Seamless Streaming

It has been a while since I have written a blog post for hearingspanglish.  Life has been busy and I have been on autopilot navigating everyday life with family and work. 

Recently, I have had the opportunity to be involved in several different professional conferences and working groups specific to the world of cochlear implants, hence, reminding me that I am navigating life through amazing cochlear implant technology in this dynamic hearing world.  These opportunities force me to pause, think, reflect.   I have a couple of different experiences that I wanted to share as a result of traveling and networking. 

Beyond day to day cochlear implant hearing, I wanted to share a celebration beyond the day to day listening.  A challenge that I have had is talking on the phone and hearing clearly.  Since being reimplanted and upgrading to the newest CI technology; I am most grateful for seamless bimodal streaming.  Did you know that I can push a button on my CI to answer my phone and the signal not only streams to my cochlear implant, but seamlessly streams to my hearing aid too?  Wow!  For so long I was finding alternate ways to order a pizza or make a doctor’s appointment.  Binaural Bluetooth streaming to my phone has given me my confidence back to make these important phone calls.  To share how much my confidence has grown, I even took on the challenge of calling the airline to have tickets changed by using the phone.  For someone with hearing loss, not knowing who you will be talking to on the other end of the line can be stressful, but I was up to the challenge with this new technology.  Still stressful with accented airline reservationist, but with BT streaming the mission was accomplished!  Always a relief to see the verification email come through with the correct flight information.

Speaking of airlines and airplanes, on my trip to the American Cochlear Implant Conference (ACIA), I was flying on American Airlines.  This airline offers free movies/shows in flight from your personal devices.  I have always been envious of those who are sitting around me with their noise cancelling headphones watching one the latest movies through their air pods.  As I was sitting there it occurred to me that I could do this too with my Bluetooth capabilities.  Within moments I had figured out how to connect and the next hour of inflight travel was occupied.  Too bad my flight was only an hour!

Music to my ears!    Throughout life I have enjoyed the overall sound of music.  If you were to ask me who sings a song, what type of music it is, or what the song is about; I will likely shrug my shoulders.  In the past few months I have caught myself in the car being able to catch a one liner from a song that is playing on Pandora.  I end up looking up the lyrics and realize that I am actually catching a few words of the song.  I know that might seem like a small feat for someone with typical hearing, but for someone with a profound loss, it is worth celebrating!  I am bringing music to my ears with a newfound love for country!

I continue to refine and expand my bionic hearing capabilities.  I am grateful for being connected not only through Bluetooth but with those around me. 

What brings music to your ears?