Category: Hearing Environment

A Book Review – "Wired for Sound"

On By Glenice SIn Cochlear Implant, Hearing Environment, Hearing Loss, Thoughts5 Comments

I recently finished reading Wired for Sound: a journey into hearing by Beverly Biderman. Beverly writes about her personal experiences as a person with severe to profound hearing loss who chooses to pursue receiving a cochlear implant when it becomes available to her. An excellent author, she also writes beyond her own experience and eloquently shares information about deaf issues as well as technical issues regarding hearing with cochlear implants. Some of the technical information is becoming outdated as this book was written over ten years ago, but as a history of the development of cochlear implants most of the information still applies. This is a very good book that covers a lot of territory regarding deafness and regaining sound. I recommend this book for anyone contemplating getting a cochlear implant.

Fast Talkers

On By Glenice SIn Cochlear Implant, Hearing Environment, Hearing Loss, Listening, Thoughts, What I Hear8 Comments

I know that I’m fortunate that I am a cochlear implant user that can use the phone and is no longer afraid to answer it. I really do as well as most hearing people. Today I spoke with a person that spoke so fast I don’t know how anybody could understand her.


Really fast talking should be against the law. These people should be cited and fined for saying more than eight syllables per second and should not be allowed to work a business phone if they talk so fast you think they may be speaking in a different language.


When I could not understand the name of the company she was calling from, I felt like I was having flashbacks to the days when I started giving up on communicating on the phone. She wanted my business ID number, so I figured it was an employee of one of my clients and I had to make sure I knew who I was talking to before I gave out this sensitive information.


I gave in to something I now do only when I have to and told her I hear with cochlear implants and that I needed her to slow down. “Okay,” she said and then she said the name of her company again – and I missed it. Unh. I hate this. She explained what form she needed filled out and I got that. Did I have a fax number she could send it to? “Yes, I do,” I said and then I asked her again to tell me what company she was calling from. Out it came and I could practically see it speed past my ears and out of reach before I could make out what it was. Aaaaahhhhh! I was getting really frustrated, but I tried to keep a smile on my face and calmly asked her again to tell me the name of her company. Swish, there it went and I had to ask her again. I took a breath and politely told her I missed it again, could she please say it one more time and then I focused and hoped I would catch it this time. She said it again and slowed it down just enough that I got the first two words and I said, “Oh! it’s ____ _____ _____. Thank You.” What a relief.


This is the stuff that wears on my confidence. Fortunately there was quite a bit of the conversation that I did get, so I know that it wasn’t all me. Sometimes I wonder, can they really listen and hear as fast as they can talk?


Beautiful Blogger Award

On By Glenice SIn Cochlear Implant, Hearing Environment, Hearing Loss, Listening, Thoughts5 Comments

Beautiful Blogger Award & Nominations!


Speak Up Librarian nominated me for this award and I am honored. Thank you Speak Up Librarian.


Now here’s my job:
The rules:
1) Thank the person who nominated me for this award.
2) Copy the award & place it on my blog.
3) Link to the person who nominated me for this award.
4) Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself.
5) Nominate 7 bloggers.
6) Post links to the 7 blogs I nominate.

Okay, here we go. I may be repeating some nominations, but it can’t be helped.
(1) Speak Up Librarian – It is always a joy to read her reviews of books or television shows, check out her pictures and share her thoughts about the challenges of being hearing impaired.
(2) Mog Renewed – Has shared her journey from choosing to get a cochlear implant, waiting for the day and now discovering the sound it brings her. She punctuates this with delightful pictures and ancedotes.
(3) Jelly – You know you will get cupcakes, but the variety is a constant surprise!
(4) My CI is Amazing – A friend that I met on another forum, she shares her experience and offers her caring support to others with the same hearing challenges.
(5) Laura’s Medical Journey – Another brave woman facing challenges with a great attitude and sense of humor.
(6) Surround Sound – A cochlear implant user and busy Mom that shares her hearing experiences and supports others in their hearing journeys.
(7) Elliott’s Journey – Ellliott’s mom does a great job of sharing their journey as her adorable son learns and lives life with his cochlear implants.

“Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself”

Interesting, hhmmm, is that one of those things that’s in the eyes of the beholder?

