Hearing Diary

I'm keeping a diary of sounds as I can hear them

Dec 2009	Listening to my iPhone via the direct to processor cable <link>
December 2009	There must be something about this summer and the lessening of the drought. The cicadas are deafening. When I could hear naturally they could make a sound, en masse, which was like a pneumatic drill being applied to your skull! Now it's like they're bypassing the skull, going straight for the auditory nerve!! I have to scuttle inside or turn off the apparatus!
12-23 Feb	In Byron Bay, we stay at the Clarke's Beach caravan park. It's on the edge of Byron town and also a long swathe of bush along the glorious Tallow beach. This means there are birds galore [butcher birds, currawongs] and lizards [water dragons and at least one GOANNA]. There's also crashing surf 24 hours a day and wind - the Pacific Ocean is RIGHT there. Needless to say there's a movie [link], forgive the background noise, I think it's worth it.
8 Feb	More frogs. At Mother's for dinner and I heard the 'clock' sound. I remember when I was in treatment [and staying there] I was often woken by the cacophony of frogs in full voice. Sounded like hundreds of them then.
29 Jan	I was walking down the street, a couple of doors down and I heard the "clock" sound of a frog in someone's front yard - I think they have a little fountain. The nearest creekbed would have been half a kilometre [thats a lot in frog kilometres] away. Ho do frogs know? Can they smell water? Meanwhile the golden crescent moon hung low in the western sky. That was the appropriate end of that day.
11 Jan	More Higgledy-Piggledy bird action. Those butcher birds love to get together and have a sing-song. movie
2008
23 Dec	We went to a movie. I used the telecoil to tune-in to the cinema's sound system. I could make out 70% of what the actors said. With practice I can see it getting better! [Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coen, we thought the cast of GClooney, J Malkovitch, FMcDormand, BPitt was fantastic and the film hilarious!]
17 Dec	Screeching cockatoos sound like screeching cockatoos. I hear they have a baby or two in the tree hollow - wouldnt it be good if I could hear that?!
11 Dec	I could hear something - a voice. Was it coming from next door? It was over there, just beyond the armchair. I could hear a womans voice but I couldnt make out what she was saying. Was the sound coming from somewhere or being generated via radio signals direct to the implant? I listened more. It was chilling. I called my hearing consultant, she could hear it coming from the computer. I listened. That was a relief.
5 Dec	Today I heard cockatoos screeching as they flew over. There's a dead tree that has a hole in it in the park. Often there is a single cockie sitting in there looking out. Whistling is starting to sound like whistling.
29 Nov	Today I heard the famed higgledy-piggledy birds - that deserves its own page [link]
21 Nov	Spoke on the telephone and heard what my father had to say - he had to speak clearer than usual but it happened!
20 Nov	Spoke on the telephone and almost heard what my father had to say - still buzzy! Attempted to hear the butcher birds which were [apparently] in the park. Could not.
19 Nov	Wednesday Met a cochlear contact at the noisiest cafe in Sydney and lived to tell the tale! We spoke at length over coffee and cake and gave the implants a good work-out. Head still spinning!
17 Nov	Monday Speech-reading [lip-reading] class - having the implant actually helped, because I knew what the instructions were from the teacher - before I had to lip-read those TOO! Everyone still sounds like they're using helium.
16 Nov	WENT TO A MOVIE and used the T switch on the speech processor [telecoil] - I can hear at the cinema but couldn't understand - they were speaking french after all! Luckily there were sub-titles as a matter-of-course I called some friends using VOIP [headset, no telecoil], sounded like they were talking thru a towel [why do people do that?]
14 Nov	Went to town - the bus was very loud I heard the Checkout Chick at Coles! Can't hear usefully on the phone - tried an iPhone in town. I can hear the voice but not the intonation - sounds mechanical I heard rain [saw lightning, but didn't hear thunder] Heard the Qantas A380 taking-off over Leichhardt.
13 Nov	Attempted to hear Higgledy-Piggledybirds, perhaps too high-pitched Cant hear myself whistling. Couple of women talking - they talk at the same time!
12 Nov	Lisa Simpson voices Noise at the Rowers' Aeroplane Birds sound like a ratchet Tinnitus: Women humming, otherwise smothered by implant

Listening to Music

Well I've been trying listening to music via cable direct from iPhone to speech processor. Works well, except
• pitch of singers is 'not right'
• percussion is good but overpowering, rhythm is correct
• harmony (Beach Boys) is cacophonous

I can watch movies and podcasts where there is speaking and that works very well. Hardly need subtitles. Lip reading probably helps with those Ive watched.

