| as one who has actually experience the full range of hearing and having lost it in varied decreasing frequency range and reducing decibel level … TWICE over my lifespan, you would be wise to investigate Cochlear Implant as soon as economically feasible. Most US health plan insurance companies will defray the cost of CI surgery (starts at $33,000 total) by knocking 80% off; 90% off, if having a premium health plan). I’ve actually gained something that I never had before: higher frequency (8Khz+) so now I can distinguish between similar IPA inflections like e, v, b, t, p, Z, and d; and that is the greatest feeling in the world. You may also pick up strange things like staircase creaking, distant flatulent, different insect buzz, and best of all, distinguishes bird song. The only downside is that if you were musically-inclined, pitch-perfect, or a musical-savant, then you WILL be disappointed because instead of an average human being able to discriminate some 1000 different audible frequency, you will be limited to around 32 narrow bands. Behind the ear processor will fully capture the full hearing spectrum and spread that across those 32 bands. This is where CI-specialized audiologist will spend a couple of months doing the “map” those hearing frequency span into your limited number of bands. But hey, it is far better to hear further and recapture your missing frequency range just to be able to interact with society verbally, assuming you have had that trained experience. Also another factor is your prior childhood auditorial exposure and the extent of your speech and language development then; all are easily recaptured through CI-specialized speech therapists depending on your willingness to relearn; Most do. Of course, it goes without saying, you can alternatively learn how the Deaf culture functions with Federal assistance of making phone calls for you, adding signaler throughout your house (think SmartHome), and pick up a new language called American Sign Language. I’ve done all that as well. So, CI may be your best option. Contact your local audiologist to get started. https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/cochlear-implants IPA chart: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Phonetic_Alphabe... |