaking through the mircophone as if in a class or in seminar or it can be place on the table such as in cafe and want to cut down the background to hear the small group of people. Its wireless and it can even talk to pick up tranmitter on a bluetooth.

setting it up....

I have a Harmony, Advanced Bionic product so I would need an hook called iConnect ( another Apple mac brand name... Why am I so proud of this? hee hee) In this picture, you will see the iConnect hook that required a yellow (size 10) battery into it and a MicroLink FM receiver. This Microlink FM receiver is the most important pieces of product that transfer the information from the microphone. As pictures below, you can see I have connected the FM receiver to the iConnect hook to the processor. Once switched on, The microphone need to be in the right channel for the FM receiver to pick up the right microphone otherwise you might have another FM user in the event and you end up hearing different conversation. Please see Hearcare to set up this channel for you.

How does it work?

Basically the microLink FM receiver pick up the information through the microphone based on the channel I can use. There are many way to set it up but I would rather keep it simple as I have only been using it for few days. My channel were on number 2 and when a person was talking through the microphone I could hear him/her. There are three different levels of noises that I could cut down to focus on that specific person depend on the noisy background.

Level one is general surrounding and not so nosiy but comfortable. This is ideally for meeting board room with group of people around the table and maybe no background noise available.

Level two is zoom. A zoom is ideally for being in a cafe with small group of people on your table, chatting with you. Or you could even use this while you are driving in the car and a passenger next to you wear the microphone. You could drive your car without even tempt to look at your passenger to lipread what they said. Old habit may never die but this could be very dangerous if you tempt to lipsread your passenger! Please drive with care! I find this task was brilliant. I was able to have conversation without lipsreading although can be quite tiring if on a long trip.

Level three is super zoom. Ideally for a very nosiy background and want to focus on one person you want to listen to.

iCom can also been use to listen to the televison by placing the mic near it. It can even been used for landline telephone or even better..... using a mobile phone based on bluetooth. Everyone have a bluetooth technology on their mobile phone and this would mean we would be uptodate with everyone else. We don't need to buy an adapter to the mobile phone. Just Wireless.

You can even get an adapter for your ipod as long it ha ve bluetooth adapter and connect to your ipod. This won't cost much. You can find the adapter such as Jabra Music adapter at this link
This is what I am hoping to get for my iShuffle ipod.

I have recently went to NEC, Focus Imaging which its all about photography, suppliers, seminars and equipments. I thought I would test out the FM System wireless Mic out and see how I got on. I must said that I was impressed on how much that I could control the sound of the background and focus who I want to hear the most. Even at the seminar, a guy who presented the seminar had a microphone to the public, I simply place my wireless mic on my lap pointing at him. He was very clear and there were no static sound, no breathing and the background nosie were non- exist.

Coming from a person who can not stand having a microphone because of the static sound, I must said that I am very impressed with this. I have yet to try out the mobile phone and the music adapter.

If you wish to find out more information about this product please click on this link

Music through Cochlear implant stage 2

2009-02-22T17:37:00.006Z

It have been 2 months since my switch on and everyone is keen on how I am getting on with my hearing. Yes, the sound of Music is coming back. Not Julie Andrews, sorry folk! I am hearing music much better than I did in the last two months. Incase you didn't know what it was sound like in the first month..... just imagine a robotic beeping sound all in low tones and sometimes I did hear the high pitches but it was not very clear. There were lot of sound like whoozz, whitt, ssshhh. This could mean the brain has not adapt to this new sound and its in need for training.

Well, knowing me... I am never for one to be walking before I run. I simple don't have the time to do things slowly. I work all the time in my self employed photography business and I enjoy doing it. I am still trying to send the message across to you all to know about this subtitles on wedding dvd slideshow. Its a brand new service. There is noone else who does them. Plus I'm providing donations to the charity to improve the future. So please check out my website

Ok thats me raving about my loving business and now we will go back to my hearing. Well, I knew I would be too busy to train myself to hear new sound as I am always working by my computer, editing, emailing clients and promoting myself. The only way that I could train myself was that I would listen to music via ipod. I listened to music 8 hours straight. Yes, you might think that I was overdoing thing and my head.. oh my head... it was like ringing in my ear. not the tinnitus but a playback to any catchy music (most of them have lots of upbeats in them!) So remember I couldn't hear the full details apart from drum beats, low pitch of bass, words were distort even though I knew the lyrics , it doesn't sound the same. Is there such music making so much beepings??

Ok, 8 hours might be just a little too much to start with, but I have to said..... each days have improved a lot. I had some training on speeches, trying to match the sound of the word to written word. I even had to guess what come next. The word "Guess" is not a correct word. I kept doing that because I got so used to making up my own word to follow what people were saying. It should be "listen" to the rest of the sentence. I am trying! :)

Two months on, I was listening to my ipod while driving and I have noticed new information in some of the songs. Especailly in Scissor Sisters songs. I knew the songs very well and somehow I was throw off hearing something like a faint sound such as; a clink, a jiggle, a backup singer. I feel really pleased to be able to pick something up through music.

My target to be able to hear music hopefully "perfectly" (not quite as close but close enough) by September 12th 2009. I am going to see Coldplay in Manchester and I can't wait! I know the band have lots of high pitches going on and I am still working on hearing them to sound perfect. The sound of the lyrics are now coming clearer than before. They used to sound like as if the lyrics were drown by their music.

I am much happier now than I was in the last two months. Hearing music is a great passion of mine and I'm hoping to pick up more new songs everyday.

How to look like we hear new sound

2009-02-16T15:11:00.022Z

Yes thats right! How to act like we hear some new sounds through our cochlear implant. People seem to noticed that whenever I picked up something, I do a little pose, a little sit up and ear twitting, looking out to find where the sound were coming from. I have won a prize for a new nickname. Please welcome our star of the show, Manda the Meerkat!

"I, thanks everyone who are there for me for whenever I hear new sounds along the process of my cochlear implant journey. I won't be able to make out what it was otherwise i would be posing like this all day, trying to figure out what it was. So thank you for making sure that I don't look too er.... what's the word...... "Odd"?"

Manda the Meerkat is proudly to show that she is not the only one doing a little pose whenever she is hearing some sounds. Please take a look of the other stars of the show. I'm sure you would agree that they were copying her.

Thats all for now, folk! Happy Meerkat Day!!

New sounds

2009-02-04T22:31:00.007Z

I am well overdue for updating the blog and I am very sorry but what can I said? People are demanding for my attention! Right let me just think back on what have been happening.... mmm ah yes.

It was about two weeks ago I believed, when I went for the hearing therapy to practice on sound and hearing speech. I had to do some book test to see if i follow the reader. I had no problem with this. I used to do this with me mam when I was young. Now then, Karen, my hearing therapy, was gonna make the test tougher for me. She gave me a sheet of paper with words that said.... "In the morning, I...." I had to listen to the rest of the sentence and repeat what was being said. I thought this may be too soon as I had my implant for at least over a month since the switch on. To my surprised, I actually passed my test 5 out of 5. I was amazed. I wish you have seen my face when I did it. I kept wondering how did this happened?

