Two Weeks Into Hearing

I continue to marvel at being able to hear.  Granted it is not yet "natural sounding" through my implant.  But words are clearly understandable.  I wear a hearing aid in my non-implant ear that is programmed to my implant processor. That means I am bi-modal.  I hear everything with both ears, but by different modes--hearing aid and implant.  People who have an implant in both ears are bi-lateral.

Because of the hearing aid, I continue to hear natural in that ear, but the new way in the implant ear.  This makes understanding much easier for me.  When I am practicing listening I remove the hearing aid in order to help the implant ear work more.  It surprises me that I have to concentrate so intensely or my mind wanders and tries to go into multi-tasking thinking about other things.  We take lots of things for granted, hearing included.

Being in a crowd is something I've avoided because of the noise.  I have attended three worship services.  At the first one, the preacher wore my mini-mic and all his words went directly to my ears.  Great--but it was a small service so not too much noise.  The next was at a large gathering.  To my great wonder I understood nearly every word.  I had clipped on the mic to see if that helped.  Not sure since I was pretty far toward the back.  When I got in the car to go home, I discovered I has lost the mic.  Panic!!  I found it on the floor where it had gotten knocked off in the crowd.  Won't do that a gain!  So thankful nobody stepped on it.  Today I sat near the back and was able to understand most of the preacher's words.  When I first got there, I could barely hear and it was very distressing.  I turned up the volume on both devices but it didn't help.  Finally I put a new battery in the hearing aid.  Not sure how I missed the alert that it was going out.  Immediately I could hear everything.

I have made a decision.  The question to me has been "will you have the other ear implanted?"  At first I said, I'm thinking about it.  However, I have realized that if I do, I will not have ANY hearing without the processors being in place.  As it is, I can hear to a degree with my hearing aid.  I'm not ready to give that up.  Unless I lose all hearing in that ear, I won't have another implant.

How blessed I am to be able to hear and understand--perfect or not.

First Full Day of Hearing

Today was a day of discovering. Discovering just how noisy everything is. Nothing is silent. When I comb my hair, when I walk, when I do anything it makes loud sound. With an implant the brain has to get used to all the sounds coming through my implant rather than the normal way it receives sound.  Per my audiologist, my brain will begin to filter this out and I won’t notice them.

I wore both the hearing aid and implant processor all day and practiced some word recognition of words spoken in the program. I’m not up to 100% yet, but close.

Today I paired my mini microphone with the processor.  Bill clipped it on and it sends his words directly to my ears.  It can be used up to 22’ away from me.  What a treat that is.....until he went into the kitchen and started putting a snack together. It sounded like clanging and banging. I quickly retrieved my mic. I have a few other accessories to try later.

Activation Day At Last

My activation was scheduled for after lunch, so since we’re 45 minutes away we had a leasurely lunch in town before the appointment. My granddaughter, Leslie, went with us to video the activation. I determined that the “a picture is worth 1000 words” would be better than trying to relate what actually happened.

  I felt like my brain was saying “What is that?” when we got started.  Because it sounded mechanical it took a few seconds to realize I was hearing words. As the words became more pronounced I couldn’t determine who was speaking because the voice sounded male with no differentiation. I laughed to realize I was hearing myself sometimes.

I received all of the accessories that came with the implant, but was only paired with my iPhone for now. Words are sounding much more normal now.  I feel incredibly blessed for this experience.
I’m a bit tired from all the concentration so I’ll be happy to take the processor off for a while.

Ready To Go

My month of waiting is over.  Actually the month since the implant seemed to pass quickly, but time does seem to speed by as you age.

Tomorrow I'll go to the Audiologist in College Station to have the processor put on and activated.  I've watched numerous videos of an activation so I know what to expect.  There will be a lot for me to remember about the implant capabilities  and how to use each of the components.  As I understand it, she will not do a lot of things tomorrow, but set the volume (loudness and softness) see what I'm hearing, do a little tweaking and tell me what to do for practice until I see her again.  I've borrowed audiobooks and the print books, downloaded audio Bible.  I usually study with NKJV but could not find that in audio, so I'll use ESV.  There are several recommended software programs for practice.  When I asked people in the cochlear implant support group on Facebook, everybody had their favorite way to practice.  I'm sure I will too.  Whatever is most helpful to me.  Bill has promised to read to me as well.   I don't know how I'll stand all the audio as I hate being read to. LOL!!

I'm blessed that the implant is available for me.  Much improvement has taken place in the years since they became available. 

Just Waiting...Maybe Not So Patiently

The phrase usually says "waiting patiently".  I'm waiting anxiously!!  I'll be activated in 1 week and 1 day.  I have had nagging concerns that the healing would not be progressed enough, but everything seems to be fine, very little tenderness in the surgical site.  I can feel where the implant is.  Its just a slight bump above the rest of my scalp.

I've prepared myself and told Bill that its altogether possible that I will not recognize words on the day I'm activated.  If not I won't be concerned bacause that is not unusual.  It will be a special treat if I do understand words.  Lots of ways to practice.  I'll use an audio Bible, and Bill will read to me as well.  I'll follow the words with the printed text.

Everybody that I've been around has been very patient with my one ear hearing.  Sadly that ear struggles to hear well.