Wednesday 21 October 2009

Playing sports with your C.I

Over the past few weeks, I have seen people asking about how do I wear my C.I while playing any sports !

Lets start with managing C.I - I do have small ears, and everyday I wear a small 'Huggie that attaches to my C.I which looks like this:

Wearing a 'Huggie' with my C.I has made a big different to me. Even though I had a smaller T-mic, the implant would still fly off. So, wearing a 'Huggie' with your implant to wrap round your ears should help you

Not only I wear a huggie while playing sports. With my huggie, I tend to wear a small sports material elastic band instead of those big headband. I place the band over my head by but putting the coil wire underneath. That also stops the implant from falling off and of course the coil doesn't come off as much as it used to. Placing the handband on top the coil wire doesn't affect the sounds coming through to your ears. I found that big material head bands tend to make a lot of rustling noise and it still made the implant falls off.

I wear the band in all the sports I play all sort of sports such as football, tennis, running, gym etc. I would recommend it to other C.I users that are playing sports to wear it.

Recently Advanced Bionics has been testing the new T-mic ear mould (pictured below) This can be another way to prevent your cochlear implant from falling off.



Sometimes while playing sports, you don't always hear the whistle even if your wearing your implant, as you too busy focusing on the game. There has been times where I was playing football and I had the ball, continued to run and the referee would blow his whistle and I am still running with it.

So, what should I do to prevent this?

To help me from knowing when to stop, or when its a foul. I ask my referee to hold up a flag which he hold throughout the match. Every time he blows the whistle he would raise the flag up in the air too.; that helps me a lot. Sometimes when they are behind you and you don't hear the whistle or hear the flag you would still continue to run. This problem, I manage to solve with my team mates. I teaching my team some deaf awareness and ask them, if I had the ball and the referee blows his whistle, all my team mates would stop and stand still. That way, I can see why the game has been stopped because no-one moving around.

playing as a team, you get players shouting my out my name when they want the ball, then when I don't hear it, it goes someone else. After I had problems with this situation. I taught my team mates to wave at me as they are shouting my name which made the teamwork much better.

I There are loads of issue out there that can be dealt with. if you have any question about this post. e-mail me, hopefully I'll get back to you

katie-louise x.

Tuesday 13 October 2009

C.I actor wanted!

My mum has found this , great to know that they are looking to get an actor with a Cochlear Implant!


BBC searches for CI recipient to play lead role in new drama

The BBC is looking to cast an aspiring deaf (or hearing impaired) actress in the lead female role of new drama, The Silence.
The girl should be aged around 16 to 19 and does not have to have had acting experience, but should have a lively and outgoing personality and be up for the challenge of working with a film crew and professional actors in Dublin.
In the drama, the character has a cochlear implant and is learning to talk, so the girl should ideally have some speech.
Shooting will take place from mid November to early January 2010. There will be a break for Christmas and New Year.
The production is being made for BBC One by Company Pictures, who produce Skins and Shameless. It will be directed by Dearbhla Walsh, who has just won the Emmy Award for Little Dorritt.
If you or anyone you know would be interested in being seen for this project please get in touch with us, and we'll forward you everything you need to know! Email us at hello@thedeafblog.co.uk.