A late afternoon lap around a silent house

The screen door clangs shut behind me. I shuffle down the front steps carefully as my sandals lightly plod on each step. Bees busily buzz away in the smelly unidentified bush beside the porch. (Jasmine?) A car edges its way into the court and the tyres grip the road with a whirr as it completes its u-turn. The driver’s window is down and a radio advertisement escapes. (Actually, scratch that. It’s a loud offensive drumbeat of some sort.) Some twigs crunch beneath its wheels as it drives away.

The sounds of time

Last year, we purchased a cuckoo clock in Germany. It was not an easy purchase to pre-approve with Jase. I spent months convincing my sceptical husband that it would be a delightful little addition to our lives.  What a lovely lifelong hourly (and half-hourly!) reminder that we didn’t just dream our entire trip! But apparently my having a readily available ‘mute’ button rendered me Unqualified to argue that a cuckoo clock is Not Annoying.

The noisy silence

Over the last three years, I’ve come to treasure sounds. Most sounds. Not bagpipes. Don’t miss them, sorry. ;-) But I have tried to embrace all other sounds, even the badly distorted ones. No surprises there.

Since the silence following CI surgery? Sure. There are (temporarily) fewer sounds to treasure (told you about the cupboard slamming, right?). But I’ve started to discover some new sounds. That I can even reproduce. And I’m learning that the sounds I ‘treasure’ are, well, just Plain Annoying to my hearing family and friends. ;-)

Take these scenarios …

Tiger stripes: earned!

Fear not, my fellow Tigers supporters! I’ve called in a favour. You won’t be hearing Tigerland until at least Round 4 … when I can hear it. ;-)

And on the eighth day … there were cherries

Yesterday I told you about the smell of smoke and petrol. Today I’m sitting here enjoying the smell of cherries! The fruit? No. My shampoo! Aaaah … I made it to the one-week mark and was allowed to wash my hair. So now, every time I swish it around (and I’m doing that a lot), I’m greeted with the scent of fragrant cherries. Mmmm.


Today was my one-week follow-up appointment with my surgeon, Dr Robert Briggs. (Has it already been a week since the operation??!) I was a bit embarrassed about seeing my surgeon because, well … during the week I recalled something that I’d said to him in my drowsy post-operative state.

(Temporary) silence is thy friend

Yesterday I discovered that if I slammed one particular cupboard door, I could hear it! I then felt compelled to slam it again. So, armed with a stupid grin on my face, I did just that. Several times in a row. Then I tried some other cupboards. Nope. Nothing. So why that one? Turns out I’m hearing it slam against some misaligned coffee mugs, so the sound is higher pitched. I probably have no coffee cup handles left. But it‘s been fun. :-)

Every one of my visitors has asked me how I’m coping with the silence and it is, after all, a potential deal-breaker for people thinking of getting two ears implanted in the same operation, so I’ve decided to report on how it’s going.

The 5:22 am brainwave

Well they say that when the portion of the brain devoted to hearing is no longer in use, the dispensable brain cells reallocate their attention. I can confidently say that my brain, in the last couple of days, has devoted these neglected cells to finding a comfortable sleep solution. And at 5:22 am, it did me proud.