Not a Lazy Blogger, just a Busy Person

It has been a long while since I have done any up-dates. I can either be called a “lazy blogger” or just a “busy person”. I will take the “busy person”. I am either working or going to Sunnybrook getting my mapping done (tweaks). And in between – sleeping.

Here goes - since my last up-date I have had my ups and downs. Let’s start with the downs, I was hoping to be using the phones right away with my first CI as I always had no trouble hearing when I use a phone amplifier. My guess is that when I was not allowed to wear the first CI while using the second CI, I kind of went backwards.

Plus now that I am hearing from both ears my right does not have to do all the hearing and it’s just not what it used to be. I’ve had my right ear tweaked and Suzanne had to really up the volume and in most cases with other people they go down. Go figure…… 

Now my ups….

It has been about 6 weeks of hearing in stereo – I’ve had a couple of mini “WOW” moments.

1^st – during a quiet moment in the house, I went to the kitchen to make coffee. I have two ticking clocks in the kitchen; I was hearing the ticks from each ear – left tick – right tick – left tick – right tick. J Before I heard the ticks but no direction of where the ticks were coming from. Blew my mind.

2^nd – Todd was home from school sick. I went upstairs to tell him that I was off to work, I then heard a quiet thumping noise – like a pair of jeans tumbling in the dryer. I was not running the dryer at the time, I asked Todd; do you hear that?? He said no!!. I’m like come on, listen again. No mum I don’t hear anything. Ugghhh so I went to find the sound thinking maybe the cats were playing around, nope they were all sleeping. Looked around a bit more and found that the sound was coming from the bathroom – the water was dripping from the showerhead into the tub. I was hearing that sound from at least 25 feet away. Now tell me why I am having a hard time hearing on the phone and yet I can hear water dripping 25 feet away.

I am slowly getting better with hearing on phones, still have to make the person on the other end to repeat a couple of times. But hey I’m using the phones. I find I hear better using the speaker feature on the phone – probably because I am using both ears, but I don’t want everyone to hear my conversation. J  Just a funny note I want to add – when I am on the phone I have to take my headpiece off of my head that is not doing the listening - like when you plug your ear while trying to hear from the other ear during a noisy situation.

I have to remind myself that it has been only six weeks using both CI’s and less than three months since being activated with my second CI – I know I need to practice some more and may need a tweak or two before I feel satisfied with what I can hear. I know my hearing would never be 100% but just very glad I hear what I hear now and not where I was over seven years ago. 0% hearing on my right and 5% on my left.

Till next time.

In Stereo.... :)

I am now in Stereo and not sure what to think!!

My right ear (first implant) is feeling out of touch. As I mentioned earlier it’s been five weeks of not hearing with it.  It needs to be re-trained again and I had the feeling that would happen.

The quality of sounds and voices is not quite up to par but it will improve with time, I hope.

So my day was long with almost two hours of testing. Before we started the testing Suzanne brought out my first aid and had me wear it for about 10 mins to get my brain adjusted to it. She warned me to turn down the volume and even when it was low, it was loud. While I waited during the 10 mins I wandered off into the “mall” area of Sunnybrook where there is lots of noise, people and a waterfall. Plus I ordered me a much needed coffee to test my hearing ability with other people.

The test was basically – repeat sentences without noise in background, with noise in background and repeat words without noise and that was done three times. Both right and left aid together, left only and right only.

Results were interesting – I did better with my left aid (second implant) and my score dropped with my right aid (first implant). What this means – yes it was a good idea to take away my first implant and allow me to learn with the second implant alone. But this also proved that if you don’t wear your implant all the time you will lose the full benefit of hearing.

Added note: on my way home, Chris had the radio on and I was able to hear where the sound was coming from – left side and then the right. So that’s Stereo?? J

Today I will be in Stereo!!

Well today is the day I will be in Stereo!!

I am so looking forward to getting my other aid back – I need my “life” back!! Just using the new aid alone for the last five weeks has been hard. Phones has been almost impossible, I can hear just the small stuff like – “I will be home at 7” or if I call with my cell and using the speaker – I will ask “Do we need more milk?” – I can make out the “Yes or No”.  In some ways it worked in my favour during the Christmas Craziness at work – I did not have to deal with customer’s silly problems. J Thanks to the gang at HO for taking my calls.

Sorry that I have been slacking off the last month in my blog (Vikki who has pointed at me with a stern look)  – it has been a busy busy month with Christmas, travelling around and few extra trips to Sunnybrook for some tweaking and just total laziness on my side.  I will do my best to be more up-to-date more often.

Be back later to give the Stereo details – very excited!!!!!!!!

I am now activated!!

I got activated Dec 8^th. I was kind of worried that it may get postponed for a few more days since I thought my incision was not healed up enough. My audiologist says as long as the magnet area is healed, it would be fine. So I got the go ahead to get activated.

First thing they do is get the processor started up. The processor is like an equalizer that you have with a stereo system. Find the happy bass and the happy treble.  There are 16 electros that are being fired up and I had an issue with a couple of the very high frequency. So for now it is low, and I am noticing that I am missing it. Everyone’s voices are very low and in a monotone level. Some of you sound like you have a very bad cold.

