I received the transmitter for my cochlear implant two weeks ago tomorrow (Friday, July 16) and I simply cannot believe how much noisier my world is--the clink of my spoon on my yogurt bowl resounds on my left side, even though the bowl itself is on my right. Previously, I’m not sure I would have registered this sound even in my “good” right ear. When I walk around my neighborhood, the sounds of cars, garbage trucks, birds, dogs barking (especially if I don’t see them first and Rosie tries to pull me over in order to get to them), all come at me at once. The sound of the T a mile away from across the valley, squawking and clanking, is now a constant rather than an occasional friend.
On Wednesday, I had the honor of presiding at Ceil Weinstein’s funeral in Brockton. In my rush to finish the eulogy (they always take longer than I imagine--if you’d like to read it, click here) and to prepare myself, I left my transmitter on my dining room table. Its absence registered when I realized that the radio was not as “full” (if that’s the word for it) as it has been with the transmitter. As it was too late to turn back, I decided that the day would be an experiment.
How did it go? Well, at the funeral itself, I suppose it was helpful, since I immediately reverted to my deaf self’s habit of speaking a notch or two too loudly--that was perfect for a socially distanced outdoor funeral. But at the shiva afterwards, the lack of a left “ear” meant that I was again struggling to figure out where voices were coming from, which ones were directed at me, and how to angle my head to make sure I could hear people. I realized that the “no transmitter” experiment was not worth the trouble; I cut it short and picked up my transmitter (and the dogs) on my way back to Danesh.
Finally, I’m happy to report that I’m slowly beginning to decipher more of the stream of seeming gibberish that flows from NPR into my implant. On Wednesday morning, I heard a story in which I was able to make out words and phrases such as malaria, Sub-Saharan Africa, mosquitoes, controversy, eradication, etc. I was excited that I could at least figure out what the story was about, even if the details were scant: some new effort to reduce malaria in Africa involving a controversial way of controlling mosquitoes. Helpfully, my phone subsequently sent me an alert to the story in question, which you can read by clicking here.
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