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Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Store security

This past weekends shopping was an interesting experience. As we were waking around I'd ask what this noise was and that noise. I came upon one particular noise that I heard but curiously Lily didn't. I waited and waited... didn't hear it again so I gave it up. Then all of a sudden it hit me as I was walking into a store. My CI was picking up the store detectors/sensor.   I hear them 5 feet before and about 5 feet after.  If you see me running in and out of those kinds of stores you will know why!!  Crazy!!!!

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Realistic Expectations are a must...

Here is a snippet of an article on CI expectations.

My reality - things got much worse at the beginning -so overwhelming.  It is slowly getting better and I can feel the improvements, but I'm still not to a "good" stage yet.  It's only day 40.  I have a long way to go!



http://www.acenta.com/otology.cochlearimplants.asp
Realistic Expectations for Cochlear Implant Recipients
Although an implant will enable better hearing and should improve the ability to communicate, realistic expectations are a must. Implant recipients progress at their own individual pace and should never compare their progress to another recipient's progress. Developing the ability to use and hear with an implant is not an immediate or overnight process. The implant is not an immediate cure preventing patients from ever having trouble communicating again. 

It is highly possible that in the beginning patients will have significant difficulty hearing or understanding with the implant. Some patients are able to immediately enjoy and understand what they hear during their initial mapping session, however many patients with implants describe the initial sound quality as robotic, mechanical or similar to a cartoon character (Mickey Mouse or Donald Duck). Other patients find their initial exposure to sound overwhelming, strange and perhaps annoying. With time every patient experiences significant improvement, step by step. 

Over Time, Three Factors Will Combine To Improve the Sound Quality of the Initial Listening Experience: 
• The nerve pathways and the brain adjust to the new auditory input 
• Repeated mapping sessions fine tune the auditory signal provided by the implant
• Listening experience and listening exercises enable patients to adapt and become familiar with the new input so it is perceived as increasingly natural and pleasant

Improvement depends upon the amount of time and effort invested in the rehabilitation process. This is why the support of family members or friends is extremely important. It is important to have other people available who can help practice listening. The process can be likened to learning to hear all over again, and can sometimes be compared to learning a new language. Sometimes the support of a psychologist or counselor is needed to assist with the coping process associated with adjusting to the implant. 

Factors Affecting the Degree of Benefit from an Implant
Although the amount of benefit an individual receives cannot be predicted with absolute certainty, the audiologist and speech language pathologist can help implant candidates determine realistic expectations and likely outcomes. Individual achievement/success in terms of speech and language understanding and the ability to speak clearly (for patients who were born deaf and have limited or no speech production) is often based upon the following factors:
• Age at which deafness occurred
• Amount of hearing experience prior to deafness
• Length of time auditory information was provided while hearing impaired (i.e. use of hearing aids)
• Age at implantation (i.e. a greater outcome can be expected for a child deafened at birth who is implanted at 12 months than a similar child who is implanted at age five)
• Speech and language ability levels
* Structural and functional status of the cochlea or cochlear nerve
• Degree of recipient and family commitment to the rehabilitation process
• Commitment to use the implant full-time in order to access auditory cues and develop listening skills
• Commitment to maximizing aural-oral abilities
• Commitment to working with the rehabilitation team including keeping appointments, practicing listening exercises and following audiologists' and speech-language pathologists' advice on how to maximize benefit
• Commitment to troubleshooting, maintaining equipment and learning to use provided accessories for various listening situations

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Lydia Callas Wins the week

Lydia Callas Wins the week


In a pretty horrific week, where Hurricane Sandy took at least 50 lives and wreaked havoc on pretty much anything that crossed it’s path – there was at least a silver lining in the middle one of the most terrifying Hurricanes in recent memory: That proverbial Ray of sunlight was Lydia Callas. A few days ago I just happened to watch Mayor Bloomberg’s Press conference where he addressed the subject of the Hurricane as it pertained to his city, I must have been between switching channels at the time, when his sign language interpreter happened to catch my attention. It didn’t take me but a few moments to figure out why, it was the mere expression in which she exhibited her craft: The exaggerated expressions on her face, the extra seasoning on her hand movements, the way in which she put her entire body into every word that she signed – the mere flavor she exhibited made me want to befriend a hearing impaired person just so I could get the motivation to learn sign language. It was a thing of beauty. It was as if she was talking to her homegirl and not translating for the Mayor of New York City during a crisis. I want to hang out with Lydia Callas. I want her to be my sign language hype-woman if I ever decide to grab the Mic and terrorize lesser wordsmiths. I want her to translate the marriage proposal that I deliver to my lady even though I’m sure there won’t be a hearing impaired individual within a square mile. Not for nothing, but I’m going to start putting Michael Bloomberg speeches on my DVR.
Oh, before I forget, peep the part where the Mayor starts speaking Spanish. Ms. Callas shuts down her sign language on some “Yeah, that’s a bridge too far” shit. Absolutely hilarious.

