NUS Biathlon

Done my NUS biathlon and the timing was not as good as before. Anyway, there are many more competition ahead for me to participate. Last Monday, I went for the training with JC Low who corrected us the proper swim strokes to maximise the efficiency in the sea water. We trained for almost 2 hours and then we went off. I went off to Junction 8 and waited for Collin to pick me up.

Yesterday I went for Japanese class and my Japanese classmate aced through JLPT 1. Wah lao....I failed JLPT 2 and it was my first time in my history of education to fail the national examination. I never never have had failed any examinations from Pri level to University level. It was such a shame that given my clean record to pass all the examinations, especially with exceptional high marks, I only failed JLPT 2 which was equivalent to GCE 'O' Level standard. I wish I could speak Japanese fluently...but more practice is still required.

Anyway, I received an email from a cochlear implantee who went for cochlear implant operation to acquire better hearing. He shared a lot of his insights after his operation and he remarked that cochlear implant gave him a positive and full LIFE and he is able to complete Grade 8 Piano course. Wow...The idea of going for cochlear implant is not remote for my case as I have to think of my future especially career. In order to climb the career ladders, communication is extremely vital especially teleconversation. This fact will never be denied though some people try to mitigate the bare truth that they do not really like to communicate over the phone. But the bottom line is that they have to make some necessary phone calls to do the urgent tasks. And who wants to hire someone who cannot do such a simple task like calling someone to solve problems? That is the reality that the deaf has to grapple with. Perhaps, after the Half-Ironman competition, I will find out more about cochlear implant and decide on whether I should go for operation. My parents, Gilbert and Collin fully support my decision if I were to go for cochlear implant operations.

See the excerpt from a cochlear implantee and I have erased the name to protect the identity of someone.

"Morning Adrian,

No problem! Was waiting for your email for quite a few days now and was wondering if I had missed it.

I'll give some background information about me first! I was born in 19XX, with severe to profound hearing loss. (So that means I'm XXXX this year.) My hearing loss was near to being profound when I was implanted at the age of XX. Before that, I was wearing hearing aids and communicating verbally throughout my life. Like you, I had pronunciation problems, but people around me gradually adapted to that.

I have been implanted for XX years now, and I find that it has led to a tremendous improvement in the quality of my life by increasing vastly the quality of hearing. Granted, the first few weeks after the implant gave me headaches, since some time is needed for your brain to adapt to the implant and to learn to interpret the sounds. What I heard was plenty of static and chatter with little meaning, but day by day, my interpretation of the sounds steadily improved.

About your question on whether I'm able to hold a conversation much better, I cannot emphasis how much I want to say yes! I'm able to hold a conversation very well (only asking the person to repeat himself once or twice throughout the whole duration) one-on-one, as well as in group conversations up to four people. Beyond that number, however, I cannot keep up. This is only applicable in a noisy environment like a hawker centre. In quiet environments, like in a meeting or a lecture, I'm able to hear the lecturer very well no matter where I sit, and I'm able to take questions easily in a meeting of many people. You will find that if you have a cochlear implant, you will be amazed at how many new sounds you can pick up. A few examples I can think of are the tick-tock of the car signal (when you signal right, there will be a tick-tock sound), and the soft purr of a cat. Before, I could not hold a conversation over the telephone with my hearing aids, with the implant, now I can hold a conversation over the phone. These are just a few of the many amazing benefits the implant has given to me. And oh, I picked up the piano a few months after I was implanted, and I'll be taking my Grade 8 piano exam in a few months' time. So you can see how much my perception of sound has improved.

After the implant, my pronunciation got much better and people are able to understand me much better (I'm going to emcee in an upcoming launched hosted by SGH ENT), but I still have to remind myself to articulate properly and to prevent bad habits from creeping in. Even with the implant, you still have to remind yourself to self-correct because of the nature of our hearing and our past speech history with hearing aids.

Nevertheless, like a hearing aid, the cochlear implant is still an electronic medical device. When showering or swimming or in situations when much water is involved, you need to remove it. However, with the Cochlear Freedom speech processor, you'll be able to wear it throughout strenous exercise and sports like soccer, badminton, ultimate frisbee, basically sports that involve a lot of running and jumping (I engage in all these while wearing my Freedom!)

Yes, I'm also able to understand people who are speaking to me from behind etc. However, this is only applicable to people with clear voices or people who I am familiar with, and in certain situations. Due to my 13 years' worth of hearing with hearing aids, lipreading was a skill that I had to pick up, but you'll find that with the implant, you'll rely a lot less on lipreading. I must stress that when you have the implant, you will find that you'll still rely on lipreading, because most likely by now, you will have a habit of resorting to lipreading first before hearing. This applies when you have the implant, and you will need to enforce self-discipline and try not to lip-read people in order to train yourself to hear without lipreading.

This is where I talk about the part of the cochlear implant not being a magic bullet. Too many times in my course of volunteer work, I come across many implantees who fail to maximise their implant because of either of two reasons: their parents did not teach them properly/did not teach them at all OR the young adults/adults (young adults mostly, the adults always had questions on how they could improve in what area etc) always resorted to sign, lipreading, or didn't want to wear the implant at all (which is really such a waste). Nevertheless, the majority of cochlear implantees have experienced much success with the implant.

Yup, SGH recommends you to go for therapy or rehab after you get the implant. Before I went for rehab, I was actually quite able to understand the sounds around me by then. But the purpose of the 6 month rehab session for me (I'm not sure how often I went - maybe once every two or three weeks?) was to make me learn to hear without lipreading (some of the sessions were spent like this - my back was to the therapist the whole time, and she would ask me to repeat sentences, stories, or words he/she spoke to me). Admittedly, I still use lipreading because there are just some people out there who speak ever so softly or have these really weird voices/accents or just keep mumbling. I'm sure you have come across people like that hahaha.

As for the regular check-up, I don't think Dr Low meant checking software/maintenance etc. What he meant most likely was your regular mapping sessions - initially after the implant, they will do an initial map on you which will act as your sound program for the speech processor. Initially you'll be doing a map every 6-9 months to keep improving your level of hearing, but as the years go by, your map will most likely eventually 'stabilise' and you will go for fewer maps ie. once every 1/1.5/2 years.

As for the hardware in your head, you won't have to worry too much about that. Prof Low is a very capable doctor, and as far as I know, under him there has been no device failures (which is a very real risk overseas). The cochlear coil by itself is a very hardy device and will not break so easily in your head. It's covered by a lifetime warranty too (for Cochlear, I'm not sure about Advanced Bionics) so if it breaks in your lifetime, they'll replace it.

Hopefully this answered the questions you had. If you have any more questions, feel free to ask me! Doing the implantation is a very important decision to make, and you should be well-informed before making it. However, once doing it, and putting the appropriate effort in.. the potential benefits are immeasurable! I have to say my life really changed so much for the better after the implant!"

Anyway, let's see how it goes. Today I will be rushing down to National Stadium for my cycling training.