Initial hook-up

The Bionic Woman and her Bionic Buddy

My mom said that she watched 3 years of stress and hard-work melt away into relaxation as we worked on my initial hook-up today.

It is late and I am going to try to give you some brief insight tonight and then expand over the next few days.

First I saw my surgeon... I told him I wanted the stitches out... they are disolving, but I was ready for them to go. After that we went to see Joyce, the audiologist. They start off the session by figuring out "thresh-holds." She started with very little stimulation and then brought it up until I heard something. It is hard to describe what I first heard. It wasn't for me like several of my friends with implants described. It felt like I was hearing through layers. When we hear even through a hearing aid, we are utilizing our natural resources, even amplified sound through the ear is somewhat natural... I guess the way it transfers the information to the brain. Through the implant, the ear is bipassed and the sound is directly stimulating my auditory nerve... the sound is re-routed past its natural course and the result is just strange. What I heard sounded mechanical in nature, but I could immediately give a voice to each person in the room. Dad sounded like roboto dad, mom like a form of herself and adam sounded like adam to me too. I was able to immediately make sense of what I was hearing. I understood words and could even distinguish where the sound was coming from. We even hooked up the i-pod... which has a direct link to the implant and I could listen to music and it sounded pretty normal to me.

I feel like it is a small miracle. The best part is that I am not straining to hear. Volume isn't going to be as much of an issue for me as it has been. I am always feeling like I am straining, so today to just concentrate on the sound... this alone is a huge burden lifted. Noisy environments will always be a struggle, car noise will always pose some extra attention, but I swear that I feel lighter already in this regard. Second, I am today where I had hoped to be in a month to two months from now. I didn't expect to be able to distinguish male from females or follow much, when in fact it was quite the opposite for me. What will be some getting used to is that things sound different...and the way I am getting the information is different, it just feels weird... I know that isn't doing it justice, I just can't think of how else to describe that right now.

I feel like I can relax a little now. Enjoy this small miracle, practice listening to everything in this new way and just hope for things to get better and better.

Those that know me well, know I am a philosopher so I will have lots to say over the next couple of days and I just want to share this journey with our family and friends.

Today was more than Adam and I could have ever anticipated and we are happy tonight, just happy.