Later that week, Giles came along with me to Poulton-Le-Fylde where I grew up. I remember the village being so quiet, not much traffic around. Just the countryside. Nice and peaceful. All this with my hearing aids and now with the cochlear implant.... Well, its deffo not quiet at all! We walked around through many parks and I was hearing all sort of things that I could not pick my fingers on... What is that noise? I asked Giles. Giles then told me its the birds. We saw two little birds singing their little hearts out. They were really loud! If you are interesting in seeing what we get up to during our trip please click on this link "Our day out"

Another amazing things have happened. I went to the Ear Foundation in Nottingham with the rest of the Bionic Group as well all the other cochlear implantees and wannbe who I have met online for the first time. We have chatted about the experiences we had with the implant and to meet the experts who designed the Advanced Bionic (thats the product that I have) and Phonak who designed the hearing aids, wireless microphone and loop systems. Now then, I was really interested in wireless microphone FM which would be useful for me as I often meet my clients in noisy environment, or go to seminar where there would be so many people about and I need to hear small group of people. I am hoping to get one of those. Its not gonna be cheap!

Another equipment as Katie has mentioned on her blog about using the telephone. We learnt a new way to practice on the phone using the bluetooth ear hook. Its not attached to the mobile phone as the mobile phone do have bluetooth setting in them so this make it practical for people like us to use the phone and actually have conversation with someone. When I tried it out with a guy using another phone in the same room, he asked me to switch to T setting and see if I could pick up what he said. He turned around to avoid me cheating as I may lipsread him. So he asked "What are you having for dinner?" I repeat what he says. I was spotted on. I was amazed. People said that coz I had my implant for over a month and that it was too early for me to pick up anything on the phone. They were amazed that I've managed quite well.

I'm really pleased with the process that I have come so far. People may not realised how much effort we have to listen to everyday sound, the figure of speech and speak clearer as much as possible. I lipsread most of my life and still trying to break that habit. I will get there somehow.

Hearing speeches through C.I

2009-01-19T13:58:00.005Z

Hearing speeches through the cochlear implant after a month do sound a little strange if not practice speeches with anyone. A little confidence do go a long way. I was happy that I finally get to see my family again over the weekend so I was told to go to Fylde to meet me mam as she was coming to stay at her friend's place. I took the train and was hearing all sort of sounds that I never knew it was suppose to happen. The sound of the trains door making beeping noises. I remember constantly pressing the button to get out but the button won't be active until the beep. Ah well. Now I know!

Anyway, got to see me mam and her friend, then we got talking all evening. The more I talk and the more I listen to people voices. Although I can't tell the difference of the tones yet as they all sound the same at the moment. A bit rubbish that! I knew me mam's voice is deep but I was not hearing it in the way that I knew of. I guess the wide of tones will come in time.

I asked me mam to do this test that we used to do as part of my training to pronounce the words better. Something fun but clever. This test really do help me speak better as time come.

Betty boughts a bit of butter,
But she found the butter bitter,
So she boughts a better butter,
To make a bitter butter better.

I had to said it faster and faster until I was confidence enough to know that I have said it right and clearly. Believe me its work! Please try out few rhymes.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper,
A peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper Pickled,
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper
Where's the peck of pickled pepper Peter Piper picked?

Here is another from Elvis Presley's lyric in Queenie Wahine

Queenie Wahine's Papaya rates higher than pineapple, pumpkin or poy
Please pick her papaya put Queenie Wahine in perfect perpetual joy
'Though some people's palates prefer pickled salads
For pudding pick popcorn peach pie
Oh Queenie's papaya you'll truly desire
When that Queenie Wahine passes by

Let me know how'd you get on! :D

One Month On.....

2009-01-15T13:10:00.003Z

It is one month since I had my switched on today and I must said that its have been very interesting but emotional. Everything that I have heard of before the implant I knew what it was suppose to sound like (only in the low pitches) I must remember that I had 25 years of experience wearing the hearing aids. All this may not mean anything now since I have the Implant............. but I won't think like that. Why?

All the trainings that I have had when growing up would paid off. I had speech therapy which didn't work out and often had me mam to be my speech therapy as she wasn't impressed with the staff at the time. (Good on ya mam!)

The training that I was talking about was something that me Mam used to do when I was a kid. A bedtime story that she used to read to me and my brother. I knew all the words of the story after Mam had read to us so many times. As she was reading the story, she quite often said few different words that doesn't belong to the story and I picked up on that and told her off. I bet she was just testing to see how much that I actually picked up.

Now I did that test again at the hearing therapy with my implant and I must admit that this training have paid off. I was given a book to follow the person who read it out and asked me where she has left it off to see if I was following her alright. Surely enough I did. I even told her that she didn't said one word that was written in the book. She was killing herself laughing thinking that I should be doing her job. Such a nice feeling.

I have now been given a book on tape so I could practice some more on speeches.

For one month, I have already had my 5th mapping and for this reason, I had my switch on before Christmas and the C.I Center was closed during the Holiday. I was given a regular tuning/mapping to update the sound that I was hearing. There were few tried and failed but at least we may have sorted the problem. (will let you know on that) Everytime I had my tuning, within few minutes after my tuning, the sound that was once loud and comfortable for me to hear had startled to disappeared within minutes. The audiology staff couldn't understand why this happened and rang up the company who made the Advacned Bionic for advice. I am one of the few people have this expereince. They suggested that I should have a wider range of frequencies and see if that will work. Let hope it will be better that will last longer.

Ya know I was telling the audiology about people talking about the beeping sound that they usually hear with the Pedestrian crossing traffic. Before I went into my 5th mapping, I didn't heard it and was wondering how it was sound. I knew it would make some sound. Now after the 5th mapping, I heard it. its quite loud and it had some little dong in between the higher frequency. I even heard the pram wheels rattles over the clobber stones. Took me a while to figured that out. Another sound was, I switched my mobile phone with sound on for a change and somehow the mobile phone was covered by paperwork that I was dealing with at the time. The phone went off. whoo whoo If only you could see the excitement on my face hearing new things. I still have a lot of work to do on speech without reading the visual words but that will come.

Happy New Year

2009-01-11T21:08:00.003Z

Happy New Year everyone!

Well its better be late than never eh! I have been busy having a little holiday before I get back to work. I have created this little movie for people who are special to me with their supports and the fun we have had. I hope you have enjoy the movie as much as I have. Any feedback are welcome! Mind you, I think we will hear more from Katie! mmm wonder why!

Enjoy!

Music and Me Stage One

2008-12-29T14:12:00.008Z

Everybody know me for being passion about music and that I listen to the new sound as much as possible. Music is something that I could relax to, a little help to get some sleep. I was told that when I was a little baby before I have lost my hearing, I cried every time the music finished and had to restart all over again until I was fully asleep. I guess this created who I am today.

When I was 13 years old and was getting into music properly, my brother was playing Queen at the time. Not the Queen Elizabeth I'm afraid. The Band called the Queen. The rock and roll Band. The legend of Freddy Mercury. I was amazed by the sound of it and play the songs over and over until it drove my family nuts. Not just Queen but there are other music that I was playing over and over again. The only reason why I do this is because I was learning the different range of tones. Understanding the tones from bass, drum, singer's voices. The passion of music then have grew from there.

I attended to many concerts around the country in Uk, places like London, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Carlise, Glasgow and many more. Met so many people and are still friends with them to this day thanks to the facebook for keeping in touch. One of them is special to me. A girl called Sam Conley, she was my pen pal at the time - after we met at one of the concerts. We used to write to each others about music. I may have some hearing loss and have a lot to understand about music, but Sam is that person who taught me during my teens. She taught me how to be like a hearing teenager who love music, meeting new people all over the Uk. The confidence in me have grew from there. I will never forget the time where we had the sleep over and how we talk all night without any sleep. Poor Mam couldn't forget it as our voices are still ringing inside her head! Dear Sam, thanks for the lovely memories and I hope to see you again.