I wish the cable was cheaper!

Posted with LifeCast

Going Swimmingly

Monday
4 laps walking
6 laps swimming
That's enough increase on distance, now to work on speed and stamina

Posted with LifeCast

Swimming Sunday

4 laps walking
4 laps swimming
I swim breaststroke - I never learned to do freestyle properly and drink too much of the pool.
It's best when it's a beautiful blue sky day with not too many people [particularly lane nazis]. I love seeing the sun glistening on the blue water and little swallows weaving around the air.
Magic.

Posted with LifeCast

Swimming at Victoria Park

Friday 4 December
Swam three laps, water-walked three laps. Kicked off from the end of the pool but the non-functional orientation device and closed eyes meant I was leaning one way or the other, or going deeper instead of toward the surface. Need goggles for visual orientation clues. Breathing out underwater. Still, three swimming laps, not bad.

Thursday 3 December
First time at the pool for so long - last time was at Jabiru [Kakadu] in 2005. No underwater, needed earplugs.

Swam two laps at Victoria Park pool, water walked two as well!!

View Larger Map

Ocean swimming on Saturday 28 November
[here]

2010 Deafness Forum Educational scholarship now open

A scholarship is available for post-secondary students who are deaf, deafblind, have a hearing impairment or a chronic disorder of the ear.

Applications - click the link below

2010 Deafness Forum Educational scholarship

I Can Hardly Believe it!

Today I read Kate Locke's blog entry about her recent trip on a plane. She tried the plane headphones to see if the audio loop worked. Guess what? Thats right!

Later, I thought "I wonder..."
[You can see where this is going can't you?]

I tried the headphones I sometimes use when using Skype, and they worked. Well, on the side with the implant anyway.
Keep in mind this is a device which is primarily designed for speech and is not really anything to write home about in a musical sense. But it worked.
Then I thought "hmmmm..."

I tried the iPhone headset and had a similar outcome. Sound. Not pure unadulterated sound but sound nonetheless.

More developments as they come to hand, or ear, or brain.

Momentous Occasion

Today I swam in the ocean. The Pacific Ocean. The Big Wet.

You might not think this to be such a big deal but it is, for me anyway. It is the first time since early 2002 and probably late 2001 that I have swum unhindered by ear plugs or other ear related paraphernalia for at least 7.5 years.

Of course I have swum at Byron and Bondi but always with ear plugs and careful not to get this or that ear wet. This is not a worry any more.
At first I had the grommet to contend with (right ear). Then bone necrosis and operation stuff on the left side. Now the only grommets I have to watch out for are the surfing teenage kind!

Where did this marvellous occasion occur? At Newcastle Bar Beach. It was a beautiful hot morning and when I emerged from the water I turned around and saw three dolphins out beyond the surf! Do you think they'd been watching?

Later we went to the fantastic Newcastle ocean baths, a deco masterpiece. I walked one lap (hard) and SWAM breaststroke back (no dolphins in the pool). A sense of achievement later and it was time for a celebratory latte.

A perfect morning.

YouTube captions

YouTube, part of Google have introduced a technology which enables automatic speech recognition [ASR] which was developed jointly by the University of New South Wales.

What this means is that captions can be added to existing videos on YouTube, the online video website.
You could even have a script in a text file, to accompany the video footage and the system would synchronise the two.

I can see how this would be a boon for captioners, TV stations [I'm looking in the direction of the commercial channels here], anyone who produces video and needs to provide captions for those of us in the deaf world. Oh yeah, thats the same world as your world.

More
http://youtubeaublog.blogspot.com/

Better Hearing Australia [Sydney] Now Has a Blog!