Suzanne the audiologist says lets do a small test, she covered her mouth and says the days of the week and I got that all right, then the months, got March and May wrong. May is a common error that most CI (Cochlear Implant) people make. She showed me list of sentences and told me to point out what she is saying, so she would say “the boy is running after the ball” and I repeat “the boy is running after the ball” and then I cannot find it on the list and Suzanne laughed, “it does not matter if you cannot find it because you actually heard what I said” and I did that few more times. LOL J

Surprisingly I recognize the songs that are playing by listening to the beats, but the singing is horrible. Right now music sounds better than people talking and singing.

Today is day 4 of my first mapping (finding the happy bass and treble), I am wearing the processor for at least 12 hours a day and after that I had enough. I wear it for work and doing okay, understanding everyone by listening carefully and reading lips. Just keep me away from phones, I just don’t hear and understand the person on the other side.

My next mapping is Monday coming up, Dec 13^th (Mother Nature, be nice) and I hope to be tweaked to the point that people sound like people and not so boring and soooo sad.

Small beef here.....

When I was at Sunnybrook the other day getting my processor checked out and got the cool feature ClearVoice uploaded to my processor. After we were all done, I went to put my processor on my ear. Before I do that I check for the orange flashing light to tell me my battery life and then I wait for the red flashing light to tell me that my processor is running okay. Suzanne tells me the red flashing light feature has been removed from the processor. I am like why?? I liked that feature because then I am reassured that the processor is running okay. She says it has to do with the Sabbath Jewish holiday. Now I do not know what exactly happens on Sabbath Day but red flashing light is forbidden. I have nothing against any religion holidays, I am a very open minded person and very interested in what everyone does for their religion beliefs.  But to take away that feature from the processor is a bit far-fetched, it should be an option that if we want the red flashing light feature or not. Most audiologists are asking for that feature back and make it optional for anyone who wants it.

Just having a small beef here because I do miss that feature for the reassurance that my processor is working and for the others who likes it because they have lost their processor in the dark and snow.

Added fact: A cochlea is about the size of a pea or smaller. J

Staples Removal Day

Monday Nov 15^th is when I got my 20 staples removed. There were 2 staples at the bottom of my ear that was driving me nuts because it was so itchy. It was just ready to go!

Dr. Chen removed the staples and it felt sooo good. There are couple of spots that are still tender. Keep it clean with hydrogen peroxide and apply Polysporin and you should be fine. Dr. Chen says that I did a good job keeping it clean and well looked after.

Hard to believe that this was done 10 days ago. I have been lucky to heal so quickly.

I also went to see my audiologist, Suzanne because I was having issues with my first implant shutting on and off for few seconds. Gave me a bit of a scare because I thought something might have gotten damaged while I was in surgery. She checked both the implant and the processor and everything seem okay. She thinks while I was in surgery the implant area might have gotten bumped and there was a bit of swelling. But who knows, it’s working and that what matters.

The best part of this short visit is that she realized that I did not have the new added feature called ClearVoice. ClearVoice is designed to automatically analyze and adapt to each listening situation that you encounter throughout the day, separating the distracting noises from what you want to hear most—speech. What that means is when I am in a room with an air conditioner that is constantly running, my processor will know that is the distracting noice and will quiet down that noise and I can hear the person speaking to me. So cool. Another example, in a car with the wheels making the constant noise while driving, it will quiet that noise and I can hear my MJ music with enjoyment. J

I have known about this feature about a year ago and it was being tested and used in the European countries and was coming to North America.  I was so looking forward getting ClearVoice when it became available to us North Americans. I asked, “how long did you have this feature?”, she said “for about a year”. I am like “you mean I could have had it then?” “Yes….”  “Wow man, I really needed that during the summer,  the noisy AC at work was just about to send me up the freaking wall”. LOL Anyhoo, I am so happy to have ClearVoice now.

I do know what part of the test group I am in now, when I go back Dec 8^th to get my new implant activated. They are going to take my first processor away from me for four weeks. This means I am going to be re-learning to hear from my left ear that completely quit working August 2003, but that's another story. Seven years of not hearing from the left ear is going to be quite the experience and I can’t wait!!

How Does a Cochlear Implant Work?

I thought I should explain exactly what I had done.

A cochlear implant has an implanted part and an external component.

The implanted part (HiRes 90K® Implant) is surgically positioned beneath the muscle tissue and skin on the side of the head by a surgeon. The small implant electrode is threaded down into the hearing mechanism of the inner ear, the cochlea, during the surgery.

The external component is a miniature computer called a sound processor that is worn on the outside of the body, over the back of the ear (Harmony™ Sound Processor).

The implanted part is what I had done on Friday Nov 5^th,  so now I have to wait for about 4 weeks before I can wear the external part. I need to heal properly before I can place the headpiece on my scalp. It is held on by a magnet that is inside my head and on the headpiece, for it to stick properly the swelling of the scalp has to go down and the incision has to be completely closed.

Below is a link to a video that tells you how does a cochlear implant work? When link opens to a new page the video is on the bottom.

How does a Cochlear Implant Work?  

Information taken from www.advancedbionics.com