From there, I startled to go to the bars and clubs, even on my own just to meet new people as well listening to new sounds. I met loads of good friends this way. I was getting invites to go to the rave, festivals and many others place. Do any deaf people get to do this? I am not sure but I would love to meet any people who have. Deaf and music in technically don't mix. So how would I enjoy music with the hearing loss? well basically, with my hearing aids I only hear the the low pitch and I self taught my brain to listen all the time. I knew there was some high pitch in some music but every time the high pitch come, it just go silent then the music come back. This mean I tend to avoid listen to any female singers! Some of the Queen's songs have high pitch in them but it doesn't last too long for me to miss out.

Now that I have the implant and on the second week since my switch on, I asked for T setting so I could listen to music as much as possible. When I heard it, I was shocked. I couldn't make out any words, just the drum beats and small amount of the bass. I kept listening to music through my implant a whole day. I even tried listening to the band that I first listen to when I was young. Nothing sound the way that I heard before. I was so low and wanted to cry. I remind myself that its only in the early stage and soon will come back. The more that I listen the better it will come.

My next tuning is tomoz and I can't wait as I have not able to hear very much since Xmas eve. The high pitch have calmed down now and its time to increase the volume and frequencies.

These are the new sound I have heard so far :
Clock ticking, Countdown timer from the oven, water running, footstep, cat purring ( I heard the purring before but I had to pressed my ear against my cat at the time, now I heard it in distance) plastic bag, fingers clicks, scratching, ice tinging inside the glass, ice cream van's music, door creak,Traffic noises from inside the car. a click from the seatbelt. (Gran tried to puts on the seatbelt but it won't accept it in. kept clicking but not fully click. this usually mean she tried to put it on the wrong pad. No worry Gran, I'll put your seatbelt on for you!)

Second Tuning

2008-12-18T21:41:00.009Z

I thought to myself that I might just hear something more when I go for a walk on the way to the C.I Center and see if I could pick up anything while the implant is ever so quiet. I walked through the city center, passed by the busy shopping center, only muffled sound, quiet footsteps, no sound coming out of peoples mouths. I knew I was not hearing things too great. Good thing that I did not had to wait so long for the second tuning. Most of you called it Mapping. I dunno why but maybe it more like network in the brain to re tune itself to learn new sound in a different way. Tuning or re program would be suitable for me.

As I walked along, hoping I would hear something else. I was a little disappointed to be honest. i couldn't hear a thing apart from the motorbike going vvroom and that was all I could hear. I then managed to get to the C.I center. I was a little early . I guess I just want to hear again. Sound is so important. I must not lose a day without it. Everything is so Precious.

Jackie finally got me in the room and hook me up to the computer. I think she was a bit surprised how much I need to tune up. The sound I used to hear to the computer was like a heartbeat which by now starting to sound like a simple beep. Its all good. A big step to hear more. Although she was hoping to get the high pitch to be in the same level as the low pitch but by the judge of my face, I think it was a little too loud for me to handle the high pitch at this stage. I would be ready to hear more high pitch in 2 weeks time.

Now we went to another room to do some listening test. My first test with the implant after 3 days. I did pretty well. I had to do the beep test. If you look at the sample graph here that I got here. Please note its not mine. I took it from somewhere on google. Anyway, what you can see here is frequency (Hz) across the graph is the level we hear from low to high pitch. Then you see the hearing level range (DBs) downward the graph, this is the level we would hear in our hearing. At the average hearing level is from -20 to 0 DBs. At the 1000Hz is the high pitch where I usually would be at the 110db level... with the implant = at 35DBS. At 2000hz I would normally down at 110 or 120dbs now at 40dbs finally at 4000hz I would not normally hear this at all now with the implant at 55dbs I still have a lot of work to do to get that high pitch up more. It would take some time to relearn the high pitch that I have never heard of after 25 years since I was found that I was profoundly deaf at the age of 2 half or 3 years old.

I had to do the test on the computer. I get three choices of answer and I have to hear what was said and match it to one of the answers. I only got one wrong out of 12! Thats a good start!

I feel really pleased with myself after having the implant for three days and I have managed to do well with the tests. It was unexpected. I am amazed. I thought it would take some time to adapt to the new sound as I am not hearing the way I am used to and still able to work out some environment sound in most robotic way. If you get what I mean.

On the way home, I went on the bus and I was txting some friends to let them know how I got on. I kep hearing the "ding" all the time then the bus stopped. The sound came back, I was really puzzled. What is that sound I thought. I didn't had anyone with me to confirm what it was. Then suddenly it hit me. The button that the passengers use to press to inform the driver to stop the bus. Thats it! thats where it come from! I didn't even knew that before. I knew the light come on but not the sound! wow!

Now that i got my T setting on my implant and I can finally get to listen to music. Ok its not perfect but I am hearing lots of sound .... guess again..... in the most robotic way! lol Although I could follow the beats and the way its change it tones. I knew what it was going to happen but the sound I have been listening to for years......... is not the same!!!! Boo Hiss. I will keep on listening til the tones come back to me.

I hope you are enjoying reading this. It have been quite a journey for me and everyone, even you when you are reading this.... all txting me, msn me, email me, facebook and anything you could think of..... all dying to hear from me! You guys make me smile. I'm keeping you guys keen! lol
Well Thank you for being patience with me. I will do my best to update any new sound that I will be hearing or anything out of interests.

Let me know if you think I am waffling too much! :)

The Switch On

2008-12-18T20:45:00.005Z

When I first got the email from the C.I Centre with the appointment dates. The first one stated it would be on the 15th December 2008. Now I was like a happy kid with a massive grin on my face. "Could your smile get any bigger?" says Giles, who saw me reading this email while on the webcam. (Told you I would mentioned you :P ) I had to reply to Jackie, my audiology, just to confirm that the switch on is actually the 15th December 2008. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a reply that its deffo the day that I would be switched on. After 2 weeks and 4 days (not that I was counting! :P) I finally get to have my switch on! whoo whoo. Normally people would get their switch on after 3 or 4 weeks from their operation, but I guess because its xmas, they might as well get it done and give me an early xmas present. By this point, I had to txt me mam telling her that she WILL go to Manchester on her Birthday! no excuse! She will be there and will be the first voice that I will learn. She was meant to be working on that day. She managed to get off work and celebrated her birthday with me.

I bet that was a lovely birthday present for her. Seeing her own daughter to hear some sound through the implant. Knowing the fact that the implant is actually working was a huge relief. She was quite emotional. Even told me to calm down as I was getting too excited and was unsure what I was hearing. I was attached to the computer to get the settings that I would be able to hear. When my audiolgy, Jackie, was speaking...... I was like... eh.... this is not normal. What happened to the voice? It doesn't sound like a woman speaking in low tone anymore. no low or high tone. just one flat tone in robotic way. Jackie and mam was laughing by my expressions on my face. I just didn't know what to make out of it. Its all very strange. Jackie asked me if I heard this and that different levels from low and high pitch. I did found this hard to know the real answer without any set of tones at all. I guess I was overexcited and that I just want to hear as much as I could on my switch on. She set the levels to what I heard was loud but not uncomfortable so I could go and try out what I could hear with it.