It is located at
http://bhasyd.blogspot.com/

Check it out!

New ReMap

My audiologist remapped (tweaked the settings) my implant the other day.
I was able to hear and discern music that day. Still sounds very tinny but it was better than the non-melodic, non-rhythmic noise of previous. Hopefully it'll get even better.
I've put some tracks on my iPhone so I can practice hearing them. I think it's best they be familiar songs so I know what I should expect to hear. I've ordered the appropriate processor cable as well.
We'll be doing the speech recognition testing a little later - ran out of time last visit.

Posted with LifeCast

1 Year Cochlear

12 November marks one year since my cohlear switch-on. Seems not very long ago, but I've done so much in this last year.

• Travelled to Italy, Paris and San Francisco, my first cochlear-powered trip
• 7 years past treatment
• 1 year deaf
• Packed up my house
• Had the pre-cochlear #2 operation
• Went to Byron
• Was elected to the Better Hearing management committee
• Acme Computer still going
• iPhone

Poor Cinemas

This is my response to the notice lodged at
<http://humanrights.gov.au/disability_rights/exemptions/cinema/notice.htm>


I am deaf and have a cochlear implant.

I have read the application for the "Temporary Exemption under section 55 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (DDA) from complaints in relation to the provision of captions and audio description in cinemas"

At no point in the application do the applicants explain why they should be exempt from complaints. Granted that they offer the four points listed on the application but there is no justification for their exemption from receiving complaints.

As a deaf person I feel that the application is a mechanism by which the cinema chains will try to shirk their responsibilities to the 1 in 6 citizens who suffer from a hearing disability. I am grateful for the cinemas for their commitments regarding captions and other facilities but I expect that more could, and should be done. I do feel that not enough is done and the cinemas should be aiming for 100% satisfaction for us, their clients, hearing and otherwise. It seems difficult to get action on captions and also audio loop installations and use.

To deny the complaints due process is an unnecessary gag on the deaf 'community'. If we can't complain, what other avenues are there that cinema chains might respond to? Their internal quality control mechanisms? This smacks of 'self-regulation', something which time and time again fails the consumer, but protects the provider from having to improve service. We need open and fair feedback - surely the cinemas would welcome that free facility.


Thank you for the opportunity to comment
John Couani

One year down, on 22 October

Can you believe it? I can't

It is now one year since the implant was implanted.

It has been a big year

• Seven years and counting past treatment, no other news, which is good news
• Switch-on of the cochlear implant
• Speech-Reading
• Appointed to the Better Hearing Committee
• Let my house, living under the Reign of Tok
• Made more pasta, more culinary triumphs
• 'Round the world again [#4]
• Finally got back to Europe - that's another blog. [highlights - Assisi, Paris]
• San Francisco again [The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in SF. Mark Twain was right]
• Sold my car - where are the smaller cheaper cars?
• More blogging
• Had too much time off

Submit to the Senate inquiry into hearing health [Australia]

My submission
I went 100% deaf in 2008 and use a cochlear implant.
 
Hearing is a health issue just as sight is.
It should be covered by the Health department and Medicare, not Department of Ageing.
The issue of captions on TV should be a primary issue with the ACMA.
 
Health insurance for cochlear implants is charged at the highest rate. Why aren't they and hearing aids covered by Medicare and perhaps hearing aid and cochlea batteries a tax deduction? They should be.
Cochlear implants need to be insured as part of household goods, not as a special top-dollar one-off item.
 
There should be requirements for media outlets, TV and cinema in particular to maximise the access provided for those who can't use their existing facilities. The media outlets collect plenty of advertising revenue - they can cover the cost of captions on TV and audio loops in cinemas.
 
ABCTV
iView [internet media] needs to have captions NOW. No more delays. Other TV outlets too.
--
Make your views known
Send a message to this address

Or write to:
Committee Secretary
Senate Community Affairs References Committee
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra  ACT  2600

Submissions should be received by 9 October 2009.

Subaru gone

My beautiful car TUZ442 has gone.
Over the past few years I have been unable to hear the clutch and had to replace the clutch about a year ago. I'm going to go for something smaller and automatic. Probably a Toyota Yaris or similar.

