A Social Network for Cochlear Implant Users

Med-El has just launched a great site that is a kind of Facebook for people who use or work with cochlear implants and their interested friends and family. It’s called HearPeers.

 I just set up my own profile.

 

Here is a video about the site.

Three Weeks of Improvement

This is late being posted, but I had two hearing tests three weeks apart. The audiograms below are of my right ear.

May 21, 2012

June 11, 2012

As you can see there was a nice jump there in that three week period. My hope and expectation is that it will continue to improve until it gets into that purple area. That would be good enough to, with a hearing aid, hear well enough to function normally.

Bonus:Cochlear Implant Hearing Test

Getting better!

I get a phone call, right?

Happy Father’s Day

Yesterday was Father’s day for many countries. Here in Brazil, Father’s day is in mid August. My wife, Loaise, help me set up our notebook computer with some borrowed headphones and I used Skype to call my dad on Father’s day.

Surround Sound!

I set both my CI processor and my hearing aid on telecoil. For me, hearing with the implant is much louder, but with the hearing aid it is a little clearer. Both are changing each week, each one getting better. I am back to the point of experiencing bi-lateral hearing! This is new for me, as I had always been dependent on one ear to hear.

Yes, I can hear you.

My mother answered the phone and my cochlear implant hearing was dominating. I understood her, but did not know who it was until she said it was mom. After a moment, I took off my processor and used just the hearing aid. I was able to understand her without too much repeating.

This is the first phone call I have made since January. Major milestone. I know it was headphones and Skype, and not a traditional phone, but what an experience to talk to someone over the phone again.

My dad got on the phone and I had trouble understanding him with my hearing aid, so I switched my CI processor on again. It was too loud. I asked him to count to 10 while I adjusted the volume on the headphone. Once I got it to a good level, I realized I could understand him better with the CI than the HA.

Alas, the battery on my cochlear implant went dead, so I had to make do with the hearing aid again. My sister was over for a Father’s day visit, so I was able to talk to her for a moment as well, also just with the hearing aid.

Observations

• I understood my mother and my sister better with the hearing aid, but I understood my father better with the implant.
• Because of the perceived volume difference, my cochlear implant dominates when I use both my CI and HA.
• As my hearing gets stronger in my aided ear, and as I progress in the rehab with my implant, I think these levels will get closer together and my ears will work together a bit more.
• I wish I had some headphones with independent volume adjustment for each side.
• I almost gave up before I tried to call. I did not know if I would be able to hear enough and I was scared to try. My wife insisted and I am glad she did.

Progress

In the past two weeks, even with my hearing impairment, I have been able to:

1. Participate in three small-group Bible studies
2. Lead a workshop on Bible storying.
3. Perform a wedding.
4. Moderate a church business meeting.
5. Preach in pulpit supply for a local pastor (four times).
6. Watch a movie at the movie theater and understand it.
7. Take my son and his friend out to eat for my wife to get some down time.
8. Identify several of the songs playing on the car radio.
9. Listen to 5 chapters of the book of John dramatized and understand all of it.
10. Attend the Med-El cochlear implant conference and participate fully.

Cochlear implant hearing is not as simple as on and off.

Every day I hear something a little clearer. I feel myself sliding into comprehension. I can catch things here and there, that I couldn’t before. The background noises have more life.

That said. It is so slow coming. I’ve been wearing a cochlear implant since November of last year. This past month has been the best, yet, with respect to understanding and appreciating things. I just can’t pick a day and say, “that’s when I started hearing well again.” That day hasn’t come yet, but I don’t think it ever will. One day, I will just notice I am hearing and functioning. It won’t be a milestone, it will just be another day.

Strange.

In other news, my deafened ear hearing is now stronger than it was when I was redeafened in April. Still improving daily.

God works in amazing and strange ways. He does wonderful things.

Installed the Car Stereo

Last year, my wife gave me a car stereo for Father's day. After a few months, there was a short in the wire and it burnt a fuse. When I went deaf, I just didn't worry about fixing it anymore.

My hearing has improved a great deal since my last mapping and since losing my hearing again in April. It has improved so much that I realized it was time to get the stereo installed. It doesn't play CDs, but it does play mp3s from a memory card.

• I can hear and enjoy some songs that I know well.
• I can follow some songs, but not really appreciate them.
• I can't understand some songs at all, especially new ones.
• I can hear and understand speaking if it is loud and the environment is quiet. (If the car is parked in a quiet place, but not if I am driving.)
• All of this makes me very happy.