This is late being posted, but I had two hearing tests three weeks apart. The audiograms below are of my right ear.
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.
Getting better!
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.
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.
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.
In the past two weeks, even with my hearing impairment, I have been able to:
I call it a breakthrough in my hearing anytime I notice something that I had not noticed before. They happen infrequently, but consistently. I am almost always less enthusiastic the day after a breakthrough. I thought it was just the natural low after a high, or unrealistic expectations, but not any more.
When I have a breakthrough with my cochlear implant hearing, it is because something changed. I always notice the benefits first, and the drawbacks the next day. If a certain sound becomes clearer, another sound becomes annoying to me. It’s a dance.
I’ve had a few breakthroughs recently. I had not written about them, but I need to, so I will now.
In all, things continue to improve and I am grateful.
My hearing is improving steadily. I wish I could pinpoint a time when I will be hearing well again, functioning normally, using the telephone, and listening to music. My best guess is April.
My comprehension of sound continues to get better with my CI. My next mapping is scheduled for Tuesday. I expect that the volume will be increased a bit and the clarity to improve. It will be a three month mapping, so I hope it is a good one.
My right ear hearing made a big jump on Thursday. So much so, that I was hearing peoples voices with just my hearing aid. It’s all weird sounding and hard to make out, but I did an experiment.
I closed my eyes and asked Loaise, my wife, to say one name or another. I turned off my implant and listened and responded. I got it right!
I then turned off my hearing aid and my implant on. Eyes still closed, I listened and responded. I got that one right too!
So, I heard and understood a word with only my cochlear implant, and with only my hearing aid.
By the way, this was the first word I heard since going deaf on January 20th. I am ahead of schedule on getting my hearing back, when compared to my deafness in 2008.
On September 27th 2011, I had a cochlear implant surgery in Juiz de Fora, Brazil. I was implanted with a MED-EL Sonata TI by Dr Evandro Ribeiro de Oliveira. My surgery was paid for through the Brazilian national health system.
I was activated on November 4th 2011. Readers of this blog know that the immediate results, while exciting, were a bit of a let down. For some people, hearing with comprehension is instantaneous. I was not one of those people.
Tomorrow marks 100 days since I was activated.
I’ve hit a few meaningful milestones since that time.
My entire first mapping was a disappointment to me. I was able to hear nothing but a cricket chirping sound for very loud impact sounds, and I heard a humming sound, once. That’s all I got in the first 30 days.
My second mapping was exciting. The power was turned up and I was getting all kinds of sound information. Noise. Mostly the sound of metal banging against metal or coaches whistles. Everything had the same sound. It was also too loud, all the time. However, it was sound. The second 30 days was just meaningless sound.
For my third mapping I tried to be proactive. The clinic does not do a good job of describing the rehab process, what to expect or how implants work. With this frustration, I studied up on the internet and tried to take the lead. This probably led to a third not-as-good-as-it-should-be mapping. In any case, it is the map I have now and it is a 60 day mapping, the next will be for 90 days, I think.
The major development is that I lost my natural hearing in my right ear 21 days ago. I went deaf again. This forced me to rely on whatever I could get from my implant. In these past weeks my comprehension has improved greatly.
So, 100 days in, I am happy I have the implant. I am not where I want to be with my hearing. Improvement is consistent, and promising. I expect that by 130 days, I will be understanding speech.
(I am filing this report a day early, as I won’t be online tomorrow)
First, an analogy. If the sound of speech were received as handwritten notes, the sound of the speech I hear with the cochlear implant is like a note written in lipstick, rather than a pen. It’s thick, imprecise, and doesn’t fit the style guide of normal speech. Still, you can sometimes get bits of the message.
I still rely on lip-reading, but I am finding myself feeling like I need my Cochlear Implant to understand. There is a lot of meaningful information coming in now, and some words… real words, in conversations.
The volume is still way to low for most things, though. Looking forward to getting that bumped up in the next mapping.
I plugged the CI directly into my cellphone last night to practice listening. I put on Matthew Chapter 2. “Wha Bla Bla Pa Bla Wha Bla The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness, ‘Prepare th’ Wha Bla Bla Pa Bla Wha Bla”
What was that! I *heard* that! I did hear that!
I was able to get a word or two here and there as I listened. Still not enough for comprehension, but getting there. It is change I notice though. Good change.
When I take my CI off, I can now perceive some sound in my aided ear. If I clap my hands next to my ear, I hear it, faintly. When I scream, I hear myself, faintly. I think my hearing is coming back, a little at a time.
