I found these two articles over at earplugs’s blog.
This one from Wired contains this amazing paragraph:
More than 50 years ago, Austrian researcher Ivo Kohler gave people goggles that severely distorted their vision: The lenses turned the world upside down. After several weeks, subjects adjusted — their vision was still tweaked, but their brains were processing the images so they’d appear normal. In fact, when people took the glasses off at the end of the trial, everything seemed to move and distort in the opposite way.
Yeah, that sums up what I’m hearing! It isn’t upside down of course, but the feeling over distortion and overwhelming-ness sounds about right. It also helps explain why my hearing aid, which was normal for 15 years, sounds distorted now when I try to switch back. It’s as unbelievable to me that what I’m hearing will sound ‘normal’ as that upside down vision could become normal.
The rest of that article, and this one talk about equally amazing things like being able to see with your tongue.
I suppose what we hear through our hearing aids isn’t normal. My Phonak’s gave more distortion than the current Siemen’s ones, but it’s definitely not normal hearing people would hear.
The sounds in your head must be pretty disconcerting, I hope they are tolerable and start to become more normal soon
I had a Labrythectomy 2 years ago. They drilled out my vestibula system from my left ear. took everything but my cochlea and hearing nerve. The first few weeks were pure hell but eventually my brain realized it was missing part of its balace center. It took over and compensated for the loss. after a lot of therapy I can walk run jump just as i did before the surgery.
Ia having CI surgery in 1 week and have some questions, do you have an email address?
Adam