A Day In The Life Of Hearing

October 18th:

I woke up in the morning to sound! I heard the alarm clock without a problem and got up to get ready for work. This was going to be a fun morning...I was about to take my first shower hearing normally! I had read accounts of people saying that the water in the shower sounded like they were in a car wash it was that loud to them. But for me, it was just a pleasant rush of noise. Until I stuck my head under the spray! Yep, I get it now, car wash loud! After the shower I continued my normal routine of getting ready. Blowing my hair dry is one of my least favorite noises. It almost hurts my implanted ear! Think I'm going to be turning the device off while blow drying my hair from now on.
Then I drove to work and was accosted with all the road noise again, but it didn't seem quite so overwhelming this time. When I got to my department the first question everyone asked me is, "So, can you hear?" with big silly grins. Admittedly, though I could hear without my hearing aid, I still had a little difficulty hearing my patients give their medical history. I suppose it will get better and easier as each week goes by but I'm definately not struggling near as much as I was the previous 2 months to hear! I was even able to use my stethoscope.
Lunch time was not isolating and I didn't have to worry about choosing where to sit to better situate myself to hear best. I was missing out on some good gossip before!
I still couldn't get over the sound of swallowing, and actually found it a little annoying! I had no idea! But I say that in absolute amazement and wouldn't trade it back for anything now.

A hospital is a loud place in general and for me it was another overwhelming noise day. My brain is definately not used to hearing everything it does. I was glad to go home when I did. When I got there, I was by myself, other than the dogs, so the house was fairly quiet. I was in the habit of not turning on the TV so I was listening to the sounds of the house while reading. I started picking up on distinct little noises. The refrigerator makes noise, who knew?! Plus I heard two faint, far away beeps that I still can't figure out what they were and various other clicks and pops of the house settling, I assumed. I wished my husband were home to tell me what the noises were. I have a feeling that when I spend the first night at home alone, I'm going to scare myself silly!

When it was time to make dinner I put some food in the oven and went about my business. I was in the kitchen when the oven timer went off and oh my word, that timer is loud! There should be volume control on these appliances!

Then my husband got home from work and I decided the dogs need volume control too! They've got some lungs on them! We settled in with our food and turned on the TV. I could actually make sense of what was being said at a normal volume. Finally, no more blasting the TV at full volume!
My husband asked me what the day had been like for me and I answered that I loved the fullness of the sounds I hear but I was still having a little trouble, so "what?" and "huh?" are still currently part of my most used vocabulary.