I had my green Subaru for about 9 years. It was the best car to drive in the wet and was great to/from Byron and around town too.

Goodbye - enjoy your new life, hopefully rust-free.

What I did

On Tuesday at Better Hearing Australia [where I do my lip-reading classes] I gave a little presentation to the massed audience [of about 20] which consisted of the pictures from my Europe 09 expedition.

I imported the images from the trip from my digital camera into my computer, using a program called iPhoto. [On a Mac]

Then I edited the keywords for the final sets. Once the sets were established I uploaded the sets and pictures to my web album.

They are available on Picasa in the various sets. [link]

The next export was different. I created a slide show from the images, no music, 5 second duration for each image and exported the entire set's slideshow as a quicktime movie, to a file on my desktop.

At this point I might have imported it to iMovie to add captions, titles and other stuff. But I didn't this time.

I imported the exported slideshow to iTunes and then converted it to iPhone friendly. The iPhone friendly version was then synchronised [sent to] with the iPhone and is available on the phone for viewing.

But how to show it to 20 people? Bit too close for comfort.

I have a cable which connects the iPhone to a TV. So, I could play the movie starting and stopping as appropriate, using the iPhone as a wired remote, and giving my commentary.

Also at BHA they have an audio loop so those of us with the appropriate hearing device can hear what's said. That made it all very easy to get the message across.

It all worked quite well!

Head underwater

The operation of August has been pronounced a success as previously reported.
The CochProf has now advised that I may get my left ear wet.

This is momentous

• I don't need to wear earplugs in the shower surf or swimming pool
• I can swim unhindered, although I willbe completely deaf while doing so - no waterproof speech processors for implants
• It has been 7.5 years since I was able to do that
• Grab your boogie boards and let's head on down to surfside!
  

They Made a Mess

On Friday night I spent 3 or 4 hours at Casualty.
I have swelling where the fat graft was taken about the size of half an orange.
It was diagnosed as a haematoma so back onto antibiotics. Grrr!
At least they didn't have re-open me [yet] and remove anything.
[Wikipedia]
This kind of bruising is excessive and shouldn't happen!

A success

Now for the gory bits. Careful - they're in the next paragraphs
Saw the CochDoc today and my recent operation was pronounced a success.

Here's what they did
The bones in my skull near the left ear are affected by radiotherapy. It's called necrosis and the bone is rotting. This means that there is a great risk to having a cochlear implant on the left side, if they'd even do it. The fix is to remove the dying bone and clean the area up so that the implant won't fail.
In the course of that operation they also removed the ear canal, the drum, inoperative anyway, and other parts of the ear mechanism including two of the three minute bones. The third bone was left to avoid risking any balance I may have remaining in that ear.
Once that was cleaned out, a fat graft was taken from my gut, laughingly called a tummy-tuck by the wags, and any space created in the ear filled to avoid infection.
Also they left a plastic tab which the CochDoc can use, kind of like a post-it note - "Sign here--------->"

The operation was performed under a general anaesthetic. Because of my radiotherapy experience I have fibrous tissue in my throat, which makes it stiff. When you're under a GA they want to keep you breathing so you breathe thru a tube which normally they pass down your throat [I was asleep] Apparently my neck is too stiff and my jaw won't open far enough so they passed the tube down my throat via the nose and thus avoided the bruising of last time. [Link]

The operation went longer than they expected and was more challenging than they expected. However they did prevail and the CochDoc did make the 'successful' pronouncement today.

I was able to have a shower after not having one for a week. It was a good one, like when you've come back from travelling and you just want to get clean. Some wag suggested I might have had a celebratory piss in the shower to celebrate! [Decorum was upheld, don't worry]

What does this all mean?
It means I'll be able to get my left ear wet for the first time in about 4 years, that means I can swim without any earplugs for the first time in 7.5 years!
It means that my second cochlear implant can go ahead - I'll be able to have more stereoscopic sound, hopefully I'll be able to discern direction. It may lead to better discernment of sound generally so I can hear you at the coffee shop or just walking down the street - at the moment everything comes to me thru one ear at the same time. Noise covers everything.