I was told that I have to take it easy and go home relax and listen to quiet stuff. Did I bother? nooooo I went to Trafford Centre, (The shopping centre) and supermarket. Blimey! it was all very strange! I wasn't hearing anything loud or make any sense out of it. it was such a blur sound. Yea I am mad to even think about going to the trafford center and tried to hear as much as I could. 5 hours later I had a massive headache and I had to take out the implant to have a rest. I was shattered. I didn't know how much work it would take just to listen! I wasn't the only one was shattered. Poor mam worn out from listening to a chatterbox (thats me by the way) that she fell asleep on her birthday! We were meant to go out for a meal! To Mam...... Happy Birthday! Thanks for sharing this moment with me!

Second day - We went to Sheffield to see my brother to spend a day with him. We had a lovely quailty time. Just the three of us. Mam, my brother and myself. Just the way we usually have. My brother was so curious about how the implant work. He thoughts it was screwed into my head and I will never ever be able to go swimming again. Now that would be an awful shame if I couldn't go for a swim! I let him have a play with my implant and try to attach the magnet to my head. I think he was a little freak out by that! lol Before the implant, he used to showed me his iphone to see if i heard the sound and I couldn't. He was shaking the phone around and I didn't know what he was doing. Thought he was being daft or something. Now with the implant, he showed me again. What a difference!!! I heard the beep, ding, wooo, dingling and music on his iphone. He saw it on my face, looking like a big kid. I must admit he was excited too and kept showing me more sound from his phone. awesome.

By the third day, everything went so quiet. I couldn't hear a thing apart from the high pitch only. This mean I was due for re-tuning but I had to wait another day. Blah.

These are the sound that I have heard so far:-
Car indicate, wind wiper, sat nav telling directions, keys jingling, footstep with heels, packet been touch or rubbed. people chewing food, computer mouse clicking, keyboard clicking, fan whirling, car engine, motorbike vvroom, knife touching the plate, scratching on sofa sound from iPhone and clapping.

Think I have done well within the first three days haven't I? I am trying not to put my hope up so high. I know right now, I am hating the way it sound and that is because its all in one flat tone in robotic way just like Dr Who's robot. I still can't hear words clearly yet. Early day!

Communication Technology

2008-12-08T01:51:00.006Z

Keeping in touch with people is a big deal for everyone. In the oldest days, everyone write a letter to their love ones no matter where they are. The postman was invented during the war to encourage the soldiers spirit up while they fight for their country. Then Morse code & Telegram came along which was the newer technology to get the urgent information faster. As I think about the past, information were pretty much pass on via word by mouth. How do a deaf person pick up all these information quickly as possible? I won't have a clue. Were people back then speak more freely than we do these days?

I am glad I was not born in the oldest day. I must admit I love my gadgets. I need them for staying in touch with people, friends, family and business alike.

Most of us know we need our Mobile which provide SMS, online msn or facebook. or even youtube. we couldn't live without it. Why not use the land line? Its far too complicated. We don't just pick the phone up and dial the number. We can't hear it without special equipment. The much volume was needed. I have a text phone although I do not know anyone who have a textphone and have never used it for over 6 years. Its like an alien to me. There is some kind of service who tell the caller what we typed and type back what the caller have said. This is called TypeTalk. Although the service have not been good as far as I am aware of, its just not a best way to stay in touch with someone who are relative via typetalk and talk for hours. won't it be awkward having someone reading our private information? Nah this doesn't sound good.

Recently, I have been using Skype which its another way of communication. Similar to Msn but better video and great sound. I may have got out of the hospital over a week ago and I still have one hearing aid on. Sound may seem odd but I think my brain have focus all on my left ear to adapt the balance so I could understand what people are saying. I have my friend on Skype. put the webcam on and then we talk to each others without typing the messages. There were few times I had to lipsread what my friend were saying but I think I have managed very well. If there any doubt he would message me what was that I have missed out. Funny though, he didn't have to message me very much. He was chatty, all smiling, such a charmer he is. (He will be reading this! hello!:) )

I only know the basic Signs language but never needed to use it unless there are other deaf people who need it the most. I will do my best to pick up some signs language if you help me out. Anyway, there was no signs language needed while on the webcam. just talking. Isn't that a nice feeling. W must have been talking over 4 hrs! How on earth did we get to talk for 4hrs about everything, light to photography, focus imaging, music, website and many more.

This is not possible for any deaf person. There is no possible reason how I have managed to communicate with him. I mean I have one hearing aid and i'm waiting for the switch on next week... how did i managed? I reckon using my skills that I have learned while growing up to lipsread and figure out what a person would said next. It take a lot of practices . As soon as I will get my switch on... I'm gonna practice talking to people via skype with video on and listen as much as possible. Can't wait!

Side Effect Week one

2008-12-05T19:47:00.003Z

For people who are curious what sort of side effect that I went through in Week one.

Thursday 27th Nov : The day of the operation. talking too much was a sign of being nervous and trying to make people laugh. Coming out the operation I was deffo sound very merry as I mentioned about having a nice dream. This could be the drug making me happy and relaxed. 5mins later was demanding food and water. The first 4 hours into the recovery, I had bad taste in my mouth (This is very common side effect) This soon come back after eating and drinking a lot. The drug do make me feel so dry that I wanted to drink all day. This gave me excuse to keep going to the little room and I found out that my balance were all over the place. The nurse was so good to me and helped me walk across the room. I am for one, hate asking for help but since I was in the hospital... I wasn't afraid to ask for help.. NURSE!!!!! My balance went back to normal. Thanks goodness for that. The worse bit of today was the tinnitus. It was so loud I couldn't find a way to calm it down. No hearing aid for that ear since it was patched up in thick bandage. :( No sleep at all due to discomfort.... I was so glad to bring my ipod with me so I could fall asleep.

28th Nov Friday..... Tinnitus did not calm down. The air pressure was really tight. Few odd dizzy spells whenever I got up too quick or looking down....

(what ever you do Don't Look Down!!!)

Bandage came off today and the doctor came to tell me that the operation went very well and need the xray to make sure its in the right place. Surely enough it was. I then could go home with a little help from my friend, Simon, who lets me lend on him as we walk back home as long we pop by to the McDonald as I was very hungry. Always thinking of food! mmm Think I got about 6hrs sleep sleeping on the wrong side. it was very difficult to sleep on the side where I am not used to. The drug would knock me out.

29th Nov Sat : Happy birthday to me!!!!!! Tinnitus still not calm down. air pressure still very tight. took some pain killer to calm it down. Since its my birthday and I am suppose to be resting, Danny came by to treat me a movie night while he munching my birthday cake.... charming! lol After he left, I felt more tired so were pretty much sleeping all evening.

30th Nov Sunday Tinnitus starting to calm down a bit. Hair feel grogging. dry blood everywhere. good thing I'm not blond! Nothing much happened this day.... How very boring. I was expected guests but they said they would come tomoz.

1st Dec Monday.... moping around wondering what to do. My brother was supposed to come round. I was running around the flat looking for something to do. I would do my work but I could not focus properly. get easily tired. My brother and his family came round at last! Something to do. I was a bit concerned about climbing these stairs. I couldn't move my head very much due to the tape behind my ear. My nephew certainly made me smile watching him doing some silly cute things. I noticed that my brother was getting tired and wanted to go home. I took this chance to get him to give me a lift to the nearer train station so I could go to Mam's. In Scotland! "You are mad" my brother says. "you can't go out there with your thingy exposed to the air! " Forgive me for I have sin, for being bored at home but I don't care. I'm going out and no one can stop me.

I managed to get to Scotland with no problem. Pretty much slept most of the journey. Mam thoughts I was crazy to do it. Well I am crazy anyway.