(1) I was a Brownie, then a Girl Scout and finally a Cadet.
(2) I sang in the church and school choirs until my last year in high school when I failed to make the Concert Choir.
(3) I wanted to be a Wave in the Navy, but by the age of 18 my hearing loss had progressed to the point where I couldn’t pass the physical.
(4) I had a motorcycle when I was 19.
(5) After a van hit me when I was driving my motorcycle, I traded it in for a Fiat X19 (2 seater sports car) – I loved that car!
(6) From the time I started thinking I would be a mother someday, I always knew I would have three girls. I just knew.
(7) The man I married was my kindergarten sweetheart. He kissed me at the drinking fountain and I told the teacher!

This Is Who I Am

On By Glenice SIn Bilateral, Cochlear Implant, Hearing Environment, Hearing Loss, Listening, Thoughts, What I Hear7 Comments

Sometimes a dream can seem so real that when you wake up you wonder if it happened. I had a dream like that last night and what I dreamt is impossible, but it seemed so real. I dreamt that my husband was leaving for work, on his way down the stair he said over his shoulder, “Good-bye,” and I responded, “Good-bye,” and then it hit me, I didn’t have my processors on. I said, “I heard that!” and Paul, knowing that I wasn’t hooked up, turned right around and came back upstairs. He was talking to me and I was repeating back to him what he was saying almost word for word. I would miss one now and then, but still we were thinking how could this be? 


After I was completely awake and thinking about this dream I realized it was like dreams I had after I quit smoking. I would dream that I smoked and then in the morning wonder if I did. I didn’t want to start again so I would be relieved that it was just a dream. I guess we dream about what we miss and I think I was missing those spontaneous moments that happen at the beginning or end of the day when I might not have my hearing prothesis on.


This dream surprised me and it feels like it came at an odd time. On the last Saturday we spent at our cabin before closing it up for the winter season, I felt like I had crossed a threshold. I got up that morning and Paul was preparing to take the boat to the storage place. He indicated that he was leaving and I knew I had at least an hour to myself. My normal routine in the morning is to get ready for the day and get my hearing on first thing. On this particular morning, knowing I didn’t need to communicate with anyone for awhile, I decided to relax in my comfortable pajamas, and linger over breakfast and coffee while I enjoyed the vision of the lake outside my window. Sitting in the silence, I came to realize that I have finally found peace with my deafness. 


It is okay. This is who I am.


I am a woman who puts on her hearing in the morning

and takes it off at night. 


I am a woman who sleeps in total silence

and wakes to the morning light. 


When I look out the window to see what kind of day it will be, 

I may notice the birds in the branches of a nearby tree.


I need not wonder if they are chirping or singing a song,

even though I knew their silence many years long.


It is now in my blessings a matter of choice,

If I want to hear birdsongs or the beautiful human voice.


The sounds of life are mine to have no matter the place,

And the silence is mine to choose, to reject or embrace.

Vaulted Ceilings and Wood Floors

On By Glenice SIn Acoustics, Bilateral, Cochlear Implant, Hearing Environment, Hearing Loss, Listening, What I Hear5 Comments

Where I live, the popular home design for quite a while now has been vaulted ceilings and wood floors. I cannot think of another design in home planning that is more unfriendly to the hearing impaired except maybe smooth tile with vaulted ceilings. 


I really enjoy hearing with my cochlear implants and in most situations I hear very well. In my own home I have a combination of carpet and brick tile and my ceilings are flat and eight feet high. Sound doesn’t bounce or echo like it does in homes that I have been in with wood floors and vaulted ceilings. 


I find these homes to be so irritating the way sound bounces around that it is getting difficult for me to enjoy going to the homes of friends or family with vaulted ceilings and smooth floors. I don’t want to limit my social life again due to hearing issues when it seems like I have just gotten it back, but more and more I find myself in this situation as friends and family buy or build new homes.


Why are acoustics in home design ignored? Why is this design so popular? The world is  noisy enough without creating a situation in your home where noise is amplified. Do others think about the acoustics in their home or is it all about big space?


In my home I want cozy, warm, conversational space. No vaulted ceilings or floors that bounce sound for me.