Just listening

Today I find myself listening to what I can hear as I roam around and wondering what I will hear after my surgery on Monday makes me totally deaf in one ear.  I noticed, for example, that when I drive around I hear different sounds of the car meeting the road, on the highway or small road, over a bridge, or over patched areas.  I can't hear my turn signal beating.  But I am aware of a lot of sounds, even with my less than 5% hearing in either ear (in the most important range, that of voices).  How much of this will I still pick up with just one ear until I get activated?  I've been assuming that less than 5% is not much different from zero, but today I am wondering about that.

My friend Lonnie suggested last night that I explain in my blog what the surgery entails, for those of you who don't know.  I initially reacted negatively to that suggestion but the more I thought about it, the more I agreed that it might be helpful.  So, here I go.  (If you are squeamish, skip the next paragraph.)

The plan is that the surgeon will make a slit down my scalp behind one ear.  Then he will drill a small hole in the bone (the cochlea) and feed the implant into and around the curve of the cochlea.  It will end up coiled, inside, with 26 (hopefully) electrodes then available for transmitting signals via the hearing nerve directly to my brain, bypassing the damaged hair cells that no longer work. 

Once this area has healed, I will use an external processor, worn on my scalp beneath my hair, to filter and process sounds into digital information, which will then be transmitted to the internal implant.  According to the Cochlear America description, The electrical signals from the electrodes stimulate the hearing nerve....[and this] allows the brain to perceive sound. 

I will first be activated on January 13, if all goes according to plan.  I have no idea what I will "hear" at that point.  A few patients understand spoken language right away.  Many others hear nothing but an obnoxious, offensive, overbearing series of noises--squeaks, bangs, screeches, squeals, thuds--that make them want to tear the implant out of their head.  I'll have to wait and see where along this continuum I fall.

What I am wondering about today, however, is what I will hear between Monday and January 13.