Julie's How long does it take.

The number one question that I am asked is, “How long did it take you to understand speech with your CI alone?”  I normally will not answer that question . . . until now.  The answer is . . . 400 hours of listening to sound with only my processor on and no hearing aid in the other ear.  That is when I first noticed.  It was 880 hours when I realized I could do it well.  If you noticed, I didn’t say “one month” or “two months”.  That is because the brain has to be forced to use the CI, otherwise, it will use whatever is easiest.  In order to force the brain to use the CI, you have to remove your hearing aid or plug up your good ear.  I did not wear a hearing aid at all after I was activated.  I wore my CI, by itself, for 16 hours a day and I slept for the other eight so that part doesn’t count.  Let me give you some things to think about.

 

Are you right-handed, left-handed or ambidextrous (use both hands equally well)?  Only about 1% of the population is ambidextrous.   When we are very young we are trained how to write.  Typically, people are trained using their right hand.  They write the letters over and over and over again until they get it right.  The brain then figures out that “Oh!  It’s easier to use my right hand so I will continue using it.”  Does that mean that you can’t write with your left hand?  No.  Does that mean that your “bad” hand, (in this case, your left hand) can’t do other things?  No.  If you have learned how to use a computer keyboard properly then you type equally well with both of your hands.  If you are a musician and play the piano or flute, for example, you play your instrument using both hands equally well.  But, if you are right-handed, you likely use your right hand to brush your teeth, brush your hair, feed yourself, and do most other tasks throughout the day.  So, what would you do if you broke your fingers in your right hand and had to have a cast over your whole hand?  Would you starve to death?  Would you have someone else feed you for the whole time you have your cast?  Of course not!  You would train your left hand to do the job that your right hand used to do.  And, because your right hand was in a cast, you would be forcing your brain to do it.  Would it be awkward at first?  Of course!  Would it be difficult?  Of course!  Would it be frustrating?  Of course!  Would you likely poke your face with a fork a few times or spill food in your lap before finally getting good at feeding yourself?  Of course!  But eventually, your brain would figure it out and adapt and it would use your “bad” left hand just as well as it did your “good” right hand.

 

Now let’s pretend you and your friend, Jay, wanted to learn Japanese.  You both sign up for the same one hour online class.  You stay in America, take the class at the same time each day and don’t do anything else in Japanese the other 23 hours of your day.  Jay decides he really wants to learn it quickly.  He moves to a remote village in Japan where he lives with a Japanese family.  The whole village speaks only Japanese and so does the family he lives with.  The signs are also in Japanese.  When he goes to a restaurant or to the store, all he hears is Japanese being spoken around him.  He takes the same one hour course that you do.  But he is hearing the words that he has learned in his lessons throughout the day.  He is also hearing many other words that don’t make sense to him but he’s listening and picking up the dialect, the rhythm of the words and he is trying to use the words that he has learned in each lesson.  Who do you think will pick up Japanese the fastest and who will actually remember it when your class is finished — you or Jay?

 

By removing my hearing aid, I forced my brain to use my cochlear implant.  I didn’t give it a choice.  I did one hour of “active” rehab every night.  I listened and read along to audio books for 30 minutes every day and I did 30 minutes of various apps and other programs.  For the other 15 hours a day, I listened to music.  I talked to people.  I went for walks outside to hear other sounds.  I went to restaurants.  I watched TV.  I went to movies.  If I had only done that one hour of rehab and then put my hearing aid back in it would be like taking the class without doing any homework or using the skills that I was learning.

 

If you have been doing the rehab every day for an hour for two months but put your hearing aid back on the rest of the time then consider that you have put in 60 hours.  At that rate, you probably have about another year to go before you begin to understand without reading lips — assuming you keep practicing diligently for that year.  Now maybe you’ve had your CI for years and think it’s too late for you.  It’s not.  I was activated about the same time as a friend of mine.  It’s been over five years.  She refused to take her hearing aid out.  For five years, she insisted her hearing aid was better.  Her audiologist recently gave her a challenge.  She was asked to keep her hearing aid off for 30 days.  She has done it and has heard things in that 30 days that she hadn’t heard in five years!!  She just finished her challenge.  Now she is going to keep going with it because she can see how beneficial it has been for her.

 

I can’t promise you that you will not need to read lips if you go for a month or two without wearing your hearing aid.  There are other factors that play a role in how fast we get to that point.  Some of it has to do with age, how long you had good hearing before you began losing your hearing, how long your auditory nerve was stimulated, etc.  But I will promise you that in the majority of cases, you will be much better off than you are now.  Will it be awkward?  Yes!  Will you be frustrated?  Yes!  Will you want to give up?  Yes!  Will it be worth it in the long run?  YES!!!  So, quit making excuses and just do it!  I challenge you!