2nd Dec I slept well this time with no pain and my hair was still unwashed, all dry blood. What can i do? If I wash it too soon, there is a risk of infection? There have been some theory about the hair oil have something in them that keep the ozone neutral and less chance of getting infection. Best to leave it unwashed for few more days then. no pain killer was taken

3rd Dec Had enough of my hair looking a right mess. I looked like a tramp. I can't be Audrey Hepburn with the hair like this, could I? No This is no good. I can't stop touching my ear. its so numb it can't feel anything. I flicked my fingers to my ear to bring it back alive. I did this all day! :S funny enough it did came back! :) Mam agreed she would helps me to wash my hair. well mostly on the left side (not implant area) she was scared to touch let alone see it! poor mam! she did well to get some washed. Tinnitus have gone quiet although I can still hear it. No pain at all

4th Dec Couldn't sleep at all. could this be caused by washing my hair? this could be the case! mmm some odd dizzy spells nothing else.

5th Dec Went home to Manchester to be ready for the Xmas lunch party tomoz with Steve and the Bionic Manchester group. I'm looking forward to it. slept on the train back. Think I have touched the part that, hurt a little. Serve me right for sleeping on the implant area. oops

Thats pretty much of the week really! All I can said is that the side effect do calm down quite quickly and make sure I was active as much as possible as well with plenty of rest, laughter, play with cats, treat Mam out for dinner, visited family. keep the mind off the pain. Noone can believe how well I look. I act as if it wasn't a week ago that I had the operation. It certainly doesn't feel like a week.

Next topic will be about the air pressure. Watch this space.

A little distraction

2008-12-05T18:35:00.006Z

Hey Guys,

Its have been a week since I came out of the hospital and I thought I better let you know how I was getting on. Well you know most people always said that if we have the operation, we really should be resting and stay in bed til we recovered, right?

Well, I got news for you.... I got bored of sitting around and watching daytime tv which I haven't seen for a long time and its rubbish. How do people find it entertaining? My friends were all working. My brother and his little family had to go to Scotland for weekend as he had some wedding video to do. Me Mam happens to lives in Scotland and would let my brother stay over while she could enjoyed her time getting to know her grandson.

So thats my family away and my friends all disappeared..... I got to the stage that I will not be sitting around doing nothing. After 4 days since I came back from the hospital I did my best to get as much rest as I needed then I contacted me mam that I will be taking the train to Scotland to stay for few days. I didn't mind the fact that she would be working while I would stay at her house for few days. At least I have some company.

Guess who is this little cutie!

This is Mitizi. She is so much fun to be with. As soon as I came in, I picked her up, she climbed to my back then rubs her head against mine. She was happy to see me but never left me alone.

This sort of treatment is perfect for someone who need a little distraction from any pain. Pet do their job to make you smile.

Mitizi certainly done that for me. :D

A day after the operation

2008-11-29T01:53:00.009Z

Hello World!

The Bionic Manda is here at last. I am relief to be back home now the hardest bit is over. I never thought I would have gone through this, but first I must tell you how its went.

The day of the operation:- I went in to the hospital an hour half early. This would give you a clue of how much I actually get any sleep which was actually none whatsoever. I was so scared and were walking around the room trying to find a way to get some sleep but the operation was playing on my mind. My flatmate, Simon, didn't even get any sleep and were all worried. We then left the house at 5.30am and we had to be at the hospital. We pretty much walked most of the way. We got there an hour later, showed to the bed at the ward then were waiting to find out when I would be going under.

I was supposed to be second on the list but the person who was to go first did not arrived on time and were not nil by mouth longer. I was nil by mouth since 7pm the night before. I could carry on eating or drinking til midnight if I want to but thought it would be wise not to eat or drink anything after 9pm

So I was first to go and they prep me up. By this time I was shaking like a leaf. I was so scared but I knew I would be in their safe hand. I went in at 8.45am and were out into the recovery room at 11.15am. The nurse woke me up half an hour later and i was telling her that I had a lovely dream about the Coldplay gig. She was laughing. A girl who has gone for cochlear implant and she dreamed about music. That might sound a bit odd to her, I guess.

Anyway, 5 mins later I was back in the ward and I was demanding for food, drinks everything. I was so dry I could drink out of the horse buckle. I wanted anything and everything. The doctor came by and told me how it went. It was perfect he says. Excellent news. He told me that I would get some dizzy spells and some bad taste in the mouth. Some people get this for a while and there was no knowing how long it would last. I had them in the first 4 hrs and after that I was fine. The taste disappeared and that was because I was eating and drinking so much. The more I eat the better it taste. For the dizzy spells, well what can I say....I had to ask for the nurse to help me walk to the little girl room as my balance were all over the place. The more I visited the better my balance would be. I would advice everyone to do this when they go for the operation. Keep your body active as much as possible.

This is me, happy to be out of the operation and very much proud of my new hair style! My friends and family all thought I looked quite trendy and very cheeky. I do what I do best is entertaining other people including the people in the ward and the nurses. I could not sit in my bed too long as I was not used to sitting in one place. That just to show you how active I am! Anyway the ward was very cold at night and I couldn't sleep at all. Well I have managed to get at least 3hrs sleep with a little help from my ipod using my other ear. It was the discomfort of my head being so heavy from the bandage and the pressure i feel in my ear. It feel like as if I was on the plane and the air pressure was so tight I had felt like blowing my nose to pop it but I would imagine it would hurt. I would avoid this if I were you. There is some kind of white noise that I hear inside my head and its very annoying. I don't normally get them . This is what we called it the tinnitus. It make ringing type of nosie. a bit like marigine without the flashing yellow light. Before the operation and whenever that I don't wear the hearing aids and I'm fully awake, I would get a little tinnitus. Only very quiet but not annoying. This is usually mean that the brain is looking for it feed. A feed to hear. Once I have put on the hearing aids it would disappeared. Without the device the tinnitus would get worse. I would imagine I will have this until my switch on date. I can't wait.

Reading this back, I must admit that I am glad to be home before my birthday. Glad to have it all over and done with. Glad to know that I have many friends who have been very supportive. Thank you guys. My phone haven't stopped buzzing during my stay!

For those who are curious about the size of the scar or how much hair I have lost... well... it was massive! They have shaved everything! I am kidding! Nah its only small. They have shaved a little just behind the ear and the scar is around the same length at my ear. Just think of it, 8 years ago people had their operation and they had lost half their hair and now, its quite small. I'm really pleased!

To Simon, my flatmate, thanks for being there for me all the way and sorry if I have worn you out for being worried. Now thats over, we can begin the journey of the Bionic World. Here I come!

A Day before the ops

2008-11-26T19:37:00.003Z

This is it, guys.

Its a day before the operation and I'm freaky scared. People have been so unbelievable supportive. I never seen anything like this before. I have thought I would be going through this on my own and I've end up having all my friends, new, old, family and close friends, all gathering up just to be with me. Its amazing.

Mam finally made peace with me about a week ago. I am so glad about that. I didn't want to regret anything that was being said or done before the ops. Just let it go and move on. Tomoz is the day that my life will change. I will be letting her know whats happening throughout my stay at the hospital.

This month have been amazing. I have been to Perth in Aus to see my father, Ian as I called him, spent some time relaxing, laughing around. Didn't have a care in the world. Came back feeling like a new woman ready to battle with everyday life and went to visited my old friends in Blackpool to catch up with them. When I have told them the news about having the implant, they were so excited that they want to see the result.

