A great doc but...

MedievalinNYC, I must admit I came to this post thinking it was a flame on the documentary. However, you hit the nail exactly on the head instead.

I had to continuously rub my cheeks because I was making the most horrible of faces while trying to stifle tears watching Sally's frustration.

I caught that immediately, that she was overwhelmed and kept saying over and over again to my family, "Imagine girls*, this is the first time she has heard anything in 60-something years."

* My daughters

In the store (I think) she mentioned that she thought she was not able to distinguish noises. And then when she talked about her husband hearing everything and she was not.

It just tore me up inside because I understood what was going on, but like you said, the doctor did not explain well enough -- or perhaps he did and we did not see it -- but in any case, Sally could have used a tad more support.

(Again though, she may have.)

One thing that actually upset me a little, like, "You jerk." was when the doctor said to Sally I think, "What does it sound like?"

Maybe it was the husband... because he then said, "I don't know... what does blue look like?"

Silly doctor.

I remember reading other interviews from deaf adults getting implants, especially if they were deaf before acquiring a sound vocabulary. Yes, a sound is heard but there is no association for that sound so it would be the same as white noise to us. I can't believe there wasn't more follow up training and therapy, just that it was not included in this film.
I did love this film and understand Sally's frustration. I couldn't believe how easy it was to understand Paul's voice, could he have had later onset or just more residual hearing? He seemed to take to the implant quicker, filtering out noise and associating sounds.
I do hope they did become more reconciled to what they would be able to understand later on. Was there any noticeable difference in their speech patterns later on?

I have to disagree with you, NYC. I think the director/narrator did a decent job of painting that picture for the audience. There is even a clip of Sally confessing her difficulty and how its "too late" for her to learn to hear like everyone else. The narrator alludes to this idea throughout the latter half of the film... maybe you missed that half? GIve it another view. Upon viewing it for the second time, I found it easier to watch objectively and devoid of all emotional meltdowns. I noticed, for example, that the narrator, doctor, and most of the family members all mention something relating to the topic in your post.

I have 2 cochlear implants myself, and when I was watching the Hear and Now movie, I could understand exactly what the Taylors were going through. I wasn't as emotional as Mrs. Taylr was, but yes, it's a very draining process going thru the surgery ( worse earaches in my life) and learning to rehear again. One thing I found that the cochlear implant literature doesn't always tell you, is that you have to basically relearn how to hear again, and it's very different from just using hearing aids. I didn't really have much to go on once I underwent the surgery and then learning to hear. I didn't have any training, any post-op rehabilatioin, or being able to talk to another cochlear implantee. Since the Taylors were deaf from birth, they never had a sound reference to draw from. I didn't have a sound reference to draw from either, but being oral, and using hearing aids since I was 18 months, I learned to use my implants efficiently and very well. The first implant took a year to relearn to hear. The second implant only took about a month and half to relearn. The movie made it seems like Sally was having a bad time adjusting, and given her age, the fact she never heard before, made it even harder on her. I got the feeling she expected to magically hear like a normal person, but no matter how well the cochlear implant companies try to make implants sound normal, it will never be normal, since you don't get the full richness of sounds natural hearing has. I can hear so much more, and often subtle sounds that I didn't hear before. Again. like Sally, the normal world is deafening loud, and I cannot stand to hear while driving or using power tools. Let's fact it, some sounds are better not heard. Sally was wise to take off her processor while driving or in very loud envirnoments. I immediately will shut off my processors if I'm exposed to very loud sounds.
An implant in a way is a last resort. Once it is implanted in your ear, you lose the rest of your remaining hearing, and it stays in your head all the way to the grave. For me, after I lost what was left of my very limited hearing, the implant was my last, best choice, and I don't regret being implanted. I could do without some of the extremely loud or high-pitched sounds, but I can interact so much better with people. As a teacher, it is imperative I hear well, and my implants do help a lot. I can only hope the Taylors get what they can out of their cochlear implants.