Gael Hannan - The Way I Hear It
Hearing Loss Advocate, Writer, Speaker, Humorist
The Hearing Husband and I seem to get antsy if we’re in one place for too long. Maybe we just get bored with too much togetherness and decide we need to ‘see the family’, hit the open road and climb a few hills. This means we’re frequently packing and unpacking and packing again. You’d think … Read more
We people with hearing loss are very fussy. Communication has to be just so, and if we don’t get it the way we want or need it, we can get grumpy. Especially if we’ve explained it a million times to someone before. We do go easier on strangers, but if they are challenged by our requests, our … Read more
If I didn’t already have enough reasons to love the telecoils in my hearing aid and cochlear implant – I recently discovered another one. Telecoil and loop systems let me hear myself! As a public speaker and performer, I use the amplification system provided by the venue. Often, hearing my voice as it goes out to … Read more
Welcome to the 7th and final part of the Changing Cochleas blog series – my journey with a cochlear implant. Service, as defined by online dictionaries, with my additions in italics: A valuable action, deed, or effort performed by a hearing care professional to satisfy a need or fulfill a demand by a person with hearing … Read more
Welcome to Part 6 of Changing Cochleas – my story of adopting a cochlear implant and the life that follows. How’s my life going with a cochlear implant (CI)? Well, for starters—although I can’t speak for other recipients—it’s a lot LOUDER. All sounds are louder: the ones that I recognize as well as new ones … Read more
How’s my life going with a cochlear implant (CI)? Well, for starters—although I can’t speak for other recipients—it’s a lot LOUDER. But at only 32 days since activation, most familiar sounds bear little resemblance to how I hear them acoustically through my hearing aid. The voices of strangers sound curiously alike, as if they’re crying … Read more
As we human beings grow up, we get bigger, hopefully better, although never perfect. Nature likes to throw curve-balls, forcing us to adopt exercise or medicine or body adjustment changes to recover and improve our well-being. Some of us actually transform into semi-technical creatures. In order to hear, I’m a battery-operated person with my hearing … Read more
A group of geese is called a ‘gaggle’ and cows form a ‘herd’. So what do we call a group of cochlear implant users? A “cockle”? A “CI-heard”? I don’t know, either, but recently I attended a very large gathering of electrically-operated people who, like me, have electrodes inside their heads and processors on top … Read more
February 6, 2017, just one day out of my life, but with so many expectations hanging on it that I was reluctant to get out of bed. Three weeks and four days after my cochlear implant (CI) surgery, this was the day of “switch on”, the activation of the device – and potentially the dawn … Read more
Are you one of those people who never looks back, who never second guesses a decision? Well, I’m not. In the 14 months between saying let’s do it and actually having my cochlear implant, I did not regret my decision. But when people asked me if I was excited about the cochlear implant, I always … Read more