I even got to see my lovely nephew, Jim Jam, my brother and his girlfriend, Shelly. (Thanks you for your support.) Jim jam has deffo took everything off my mind. He is quite a character and I am looking forward to hear him to say some new words.

Meanwhile, I have made new friends, Katie and her boyfriend, Richard and Abi through the Ciug Group for people who have or thinking about getting Cochlear implant. These lovely people came over to my place over the weekend to celebrate my birthday even though my birthday is on the 29th November. Due to the fact that the operation is 2 days before my birthday, I might as well have it a week before. The time went by so fast and I have enjoyed every minutes being with them. How they make me laugh, cried and most important is ..... .....its being supportive. Thank you for being there.

Right now, sitting here at my desk, I am getting some kind of flashback. A flashback from when i was a little girl. Just starting primary school in a public main school with a small unit for the deaf. I remember having to wear a massive box that sit by my chest with wires to go into my ears. It was not an ordinary hearing aids that we know of today but the box I had to wear... I made every efforts to hide them, covering it with thick jumper and make me look like i had a pillow underneath it. The funny bit was the fact it was during the spring/summer time. I guess I was so ashamed of it. I was just a little girl. Just wanted to be an ordinary looking girl. The years goes by and thankfully the box have disappeared. I was able to wear the hearing aids behind the ears hiding them with my long hair. I still do this and will probably carry on for the rest of my life. People tell me to have my hair up and show them. I couldn't do it. I just happen to think that the ears shape are not very attractive to look at.

I remember when I used my deafness to get what I wanted. For example, I went to see Scissor Sisters concert and I had a ticket with seat that goes way back, way from the stage. Unable to make out what was happening or what the singer was singing. I was thinking how much the ticket actually cost me just to enjoy something that i can't make out what was happening. I decided to do something about it. I saw the staff and explained that I am "deaf" (I quoted deaf coz its the only way people understand, but I define myself "hard of hearing") . I said to him "I am deaf and I can't hear what is going on. I need to lipsread them to follow". so what did the staff do? He let me go right at the front row just by the vip area. :) I was able to follow everything that was being said. It was awesome.

Looking back, I think I have done well with what I have used with my hearing aids. Make the best out of it and trained the brain to listen whatever possible.

The most important lesson is.............. Never give up.

A little more

2008-11-16T14:57:00.004Z

A little more of this and that... a guide to when things going tough.... no I'm not talking about Boyzone's song When get going gets tough Mind you its a good sample song to uplift your spirit but please..... this song is cheesy!

When things are tough and your almost coming to end of the waiting list from getting the cochlear implant.... You will deffo need your family and friends to help to distract you as much as possible. Thinking about it all the time will just drive you insane. 24/7 thinking what will happen, will anything go wrong? and many questions that will stay in the head until you just have to say to yourself....... "get a grip"

Now that I am over this phrase I think I will be fine...... tell me if I am not or better.. just slap my face lol

I have recently joined (actually September 2008) the group called yahoo ciug which its like email the forum about the helps and supports about cochlear implant who have been through the similar experiences. This is great way to meet new people who I have never came across anyone like me before. Growing up with hearings aid, speaks but never use signs language. I was a bit surprised that there are so many.

I have yet to meet these people from the group which I will be meeting them in Manchester next Saturday and they are all staying at my place...... I think I need to get lot of vibrating alarm clocks do i?

When things get going tough and you need someone who could snap you out of it, get your close friend to do the slapping. lol I am joking. The best thing you can do is talk to someone let it out of your system. You may not be sleeping well and you are constantly worry..... you are gonna make yourself ill and will not be fit for the ops... you won't want to wait another month do you? so go on, make yourself a nice proper meal, bake cakes, play games, go out and visit family, do crazy things as you can.... and before you know it......... its time. A new start!

so come on.... let party.

Time is going so fast

2008-11-07T15:30:00.005Z

The time is going so fast that I can not believe it. Its almost time for the operation! Yea, its in three weeks time. 27th November 2008. I don't think I will ever forget the date for the rest of my life because its so close to my birthday. yea 2 days before my birthday. geez Happy birthday Manda! Enjoy your hangover lol Geez thanks doc! Not that I'm gonna complain but at least I would be able to have my switch on before new year eve (I hope) I wanna start my new year with a bang. Learning to hear and building up my business at the same time ... who is going to stop me? Noone! This is me feeling a little confidence now as I have been away to Perth, Aus. Believe me, I needed that kind of break away from everyone. Not quite everyone but maybe my family who wasn't really supportive to me and break me down to tears that I needed to talk to someone advising me what to do even though noone know the real answer.

Me mam is just stubborn who won't open her eyes to see the way I am seeing. I didn't want cochlear implant a year ago but I startled to meet people who have one and quite often noone believe them that they have the implant coz their speech were so good. This what make me curious. Keen to have good speech and with patience people would respect you like any other person. I have suffered from bully but after a while I have told these people that I needed support to get through school to help me what I was missing out. Sooner or later, the bully stopped. They just need some little education to understand why someone like me with hearing loss may not pronounce properly or even get extra support. Funny enough, I remember these people became my friends! Show you how much I stand up for myself!

Me mam did well to bought me up learning to speak properly, have manner, polite and give respect for others and most important is to stand up for myself. I have many respect for her but there are time when she doesn't listen what I have to said and why I am doing this. She believes that I am too good for cochlear implant and hate the fact that I would be drill into my head to sort some parts inside to enable to hear better than before. I understand she is just scared and I hope she will come round once she understands its for the best.

I would have wait for stem cells to become available. The time is just not ready yet. They are still working on animals but not yet test on humans then they have to go through the head offices to get approved. I know because I have a friend who studying/working in the science part.

Anyway, I feel disappointed that me mam is not going to support me through this process. Thinking about this just making me angry, sad and alone. I may not be alone but alone away from family and I'm going through a very big step of my life. A life changing for the better.

I dunno how my brother feels about it but he got a lot on his plate so I won't want to bother him. Ian, my father, is over in down under so he would reading this (hello and Thanks for the holiday) Mam is in Scotland who is trying to sell her house to move down to England so she could have a life with her friends she knows for 20 years or so. I do wish her to be happy. She should be proud what she has done for me and my brother.

So the operation is coming so soon....... I am nervous about the operation because I am not so good with hospital at all. seeing blood or needles.. thats me running away. sissy I know for someone who like to watch horror movies! I am excited about the switch on. Its the new start of my life and thats what I am looking forward to.

Even if I go to the operation on my own, I guess I will come out stronger.. In my family we always say this" Glasspell are never weak"

How do we hear?

2008-11-05T19:11:00.009Z

Earlier today I was chatting to this lovely young lady who had her implant six months ago and she was asking about what is the difference between the high and low frequency. I thought it was very interesting as i knew the difference of the sound from flute, volin, to the bass sound. although some hearing aids do compressed the sound to reach to our level so we could hear what most hearing people were talking about. For me things I have never hear sound are like frog in high pitch, crickets anywhere around these sound area. if there are any more sound around these high pitch, please let me know so i could check it out for the first time!

Anyway, as I was saying... its all depend on the memory whether we heard sound before we lost our hearing and how long ago. if a person were born deaf then there is no memory of sound does that person have a good chance to hear anything with the implant? you would said no. but to be honest with you, there are loads of people who have been born deaf with no memory have been implanted. They never heard sound until they have their implant. its amazing. I often wonder how much they hear with the implant. Its still a mysterious.

