Talking in Groups

Being in a group chats has always been hard for a deaf person. Lip reading one person to another person is like watching table-tennis following the ball and If you lost where the ball is, then you have just missed out on some information. Before I got implanted with this wonderful Advanced Bionic device, it was so hard to keep up . when I were in a group of hearing peers I used to lip-read all the time but always miss out some information and when I get tired of lipreading I miss more information. I used to hate sitting in groups and would prefer to talk to a friend 1-1. Sitting in groups, my confident wasn't so good and I used to sit there and be quiet, I was afriad to ask them to repeat.

After having a cochlear implant, lip-reading has become alot easisr! I don't get tired so quick and I do get more involved. There are times where I don't understand what they are saying but I do have to say that I am much more confident asking them to repeat, I ain't afriad to ask.

The only thing I find hard at the moment is university there is a student union bar where you sit and chill out with friends. The student union seats & tables are like a "C" shapes and when go with my group of friends to sit round thoses table. I've notices that everytime I sit in the middle - I always hear and keep up with the people on my implanted side and tend to miss some information on my non-implant side. I do try and make sure I sit on the edge, making sure all my friends are on my implant side. It does help, but still not all places have "C" shapes seating. They can be round and that makes it worst when there is no edges to make sure everyone sits where your implanted side is.

Maybe a 2nd implant would help in that situation? Has anyone out there notices the different in group situation after getting your 2nd CI done? It would be great if you could share your experince!