Do those of you who are HH or with a CI have tricks to understanding the world?

jonnyghost said:
I was actually laughing when i read the list he gave me. Not because these things don't work, they do but because these practices are rarely available in real world situations. Friends and family like to go to bars, restaurants and parties where there is often live music and I cannot understand anything. Hospitals and schools are not much better. And none of it helps with phones. I knew there wouldn't be any magic jellybeans when I made the appointment but I thougt there might be some help.

Thanks about the bike. Bars start off low so it's real nice to ride. Not like my cafe racer :D
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Most important first: There's a guy in our neighborhood who has a Ducati 1000 . I watched him rip/speed to a wide corner and spin on his bike and whip back to his house. He's in his 60s. Another slightly younger guy has a Suzuki 1300 racing bike (he also has a Corvette used as a pace car in one of the races) that better resembles the Ninjas. No way am I getting on either of them. I like the speed and I typically drive my car at the speed limit or just under. I don't want a ticket. But put me on my bike and let me rip. I love riding corners and moving the bike more on its side. I had fun hitting footpegs and not crashing (I wasn't even remotely worried because the bike was under control). I've never gotten a speeding ticket on the bike.:cool2:

Onward to unmagic beans. When I worked, my number one rule was to go to lunch in decent acoustic restaurants. People always worked with me with that. But with the CI, bars are out of the question. Nothing helps with the phone. But pre-implant, my magic beans worked well for me.

I have a quote from a source I've been advised not to trust - Wikipedia - but, "... In terms of acoustics, the prosodics of oral languages involve variation in syllable weight, loudness, and pitch. In sign languages, prosody involves the rhythm, length, and tension of gestures, along with mouthing and facial expressions. Prosody is typically absent in writing, which can occasionally result in reader misunderstanding. Orthographic conventions to mark or substitute for prosody include punctuation (commas, exclamation marks, question marks, scare quotes, and ellipses), and typographic styling for emphasis (italic, bold, and underlined text)."
 
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It's so interesting the various responses we get from CI users on this forum. The CIs work so well for some, and not for others. I looked into a CI about 5 years ago and had all the testing done, but when all was said and done, the CI Audi cautioned me that she didn't think I would gain anything significant in terms of communication (yes, would hear more sounds, but not speech so well) over what I currently get with my HAs. I appreciated her honesty and frankness, and I opted to just stick with my HAs. Haven't regretted that decision.
 
AlleyCat said:
It's so interesting the various responses we get from CI users on this forum. The CIs work so well for some, and not for others. I looked into a CI about 5 years ago and had all the testing done, but when all was said and done, the CI Audi cautioned me that she didn't think I would gain anything significant in terms of communication (yes, would hear more sounds, but not speech so well) over what I currently get with my HAs. I appreciated her honesty and frankness, and I opted to just stick with my HAs. Haven't regretted that decision.
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I'm glad this thread was started, AlleyCat. It has been interesting to me, too. Since CIs deal with the complexities in the brain, the results will likely be very different from one person to the other. My choice was take a very scary chance with a CI or totally be deaf. I feel like I made a bad choice but with analogs en route out and earmolds that wouldn't fit me andddd a partner who was also afraid of either choice we made but who seemed petrified of my going or remaining deaf, I only saw one route - sorta like voting for the lesser of the evils.

I followed the development of the CIs (I'm old enough to have been able to do that some years but not many after the were developed) and had sincere doubts about them and all the marketing garbage and misinformation that followed them.
 
jonnyghost said:
My bike is pretty low so it's not hard to do. Makes pretty sparks at night :D
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:laugh2:How the heck do you see flying sparks? I think my bike has a clearance of 7.5" and where we live now, we had the front of our driveway smoothed out. I dropped it going out and comin' in. No injuries and this was pre-implant. If I looked at the sparks, I'd go down.

AlleyCat: The bike I have isn't made any longer because it can't handle a passenger safely (it's a used 2009). I'm also old and wise enough to not want to be responsible for someone else' life. In younger days, I rode with various people on the back and my bike was 150cc bigger and I hated being a passenger - my ex-husband drove like a nut and I had to get my own bike.
 
Lip reading and visuals is best for me.

I have dabbled into body language. And sometimes in morning, if my brother tells me something, sometimes I tell him - can't hear - but I can make a guess like are you asking me to shovel snow, or what to eat for lunch etc.

If not, sometimes I just go get my C.I and say goodbye to morning peace. ;)

Perhaps the biggest lesson I've learnt is to teach others. That's what I had to do in grade 3, because they thought it'd be a good idea for me to teach about my hearing disability in front of my class.

I was terrified.

But It helped me realize that if you don't teach people, sometimes they add to your frustration. While not all can be taught or refuses to listen, some people will understand and try make the effort.

I told my dad's girlfriend, I had two friends coming over to say hi and they are both hearing impaired. When she said hi, she said in a slightly loud and clear voice. And I was like "has my dad been teaching her?". Cuz I didn't expect that from her haha.

So instead of just relying on lip-reading/body language, I just try tell people. Even people at my old work, where I worked as a Busser, seemed intrigued and I tell them I usually lip-read. One hostess actually would mouth the table number to me, from a distance cuz I usually glance over to see if they need me. Was pretty cool.

Not sure how syllables help? I never have used that sort of method before. Neither the throat sounds - my friend uses that and her translator tried to explain - but she knew I wasn't taught so kind if cool to see different methods.
 
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