This young lady, I then gave her this link to see the sample of what sound would look like as well hearing it. This is a great sample where we can test of what we can hear. Please go ahead and check it out. The link is http://science.education.nih.gov/supplements/nih3/hearing/activities/lesson3.htm if you are hard of hearing and need caption.. remember to click on the symbol that produce caption for you to follow.

You can even get to play around with the sound too. just don't annoyed people who still have their hearing with the high pitch. Just because you can't hear the high pitch doesn't mean it won't bother anyone else! lol you have been warned!

To me i can't hear over 8hz it just sound dull or silent to me. I often wonder what sound from everyday life would produce anything with this high frequency. if you know any, please let me know. I know guitar do it.
the sound of everyday look like this

Table 2. Average Intensities of Everyday Sounds

Sound    dB Level My point of view
hearing threshol    0 dunno the meaning of this?
breathing         10 who would want to hear darth vadar?
rustling leaves 20 don't hear this
whispering 25 don't hear this either
library 30 library? just sound of footsteps and book falling off the shelves and lot of "shush"

refrigerator 45 my guess is humming?
average home 50 same as hearing threshold?
normal conversation 60 depend on the tone of the voices
clothes dryer 60 it make a hum noise in low frequency
washing machine 65 does it vibrate like mine does? lol
car 70 can hear the start up engine but won't know the difference if there is something wrong with it
vacuum cleaner 70 very annoying blow dryer sound
busy traffic 75 does drown out the conversation
noisy restaurant 80 also drown out the conversation
outboard motor 80 loud
inside car in city traffic 85 can hear oncoming traffic while in the car as it pass.
electric shaver 85 this goes back to 198 something I've watched pop using it. can't remember how it sound
screaming child 90 want to shut it up as soon as it scream. hurt my head
passing motorcycle 90 love the sound of a bike
convertible ride on freeway 95 noisy whistle noise to me as well wind
table saw 95 sound like scratching
hand drill 100 whirring sound
tractor 100 same as engine to me more of a hiss in between i think
diesel truck 100 dunno the difference
circular saw 100 machine whir?
jackhammer 100 a hammer? bang bang mind your thumb
gas engine mower 105 loud and very annoying
helicopter 105 if it come while i am talking to you, i pick up this over your voice no matter what
chain saw 110 not heard it yet
amplified rock concert 90–130 double echo to me distort and all that. just feel the vibration and would be fine
shout into ear at 20 cm 120 sorry can't hear you mate have to lipsread
car horn 120 was told i jumped while driving so i must have heard it.
siren 120 three different sound to this. also drown out conversation
threshold of pain 120–140 depend on the tone of the voices
gunshot 140 not heard it in real life. will movie count? nope ok
jet engine 140 hurt my ear. no hearing aids during this point
12-gauge shotgun 165 same as gunshot
rocket launching 180 should be loud right? lol
loudest audible tone 194 if it a women ... she would be silent to me.

I hope this help a great deal to people who are interested in how some deaf people hear in everyday sound but remember everyone are different. I have my hearing stable since 1983 so I have learnt to use what i got and learn new sound as much as possible. If I have never heard it before, don't act so surprised, we are willing to find out the sound as soon you tell us what it is.

Group Situation

2008-10-24T09:46:00.005+01:00

Being in the group with hearing aids is difficult to hear what was being said. I was in the restaurant the other day and it was very posh. The ceiling were so high. I got a little worry there as I wasn't expected the ceiling to be glass and so high up. You could imagine the sound would bounced around the room so often its produced echo. This to me sound like being in the swimming pool. I used to walk around the pool to see what sound that i would be missing out before I take my hearing aids off to go swimming.

I tried to set my hearing aids to cut off the background but its failed to pick up what people were saying as they were so quiet. I wasn't sure if it just me or were people were speaking quiet so other tables won't hear their conversation. That was something I have picked up while working in a office. People tend to speak very quietly when they don't want anyone else to hear them... I would constantly said "sorry, but could you speak up?"

In the group situation, its never easy. I would be quite happy taking pictures than sitting at the table wondering what I have missed out. Even lipsreading doesn't work.
But in this situation, it is much easier to say nothing at all. Just incase, I would get it wrong and its too much an effort for other to explain to me what was being said. Many people like me would understand and have been through this many many time and they tend to avoid going out so they won't feel puzzled, left out while their friends or family are enjoying themselves. Or that these people tell me that they would tell me later but they do often forget to explain what was happened or only give the summary but not quite as funny as it first came out. There isn't much anyone can do about that. But I have been told by having the implant, this situation have been improved. Using the implant to enable to hear what was being said in the noisy places and be on a same page as everyone else. This is great news. This will take a lot of practices!

I am not too sure about meeting people who only just been told that I have hearing loss and they automatic go hi and then talk to someone else. Meaning they are avoiding to talk to me. Usually I meet people and never tell them that I have a hearing loss. I rather people just talk to me and figure it out themselves. It usually work. Some people are narrow mind or dunno what to do. Just treat us like human. We are no different.

Source of my new service

2008-09-30T21:02:00.006+01:00

Thought I write a post about my service for a change since its been on my mind in the last few days.

The last few days I have been thinking about advertising in number of places with the deaf charity , RNID, SEE Hear, Deaf News and they are all asking like lot of money to place the ads apart from see hear (emailed them 8 times but still no respond)

You may be wondering what I am doing wrong... basically I think I know why. I grew up being in hearing world with no connection or any idea what deaf connection there were until now. I've joined the yahoo site about the cochlear implant recommend by Alison from facebook. I thought it was interesting how people get together and talk about their experience I've never knew existed. Its lovely to have that little connection.

Anyway, I had few people saying that my new service with subtitles are excellent idea and only wish they had it few years ago. Well what can I said? I was still in Uni back then :P

How I came up with this idea is that I met a girl who used to be my best friend in primary school and had not seen her for 15 years. She has got married a year before and were showing me her wedding album and then the DVD slideshow provided by another photographer.

The DVD slideshow were very nice. lovely music, singing softly, showing all the colour images (not much effect I would say) just simple looking kind) then half way through the DVD , it was showing the speeches. My friend, then fast forward it.

"Wait an minute, what are you doing?" I said

"Sorry, but I dunno what was being said. Its no point for me to watch through all that" she says.

This got me thinking..... She got an wedding album, a dvd slideshow with images and speeches that she will never know what was being said. isn't that a waste of money to have speech on it if she can;t hear what was being said?

So I went away, did some research looking for subtitles service in weddings. nope not one.

I believe it is time for a new change. plus I hear there is a lack of funding for the deaf charity, deafness research. They are always looking for funding, new service, new staff, support, technology, spaces, notetakers, hospital funds. The list just go on. I remember growing up and i was in main stream school and I was supposed to have a notetaker in my classes which I didn;t received. This is coz of lack of staff and funding. Apparently I did very well with some help from my hearing friends. Thanks mates! :)

Subtitles test - to be honest.... I self taught myself on how to get subtitles on the videos, movies and everything. So now that I am ready for the challenge..... This is where I need you all to come in...

You know a lot of people who would be interested in having subtitles on their dvd slideshow.

Please download this image which its a flyer and you can then pass them around to people or give a link to this blogspot or to my website. Bear in mind, that the first 100 customers will get subtitles free. So don't miss out.

I'm not doing it for me.. alright I enjoy the challenges. Thats all I want really.

The real reason is to help people like us who will be growing up having the most available support they will be needed.

Together we will make the difference.

Sorry what?

