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- Hit the road to cheap motoring by switching to an electric car
- Overcoming disability as a barrier to college education
- Irish Sign Language in schools for deaf children
- Connected: How a Cochlear Implant Made Me More Deaf
- When signing is singing
- Classic cars and the NCT
- IT conversion courses – not all employers are converts
- Open Days: smoothing the way to third level
- Live captioning phone app on the way
Category Archives: Cochlear implant
Start me up
Activation is scheduled for 2pm today. Quite late in the day. I’d prefer if it was in the morning time. I’m so ready to go I can’t concentrate on my work this morning, even with a deadline looming large. I managed to sleep fine though, surprisingly enough. Start me up.
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Oh dear, this is not what i wanted to hear…
From the website of the company that made my implant, and which is the very same one that is the subject of this recently announced action: http://funnyoldlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/3dee13b8-dccb-11e0-bdec-3e9a655fb7c9_cochlearmonday.pdf (via Tina Lannin’s blog: I Look So I Can Hear.) This follows a major recall by another cochlear implant maker, Advanced Bionics, which it is only just emerging […]
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Mechanical brain to meet computer hearing
When you explain to people what happens when a cochlear implant is activated for the first time, it probably does sound very unnerving (literally, as it’s my auditory nerve that will be subjected to a merciless cascade of electrical stimulation). It certainly is for me, but at the same time I find there is something […]
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To be a cyborg, or not to be a cyborg, that is the question.
Lots of cochlear implantees often talk about becoming ‘cyborgs’ as a result of getting their cochlear implant. Most do so for comic effect, others because they think it sounds cooler than the term ‘prosthetic’ (which is essentially what a CI is), but others are deadly serious. The term isn’t very useful as a label, though, […]
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A week is too long when you’re waiting to be switched on
OK, just over a week to go. I’m battling with a mix of emotions, including excitement, trepidation and frustration. The frustration comes out of the increasing feeling that my life is kind of on hold, partly because I only have one ear together with a hearing aid that is providing, at best, 20% hearing. I […]
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Doctor, doctor, help me find GOOD easy-listening music
The Observer newspaper’s now-defunct Music Monthly supplement had and interesting segment called record doctor, where celebs would get a music ‘makeover’ broaden their musical tastes based on what they listened to and liked in the past. I suspect that I will probably need such a service in the months to come, once my cochlear implant […]
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A weird pendulum effect
It’s nearly three weeks since my operation, and I’m feeling fine. It’s still another two weeks to go before my activation, or switch-on and, suffice to say, I’m counting the days. The scar is healing OK, and the left side of my head isn’t so sore to touch anymore. My ear is still numb, but […]
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What is a cochlear implant?
Ok, some context may be required here as to why I now have a computer in my head, and which is due to be booted up on 13th September. If you’re reading this, the chances are you know something about cochlear implants, but if you don’t, here’s a reasonably succinct, 100-word explanation: A cochlear implant […]
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I’m getting a computer in my head…
As hinted in this recent article here, I’m getting a computer put into my head on 10th August. Eek. That’s like, just four days away. Fingers crossed. More soon. Update 16/08/2011: Back out of hospital. All good. There’s now a computer in my head. Stitches out wed. Boot-up scheduled for 13 Sept. More soon.
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An understated moment