What does a cochlear implant sound like at first?
“What does it sound like at first?” This is one of the most common questions I get asked when discussing my cochlear implant journey. For me, it sounded like screechy tinnitus anytime anyone spoke. I’ve heard many say it’s robotic or like Mickey Mouse. This is because a cochlear implant electrode is placed And it took a while before things started to sound natural.
But what I want to know from other CI users is this: When did it hit you/what sound made you realize that you could actually HEAR?
For me, I was sitting on the front step of my parents’ house in during the muggy Midwest summer expecting my muted usual silence and being overwhelmed by the sound of CICADAS! What used to be a calm, meditative act of soaking in the sun and feeling the warm concrete step beneath me turned into a LOUD, frantic and unnerving shushing that I couldn’t stop! It was constant, interruptive and ANNOYING! Swipe right for a video I found on YouTube of a single cicada. Imagine that times 100 and then add in birds, cars and my brother’s basketball bouncing on the pavement then hitting the backboard - talk about a crazy symphony!
From that day forward I often used the phrase “annoyingly awesome.” I was in wonder discovering sounds new to me. The ticking of my car’s turn signal, percussion in the background of David Gray’s song Babylon, squeaky shoes, utensils clinking on plates during dinner and oh my goodness people’s /s/ sounds when they spoke! No wonder years of speech therapy always concentrated on my lisp! My new hearing world was awesome :) However this meant I could no longer study with deep concentration and focus unless I took my “ears” off. It was so hard to tune things out! What was a blended din at the local Starbucks on Main Street turned into baristas calling out orders, beans grinding, steam puffing, portafilters whacking, friends greeting each other and the door constantly jangling. Annoyingly awesome!
Everything was coming at me at the same volume - it would take me time to be able to sort things out and identify what I was hearing. What was so funny to me is that years of speech therapy naturally taught me to tune in to everything and anything I could grasp but now with a CI, I was learning to identify and actually IGNORE background sounds so that I could focus on speech.
It was difficult because for years I had never had access to high frequency sounds - sounds that distinguished speech (consonants), whispering, doors creaking, shoes shuffling etc. While I can definitely hear much better in noisy situations - it is ABSOLUTELY still difficult every now and then - talking on the phone while my toddler pushes her play shopping cart or if our dogs rush the front door is one example! But hearing life is good, oh so good.