2008-09-21T13:16:00.003+01:00

Here is me sitting thinking about last night and I feel a little glum about it.

I went to the gig taking photos of the band as requested. There were few people about, chatting sound, some young lads playing on stage making vroom , wailing sounds from their guitar and vibration loud bangs from the drums. The audience were nodding their heads as if they were agreeing with the music. whenever the band were not playing the dj will play some music as a "break" This is where people startled to come up to me.

Some people never knew i had hearing loss which in my case was nice. Some of them knew I have hearing loss but always forget as soon as they come up to me and talk to me by my ear. How am I suppose to lipsread that? never mind hear! its so loud. I got echo, wailing, massive vibration going on. what am i suppose to do? ask the sound checker and dj to turn down the volume and people would hate me. mmm hate sound a bit harsh... Nope ... Some of these people who knew me remember that I can only lipsread in the noises envoirnment but they couldn't hear me when I try to talk to their ear. I was "too quiet" or have "high pitch" voice. Interesting (!)

Isn't it interesting when the background noise is so loud and my voice automatic go to quiet mode as if i was whispering, then when the background is all clear i am loud? or normal? whichever the case it... why is it doing this?

I was told to turn my voice "volume up". I don't know any difference. especially in the noises places!

anyway, the band I took the photos for, was hoping that I would stay behind after their gigs so they could hang out with me... mind you they are bunch of 19 years old lads and I'm 27 years old. yea go figure. I just have a txt message that the bass player fancy me. oooh er! nice to have admirer! lol

As much as I love going to bars and gigs, its always difficult to hear what people says. I switched my hearing aids to setting 2 ie cutting off the background but its doesn't always turn down the background noise enough. My mate and I went out looking for a nice place with controllable volume background. So we found Kro bar in Manchester, lots of people but the background noise wasn't too bad. At least I could hear my voice!!

I even had some guys went up to me and said "Nice camera, can I have your number?" geez I get this alot

So here is me thinking...... implant.... how will i compare this to what i have just experienced..

Will this improve when i have the implant... (I know lots of practices )

if a person speak to my ear where the implant will be... will I hear?

so many questions and i just can not wait to compare it.

Have patience Manda... The force is with you ..... always...

Test yourself

2008-09-18T16:06:00.002+01:00

At last a challenge that I would like you all to test yourself. even I test my own hearing.

I said I would challenge you, so here is it.

Few months ago I met this young lad called Steve and he is my third person who have the implant and probably the only one who have the harmony product. I've arranged my hearing friends and Steve to come along to the pub.. now I'm getting dangerous here. PUB = Noise lots of it!

In the Pub we normally hear lots of crashing sound coming from the kitchen or shouting, tv, loudspeaker ---- very common for us as its drown all the speeches. anyway... My friends were questioning Steve about what he hears from his implant and were very keen to know. Hearing people tend to find it shocking and have no idea how sound would sound like to us. its impossible to explain.

so this test I was saying, imagine yourself in the pub or in a noisy place. Close your eyes. and get someone to say some simple word... not "Can you hear me?" kind of crap just random words and you will have to repeat what the person say to you. I have tried with my hearing aids and I failed. But steve with the implant... my goodness.... he got them all right.. my friends were very impressed.. They are keen to have me to do the test once i have the implant! steady down my friends i said. I explained that it would take me some time to work some sound out after the implant. Steve have been implant for 8 years i think so basically he has lots of practices.

Well Done Steve.

Let me know if any of you have tried the test and what was the outcome! its a great test.

Manda

My view before being implanted

2008-09-18T03:42:00.000+01:00

Hey everyone,

Thought I should start the blog about my journey to the cochlear implant. Some of you already know that I will be having the operation very soon. Date have not yet been confirmed.

I wanna write about my view of sound that I do hear with my hearing aids and how i can look back to this after i had the implant switched on. Thought its a great idea. Don't you think? Glad you agree with me.

The sound that I can hear right now i am in my room in Manchester 2nd floor apartment. The window is open and i can hear the sound of the traffic going by all the time. mostly the sirens go off all the time. I can tell the difference between the police, ambulance and fire engine sirens. if you don't know the difference well I could explain. The ambulance sound like wailing its sound goes up high and went low again in a slow pace. fire engine is nee naw nee naw most of the time. the police was tricky one to explian really they have two sort of sounds. one of them is waazz wazz and its very loud. very annoying. i had to shut my window to block it. the other one .... i can't remember ... need the police siren to come back so i could tell you. i will come back to you on this.

my door to the hallway is behind me and i could hear my flatmate and my neighbour (both hearing) chatting in the kitchen. don't ask me what they said coz i dunno. i just know who is talking by the tone of their voice. thats how i can managed to hear things set by tone.

the more i am used to that tone the more i understand it.

I am very much a music lover. music is a great passion of mine. I do hear music but hearing the lyrics for the first time is very hard to understand so bascially most of my life i had to learn the lyrics over and over til i knew all the words. its may be annoying to some people hearing same song all the time but in the long run i was tuning myself in to this song. understandly the meaning of the song and lyrics to go with it. the tone of the lead vocal singing in low and sad or high when they are reaching out that kind of message. it gave me a shiver with the hair standing up on my neck. its that powerful.

Oh i would love to compare how this song will be like with the implant. Most of you called CI but i rather called them implant as in computering term word (I'm a geek, incase you dunno. yea a cool geek:) ) I will let you know my view after i hear some music with the implant. can't wait

Coldplay is really cool band and i would love to go to their concert. most of the time in the past I went to concert to see Robbie williams, Ant & Dec, Scissor sisters and many more I used my hearing as an excuse to get to the front. It worked and i lipsread the artist most of the way so that I could understand what they were singing or talking about. some i missed out of course.

I went to music festival couple of times and i have enjoyed but i missed out quite a lot..... :( the sound was too loud for me to adapt what was happening and had to relies on what my friends were singing a long to. not much fun but after few drinks and it goes in to your head what does it matter anyway? :)

Get down to the sound was the quote from bill and ted movie. incase u didn't know!

its also from a song in heavy metal band. awesome!

sound i can hear are mostly background noises but if the background is loud and a person is talking to me..... forget it i can't hear this person no chance. i was trying to train my brain to focus on this person with my hearing but had no luck. i have 4 settings on my hearing aids. set one normal sound. set 2 cut off background (to make it quiet) set 3 T loop system mainly use this to listen to my ipod cable free T-link set 4 fm direct connect suppose to use ipod for this but i hate being connect to anything. unless I am in places where t loop system will cause feedback which mean i won't hear music from my ipod.

for the first time I will be using the fm setting when i go on plane to aus in a month time. i just hope my ears will handle the air pressure on the plane for a long time as i had many bad experience in the past. the pressure to my ears was unbearable painful and discomfort. I switched off my hearing aids while on the plane as i find the noises too much plus the batteries seem to ran out very quickly.

must leave a note to myself here......... Manda....... remember to bring your spare batteries!!!!!

i could write forever about sound that i hear but i won't brag about it right now.... just looking at my blog..... its quite long to read. ah well I hope this doesn't bored you. Happy Reading.

Manda

www.aegphotos.co.uk

2008-09-18T01:04:00.002+01:00

Some sample of the wedding DVD Slideshow

images by Amanda Glasspell

caption created by Amanda Glasspell

song by All for one

2008-09-17T22:35:00.005+01:00

Free subtitles on your wedding DVD. Quote caption 29 - see website for details. Don't miss out. Donate will be make to Deaf charity. http://www.aegphotos.co.uk