01-28-2025, 11:38 PM
This post was last modified 01-28-2025, 11:59 PM by AlroyFarms. Edited 2 times in total.
This is a tough one to write!
I just had one of the most emotional few hours of my life. Tears of joy and laughter.
I’ve mentioned a few times over the years I am a cancer survivor. High-dose chemotherapy saved my life. My kidneys and liver were already shutting down due to the large invasive tumor in my abdomen about the size of a cantaloupe. It was squeezing my organs to death. It had clamped my small intestine shut so that I couldn’t even eat, digest, or absorb nutrition.
When I got diagnosed in the ER, chemotherapy didn’t wait for appointments. I was air-lifted to a specialty children’s hospital the same day. First chemo near killed me. I even had an NDE.
I had 8 such High-dose regimens and at least as many major surgeries for other tumor removals.
But it was the 2nd regimen that changed my whole world. I went to sleep with overnight IV and woke up stone deaf in both ears. I couldn’t hear anything but white noise and tinnitus. I could see lips moving but only muffled garbled speech came through. As the chemo filtered out and immune system recovered, I experienced some recovery to my hearing. Over time my brain naturally adapted, but we’re talking about severe, irreparable, auditory nerve damage.
My volume was shot, loss of high frequencies, and speech clarity is terrible. The speech clarity is what I struggled with most for 20 years as the frequencies I lost mostly fall in the range of human speech.
I was always right on the bordertown between Hearing Community and Deaf Community. I had trouble functioning and socializing in both worlds. I managed to be successful in my own ways, but still lost out on so much. I was a musician before that chemo, so music was always with me. I was always a class clown and social butterfly. I lost that outright as it became too difficult and disappointing to socialize in a world of “Hurry up and get to the point!”
Many job opportunities and relationship opportunities were not to be dreamed of.
Traditional hearing aids weren’t able to do much for me. Cochlear implants are super expensive and I never had insurance that would cover such ‘luxuries.’ It was also pretty dubious to what extent I could benefit from the operation.
Well I hit rock bottom in 2024 (different story.) But suffice to say my sudden hearing loss lead to much depression and alcoholism and catastrophism in my life that I was never able to get over and emotionally recover from; yes even after 20 years.
But I’m out of that hole again. Decided to go talk to an audiologist to see what’s new.
And what’s new is…AI microprocessors! Yahoo!
I just plunked down an egg-ton of money to buy the best AI-powered hearing devices possible. Worth every penny! Only a few hours in and the difference is a miracle. It’s something audiology didn’t even think was possible 20 years ago.
It’s going to take some time for my mushy brain to adjust to all the new input it’s processing, but the difference is immediate and clear. Instantly speech clarity is better, volume is overwhelming, and I’m hearing so many sounds I had forgotten exist.
Music is complex and rich and layered again. It’s like watching an old scratchy black & white ballgame vs. High Definition with multi-angle replay. I’m hearing in stereo again instead of just in one dead ear and one okay-ish ear.
We’re looking into the possibility of AI-powered cochlear implant, but my audiologist said that may not be necessary until I’m well into my old age.
I’ve been a member on ATS a long time. I was 'The ELO guy.' Please don’t mind if I share a song with you all today.
Miracles can happen. 20 years later. Alroy hears.
I just had one of the most emotional few hours of my life. Tears of joy and laughter.
I’ve mentioned a few times over the years I am a cancer survivor. High-dose chemotherapy saved my life. My kidneys and liver were already shutting down due to the large invasive tumor in my abdomen about the size of a cantaloupe. It was squeezing my organs to death. It had clamped my small intestine shut so that I couldn’t even eat, digest, or absorb nutrition.
When I got diagnosed in the ER, chemotherapy didn’t wait for appointments. I was air-lifted to a specialty children’s hospital the same day. First chemo near killed me. I even had an NDE.
I had 8 such High-dose regimens and at least as many major surgeries for other tumor removals.
But it was the 2nd regimen that changed my whole world. I went to sleep with overnight IV and woke up stone deaf in both ears. I couldn’t hear anything but white noise and tinnitus. I could see lips moving but only muffled garbled speech came through. As the chemo filtered out and immune system recovered, I experienced some recovery to my hearing. Over time my brain naturally adapted, but we’re talking about severe, irreparable, auditory nerve damage.
My volume was shot, loss of high frequencies, and speech clarity is terrible. The speech clarity is what I struggled with most for 20 years as the frequencies I lost mostly fall in the range of human speech.
I was always right on the bordertown between Hearing Community and Deaf Community. I had trouble functioning and socializing in both worlds. I managed to be successful in my own ways, but still lost out on so much. I was a musician before that chemo, so music was always with me. I was always a class clown and social butterfly. I lost that outright as it became too difficult and disappointing to socialize in a world of “Hurry up and get to the point!”
Many job opportunities and relationship opportunities were not to be dreamed of.
Traditional hearing aids weren’t able to do much for me. Cochlear implants are super expensive and I never had insurance that would cover such ‘luxuries.’ It was also pretty dubious to what extent I could benefit from the operation.
Well I hit rock bottom in 2024 (different story.) But suffice to say my sudden hearing loss lead to much depression and alcoholism and catastrophism in my life that I was never able to get over and emotionally recover from; yes even after 20 years.
But I’m out of that hole again. Decided to go talk to an audiologist to see what’s new.
And what’s new is…AI microprocessors! Yahoo!
I just plunked down an egg-ton of money to buy the best AI-powered hearing devices possible. Worth every penny! Only a few hours in and the difference is a miracle. It’s something audiology didn’t even think was possible 20 years ago.
It’s going to take some time for my mushy brain to adjust to all the new input it’s processing, but the difference is immediate and clear. Instantly speech clarity is better, volume is overwhelming, and I’m hearing so many sounds I had forgotten exist.
Music is complex and rich and layered again. It’s like watching an old scratchy black & white ballgame vs. High Definition with multi-angle replay. I’m hearing in stereo again instead of just in one dead ear and one okay-ish ear.
We’re looking into the possibility of AI-powered cochlear implant, but my audiologist said that may not be necessary until I’m well into my old age.
I’ve been a member on ATS a long time. I was 'The ELO guy.' Please don’t mind if I share a song with you all today.
Miracles can happen. 20 years later. Alroy hears.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream--Edgar Allen Poe
![[Image: rainbow.gif]](https://denyignorance.com//images/newemojis/rainbow.gif)
![[Image: ats2508_cheers.gif]](https://denyignorance.com/images/ogemojis2/ats2508_cheers.gif)
