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!!!!!!!!