Day 39

Sound is coming along slowly. I'm becoming impatient a bit more for Lily then myself. The hopes for better verbal communication isn't happening as quickly as she had expected. We are working on this.

The suggestion has been made to take up ASL tutoring. When we took classes two years ago was the best time for communication we've experienced in a long time.

Not sure of the best next step.

Friday, November 09, 2012

Just a few thoughts


Few thoughts!
  • ·         A cochlear implant does not bring back per se’ normal hearing. It is just like a hearing aid, except it is implanted.  The sounds are very digital - but the brain should kick in at some point and make sense of it all.
  • ·         It does work wonders for some people, and not so well for others, just like hearing aids.  To find out whether you are a good candidate, you need to consult with your cochlear implant specialist.  Typically normal audiologist just won’t cut it – they just don’t know the real facts and figures.
  • ·         Even with an implant, you will always be deaf, and something like 20 per cent of the time you will not be using it (i.e. swimming, shower, in bed, when playing messy sports), so it does benefit to learn some sign language and lip-reading to use with your family and friends.

Thursday, November 08, 2012

Voting machines / Audiogram

They beep - I heard it!

Now keep in mind - these aren't sounds that those with normal hearing hear, but I'm hearing it as a digital version.  It's fabulous to have that.

Here is a chart that explains sounds well - Thank you www.jtc.org

Wednesday, November 07, 2012

Wow! I have an expensive ear!

Check out this list and total!!

Monday, November 05, 2012

Cochlear implants increasingly used to help kids hear - Living Here - The Sacramento Bee

Cochlear implants increasingly used to help kids hear - Living Here - The Sacramento Bee

New sounds

Who knew!

Security card reader for office entrance - I had no idea that it beeped!
The sound on the freezer if the door has been open too long.
Elevator floor to floor signals.

Saturday, November 03, 2012

I need to start wearing my CI like I wear my glasses

I'm finding that getting up in the morning and putting on my glasses and not putting on my CI is not the best practice   Tomorrow will begin a new trend into both at the same time.  Of course that won't be the case on work days because I wake up and go directly into the shower.

Friday, November 02, 2012

Adjustment #3

It's been only 12 hours since the adjustment.

I've heard new:
the tags on our dogs collars
the incoming message on my messenger sounded very different.  So is my typing on the laptop keyboard right now.

I'll post more as the days progress, as I work from home today and sitting within general quiet.


Thursday, November 01, 2012

Amazon Quietly Begins The Long Road To Closed Captioning Its Streaming Video Library | TechCrunch

Amazon Quietly Begins The Long Road To Closed Captioning Its Streaming Video Library | TechCrunch
"Thank you TechCrunch!"

INGRID LUNDEN

Wednesday, October 3rd, 2012
closed caption
Amazon has quietly started to add closed captioning services to its Instant Video library, following a September 30 deadline from the Federal Communications Commission that required online media companies to begin incorporating these subtitles for the hard of hearing into their video content.
This regulation — an implementation of the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act of 2011 – has been long in the making, with companies like Amazon and YouTube but also Apple arguing that they willneed extensions to fully comply, and those arguing on behalf of people with hearing disabilities saying that digital content needs to be just as accessible as what people can see in analog. The September 30 deadline is the first in a series for closed caption compliance.
But in the meantime, Amazon has, it seems, started to take some baby steps. A reader, Linda, passed us an email from Amazon explaining what is going on, and how to get to the closed captioned content.
Hello,
Closed captions are now available for select Amazon Instant Video titles streamed on the Amazon.com website. Support for additional devices is coming soon.
Customer feedback like yours is very important in helping us continue to improve the experience of using our digital video service. If you’re interested in support for a particular device, please let us know!
While browsing or searching the Amazon Instant Video store in your web browser, you can filter your view so that only those videos that include closed captions appear. You can also see the “CC” symbol on the video detail pages for supported videos.
To browse for videos with closed captioning:
1. From your web browser, go to the Amazon Instant Video store.
2. Go to the Movies or TV Shows storefronts.
3. Set the “Subtitles & Closed Captioning” filter in the left-hand column, and then browse the results.
To search for videos with closed captioning:
1. From your web browser, go to the Amazon Instant Video store.
2. Search for a video title or keyword, and then set the “Subtitles & Closed Captioning” filter to display only those videos that both match your search term and include closed captions.
Some foreign language videos are available in both dubbed and subtitled versions. You can find these by searching on “subtitle” in the Amazon Instant Video store.
We look forward to seeing you again soon.
It is not clear whether the regulations will apply retroactively to all content, or whether it will be only new content that is added after September 30. We are reaching out to Amazon to ask. For now it seems like only a handful of titles come up in closed caption searches.
Netflix has been making updates for a while on its closed captioning situation, as has Hulu.
[Photo: dno1967b, Flickr]