toaster vs doorbell

What a ride it has been for these last two weeks of re-activation. There is so much sound to hear and learn all over again. I experience quite a bit of fatigue as I go through the day hearing and listening! The level of fatigue I deal with is probably the part that is most unexpected to me and I realize it will pass once the body and mind gets used to the electronic stimulation. The doctor says it will take a month. I had a very good and alert kind of day on Easter Sunday and crashed by 8pm that night. I have been recovering ever since... I was grateful for the steady stream of energy that day and it gave me a sense of being my old self again. The CI is overwhelming, confusing, and somewhat beautiful all at the same time. It requires alot of perserverance to sort the sounds out. I deal with static noise in my head and the audiologist tells me its my brain sorting out the sounds. As sounds become more clearer, the static lessens.

I now realize that I have a toaster oven that makes a 'ding' sound when the toast is ready. With the hearing aid, and IF I was standing next to it, I would hear a click. No longer do the girls have to tell me the toast is ready as I can hear the toaster ding from another room! I don't hear the doorbell, just yet. This is so odd to me as I've had no problem with doorbells before. Again the CI team insist the sound will come. This is the irony. I am alerted to the door and instead it is the toast thats ready! I have learned to decipher the difference - according to memory the doorbell should do a 'ding dong' and the toaster only does a single 'ding.'

Then there was the day I heard the beat to music and no one else did, except Kirsti who had the earplugs attached to the MP3 player playing, and she was many feet away. Mom was bewildered with me as I insisted the music was playing in the house.

I am very lucky to have my mother here. She is so much help in every way I could write a page about her tremendous support. She is the one that keeps people from lining up at the door wondering why I won't answer. She tells me, "its the doorbell." She is also there to eat the extra toast while I test just how bionic my ears are.