I am back from my family holiday cruise!  I spent the week with my mom, my brother and his family, my sister and her family, and my son & daughter-in-law and my daughter.  We had a wonderful time!  We aren’t able to be together often, so we especially enjoy it when it works out.

I wasn’t sure how my listening experiences would be on the trip.  Group situations are always more difficult than quieter settings, and there are a lot of different sounds and settings on a ship than I normally encounter.  It turned out that I was able to function quite well in almost all situations!  It’s not that I don’t still need to lip read or have things repeated sometimes, but I am able to follow most conversation with a minimal need for people to repeat – at least compared to what my norm was with hearing aids.  I have learned how to use the zoom mic program in noisier settings and it makes a tremendous difference!  When we sat together in the noisy dining room I was still able to understand people at my table if I made sure to focus.  I still have to work at it in those settings, but it was better than what I am used to!  If the waitress came up behind me or to the side and I wasn’t aware of it, I wouldn’t hear her at all, but those kinds of things are to be expected.  I could understand some parts of the announcements made on the ship but not all.  I was thrilled when we went to a show in the theater and heard a comedian.  I could understand the majority of what he said!  I would say my comprehension/hearing in that situation was better with the CI than with my hearing aid plus an assistive listening device!  Keep in mind that I am still only 3 weeks into using this and am WAY ahead of where I am expected to be!  It is mind-blowing and so exciting to experience!

There were still a few things that were difficult for me on the ship.  I had no way to wake up in the morning at a certain time if I needed to.  I can’t hear an alarm clock or wake up call or even a knock on the door.  In an emergency during the night (when I don’t have my CI on) I would not be aware of any announcements or alarms.  It was also tricky when others in our group wanted to touch base with me.  Normally you would call or knock on the door, but again, if it was a time I didn’t have my device on, I would not be aware of those things even if I was in the room!

I  had the opportunity to use my Neptune (waterproof sound processor).  I chose the Neptune as my second processor for this exact reason.  We travel and we love to be near the water.  I wore it for the first time in the ocean in Costa Maya, Mexico.  As expected, once I submerged my head and the mic got wet, the sound was muffled but I could still hear!  It stayed muffled for several hours after that, even though I tried shaking it out a bit (as per the instructions).  Suddenly it just cleared up and that was that.  It was really nice to have it for times we were just getting sun by the pool area, too.  I didn’t have to worry about it getting wet and could get in a hot tub or the pool as I wanted to without having to do a thing with my CI.  That was awesome.  The next big day to wear it was on a catamaran, beach, snorkeling excursion in Cozumel.  I knew that the strap to my dive mask was going to be a problem.  It goes right across the area where my headpiece lies (and on the waterproof version, the mic is in the headpiece).  I checked with Dianna (my audiologist) before the trip and she told me that it would be okay to wear the strap over it – it would not damage the equipment, but might be uncomfortable.  I worked on getting it all positioned just right – it was a little tricky.  I finally got it set up and when I jumped into the water from the boat (scuba style where you hold your mask and snorkel with one hand and step off in your fins) much to my shock and dismay the strap to my mask came up and my headpiece was gone!  Scary moment!  Thankfully, the processor was still securely clipped to my bathing suit strap and the cable and headpiece were still connected to that!  It was tricky getting it all situated again in the water with waves hitting me during the process, but I finally got it done and this time did not notice an issue with things being more muffled – not as much as before.  Once I got out of the water, it sounded perfectly normal again!  So cool!  It was so great to be able to communicate and understand speech in that situation!  I rinsed my CI equipment with fresh water when I rinsed my mask, snorkel, and fins on the boat and it worked out well.  A woman on the boat heard my family mention to me that I should let one of the crew know about my hearing loss in case they needed to call people in for some reason since I might not be able to hear them.  She asked if I needed someone to sign for me.  It turned out that she teaches deaf and hard of hearing high school students and works with kids with CIs all of the time.  We had fun chatting and she was interested in my Neptune.  She had heard of it but never seen one.  Another man also asked me what it was and was interested in hearing about it.  Quite the conversation piece!  It is the only waterproof processor out there right now, and is fairly new on the market, so I guess that is to  be expected.  I have now worked with it enough to be comfortable doing all of the things necessary to maintain it.  After it has been in the water, you have to remove all of the plastic covers and put the unit in a drying box.  It isn’t hard to do, but some pieces you have to pull pretty hard on to get off and there is a little bit of a knack to it.  It is kind of scary when you aren’t sure what you are doing to be pulling on things like that on such an expensive piece of equipment.  Now I have a feel for it and have successfully done it a few times, so that feels good.  

Another small perk of being a CI user – when we were driving for 20 plus hours each way, I always had the option to take the unit off and could enjoy as much quiet as I wanted for sleep or driving or whatever and the rest of the occupants in the car could listen to whatever music they wanted to at any volume!

That reminds me, one night I attended a karaoke night and although music still doesn’t sound like I know it should, I was pleasantly surprised at the fact that it is starting to sound more like I would expect.  I know it still is not what it actually sounds like, but it is getting closer to something I might be able to enjoy from time to time again.  Prior to this, for years now, music has been more of an annoying noise than something enjoyable.  It was just sound that didn’t really sound like anything understandable or pleasant. The exception is a capella church singing, but that hasn’t sounded “normal” for quite some time either.  I am hoping it will get better and better as I continue to adjust to my CI.

Overall, I am doing great and this technology has far exceeded my expectations!  I thank God daily for granting my request for a successful outcome!