The first time someone told me they could hear something different in my speech was when I was 20 and on my first date with my husband, Paul. I had just told him about my hearing loss diagnosis. I was a little taken aback as I had not thought about the affect hearing loss might have on how I talked. He never brought it up again until after I had my cochlear implants for awhile. Now, if my speech changes, Paul says I need to go to the audiologist and get my cochlear implants adjusted. Apparently the first letter that goes is “S”. That is why sometimes when people ask me my last name they think my response is Wenson!

There was one other time the subject of speech came up, but with my mother. I was a hearing aid user at the time and it was obvious that there was a limit to how much they aided me. I had stopped singing in church because I could not hear myself well enough to know if I had the right notes. I shared this frustration with my mother. She thought about it for a moment and then asked me to make her a promise. She said, “Even if you lose all your hearing, promise me you will never stop talking.” I paused for a moment before I answered her. Knowing myself, the perfectionist that I am, I wasn’t sure I could keep that promise but I made it anyway. Deep inside I knew that if I felt that I was not speaking well I would stop talking.

My speech did change. I did not realize it was happening and my family never said anything to me. I adjusted to my hearing loss with increased lip reading skills but that did not help me with my speech. It was only after I got my cochlear implants that my family admitted my speech had shifted with my hearing loss. They had to share the truth as they were telling me how much it had improved with the better hearing I was getting from my bionic ears.

Recently, just after Christmas,  I decided to try enjoying an activity that I loved when I was a kid. I went to the local arena with my daughter to go ice-skating. It had been many years since I’d been on ice skates but I was feeling pretty confident that I could pick it up again. Unfortunately I fell and broke my left wrist.

As a web developer and a blogger I spend a lot of time on the computer. I am a fast typist with both hands working. Now what was I to do? I knew that I had dictation in text messaging on my iPhone. I decided to take a look around on my MacBook Pro and found that I have dictation there also. I continued to look for it in the apps that I use regularly and discovered that dictation appears under the edit menu in everything I use. With dictation I was able to get long text messages written out so that all I have to do is proof, correct, then copy and paste to where I need it. It has come in handy during my time of recovery.

I also discovered another beneficial use for dictation on my computer. Practicing elocution! As I have been using dictation for about a month now I am able to see when I drop a consonant or do not say a word clearly. The dictation on my Mac computer is quite accurate. If I am speaking clearly it often gets whole sentences right.

Not only did my cochlear implants give me back the gift of hearing, they kept me talking and if I know the song that is being sung in church I sing-along. I haven’t tried singing to the dictation yet. Hmm, I’ll give it a shot – such as feelings coming over me there is one most everything nine see not a cloud in the sky got this and I won’t be surprised disagree – guess what song that is? It is a good thing that dictation doesn’t record tune. Maybe I’ll open up GarageBand and see what I can do with that. Love my bionic ears and love my Mac!