SOday!

SO = 'switch on'... I am one switched on babe. OH MY GOD! (Plain 'omg' just doesn't cover it.) I really can't believe what I'm already able to hear.
But let me start at the beginning.

Thankful for not being dizzy today (hoping I've cracked it now!) we set off just after 9 a.m. and were just nice on time for the eleven a.m. appointment with the audiologist. I was to go home with the Med-El Rondo (as that was supposed to have been ordered) but a slight mix-up, soon to be remedied, meant I was presented with a different model... in the blue I'd requested. A whole suitcase-like affair! No worries, my Rondo has now been ordered and meanwhile I have one on loan. It won't be blue after all as the Rondo only comes in 4 plain colours so I will have one in a light grey... doesn't matter anyway, I will be ordering customised stickers for it :) Watch this space.

The audiologist first showed how to open the Rondo and change batteries. Giant ones compared to my HAs, and three that last roughly 3 or 4 days, as opposed to one lasting 5 or 6, so that will be quite expensive. We're told that Med-El provides a supply to cover the first two years already, so that's pretty cool - it's all rather relative though really as the whole shebang comes free, including the operation and hospitalisation etc. You don't hear me complaining.

He also put a slightly stronger magnet in it as my implant still has a bit of swelling around it. It's still a very light contact, but feels safe, especially with the short safety wire that clips into your hair. It's so unobtrusive, it's hard to believe! Nothing in or on my ear at all! I mean, you can see, it but who cares?

Then the audiologist plugged me in to the computer via a cable and another loose processor and we started adjusting levels without any hearing aid in. The first thing I heard was a wee 'I'm switched on' sort of jingle, rather similar to my hearing aids. After a few seconds I had to listen to various beeps getting harder and harder until just before it sounded or felt too hard. As each beep got established, the next one would be higher... and higher, and higher... and I couldn't believe it, but higher yet! I haven't heard that high in years so this was rather emotional for me. It came totally unexpected and I was in bits! I really wanted to howl! I was hearing them really clearly... not like during a hearing test when you can sort of tell they are giving you a beep to hear but it's so high, you just don't.
Then the same was done for lower tones, and then I had to say if the next tone was higher or lower. After all that, I got to put the Rondo on my head. I'm calling it clunk, click but it really doesn't :)

WOAH! hahaha that sounds hysterical! Rather like when, as a kid, you'd speak into a tin can. Or like those songs from 'the roaring 20s' where they're singing through a megaphone. And what the HELL is that noise? oh it's the wee plastic bag on the table? And oh my own voice sounds really funny hahaha. And a pen ticking on a glass sounds really really silly! The audiologist spoke behind a paper and I could hear him although not make out what he said. (That will all get tested properly next week when I go to speech therapy, as well as when I have a full hearing test again.) Well this should be fun!

And it really is! I can NOT believe what I'm hearing! By the time we leave the hospital and get on the bus at the door, my own voice already sounds more normal, as does J's. What's that squeaking I wonder... oh it's seagulls!! And who knew that the bus door peeps three times before closing? And I can hear that woman over there speaking! And what on earth is that booming noise? Building works? Oh it's the wind?! WAAAH!

It's all still a bit tinny, but only in the background. As we came into our street I heard three distinct peep peep peeps... a blackbird! Not quite yet as it should sound but I HEARD it! I feckin' heard it! This is only day one... heck HOUR two or three and I'm already hearing stuff I haven't heard in years. I am really totally overwhelmed with stuff but it's really not that bad, just, well... new! The train home was loud but bearable (also with a peep signal for 'doors closing')... and I am still not wearing the hearing aid on my right ear (haven't even tried the left one again yet). I really can't believe the difference so far, nor how it's even changed since first switch on. No way this is going to take me months to normalise... surely?!

The dog's claws on the wooden floor... the toilet flush!!... the tap running, J's coffee machine... this typing racket!! But all of it, already sounding more normal than it did at first. I have volume control on my remote control (!!) as well as a 2nd programme that makes things even louder, but I've only to use either of them gradually and even then they will be adjusted over the coming weeks to the limits I can take. There are also buttons for directing the mic, pinpointing it more and of course buttons for telephone, audio loop and I think eventually 4 programmes. Isn't it just fabulous?

J took little videos on his phone but only one turned out... here it is. I'm listening to beeps before putting my hand up as 'loud enough'.

So it's been quite a day so far. Curious to know how it will work with my home audio loop for TV use... didn't seem to work with my streamer on the computer, but I'm perhaps doing something wrong there. There's telephone use to try out which will be funny as you hold the phone to the implant instead of your ear... we''ll see how that goes. I'm dying to hear the grandchildren. I've been able to hear them ok but this will be different, and better. Oh and music of course... and more birds sounding even better! I like that I can switch off any time, same as the hearing aid (in fact if I lift the rondo just 2mm above the implant I'm deaf again) but I love just how much better I'm very obviously going to be hearing, and in fact already am.

So many things to listen to, only one Rondo! ;)