Next audiogram in a month.
When I had my cochlear implant surgery last year, it wasn’t a pressing need, but it was needed. My hearing, was good enough that I didn’t need the implant for communication, yet. But the progressive and repeating nature of my hearing loss, meant that one day I would need to rely on a cochlear implant.
The hearing loss has up until now, come in ten year intervals. I expected to be in my early forties when it happened again. The cochlear implant, by then would be functioning well and my quality of life would not diminish at the onset of my deafness.
As it happens I’ve lost my hearing again, and I am only in my third month of learning to hear with a cochlear implant. The CI now provides the only sounds I hear, other than tinnitus. I had been working my hearing rehab so that the cochlear implant would assist my hearing. Now it is my hearing.
I will have several observations here soon. But here are a few things going through my mind.
May good will and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be yours! – Steve
In normal circumstances, I still can’t understand much of the information that comes into my implanted ear. I also have trouble “hearing over” those sounds with my aided ear. If communication is urgent, I have to switch my Opus 2 cochlear implant processor off.
I am training my ear to hear in controlled environments. What seems to be the most useful exercise for me at the moment is hearing an audio text and reading it at the same time. I can not understand speech by itself, but I can now accompany the audio of a written text. I can read along and not get lost!
The easiest text for which one can find audio is the Bible, and that is what I am using. Here, for example, is Matthew chapter 2 on Youtube. I can follow along reading on my e-sword electronic bible.
Okay, I have a confession to make. I have not been using my Cochlear Implant on my new noisy setting very much. The noise level is too loud and makes sound comprehension extremely difficult, even of things I should hear in my right ear. When my CI is on, I can no longer understand people speaking.
I am using the new setting in quiet places, but even then, I am overcome by sound. It is not so loud that it hurts, but it is like listening to clanging cymbals and blaring whistles all the time.
I got an idea for a controlled test. I cranked up the electronic piano program on my laptop. With my cochlear implant plugged in, I played through the scale on a few different instruments. Here is what I discovered.
Out of the five octaves available, for most instruments, I could hear the scale correctly on the lowest two octaves. The top two octaves were noisy and indistinguishable. The middle octave was good for some instruments, but noisy for most.
On the lowest octave, I can play songs like “Mary had a little lamb” and appreciate the tune. The instruments do not sound right, but they are in the right key. Strangely, the one that sounded the most “correct” was the one called “synth voice.”
I don’t understand CI programming, but I am going to talk to my audiologist about reducing the higher pitches. Even the crinkling of candy wrappers is astoundingly loud. The high pitches swallow up all the meaningful sounds. They mask everything. The lower frequencies are meaningful, but seem too low in volume and can’t compete with higher pitches.
Anyhow, another week, more improvement. I am pleased.
Yesterday I had my second mapping on my cochlear implant. Wow. Now,there is noise everywhere, and everything makes noise. Loud noise! This is exciting and overwhelming at the same time.
The first thing we did was an audiogram. My sound detection barely registered. We then talked about the experience and I was hooked up to the machine. I have video of this, that I will post soon. I found my new maximum comfortable loudness level. It is much, much higher than what I had. I no longer feel physical problems with the sound stimulation.
So now there is so much stuff to hear. It is louder in my implanted ear than in my aided ear. It is such a fun experience. Everything is noise. I can’t identify much, but there is so much there. It’s exciting.
Practically it is like this: Imagine that you are watching TV and the volume is a comfortable low. You can hear and understand most everything. Suddenly, someone turns on the stereo, and puts the volume on the maximum level. The stereo is not set to any particular radio station, so it is just noise. The noise is so loud that it is hard to hear and understand the TV. That is what the implant is doing for me right now. On the other hand, it’s just fantastic, because I never knew about that stereo before!
I am enjoying this, and for me, this is a major, major breakthrough.
This is the fourth week after my initial activation and first mapping. I have not experienced usable or practical hearing in my left ear, but I have noticed improvements and signs of things to come each day. Here are some recent observations.
On Monday, I will go in for my second mapping. My audiologist has moved to another clinic in the state of Rio de Janeiro. I will meet a new audiologist for this mapping. I am going to see if I can get the volume put a little higher than what is comfortable for me, and have the remote programmed with a little more freedom on the volume control.
I expect that once the volume gets high enough to not get washed out as irrelevant background noise, the CI will compete for my attention. This might cause some temporary difficulty in understanding conversation, but it will be a logical step forward.
God bless.
Yesterday, for my daily half-hour experiment (That’s the time I remove my hearing aid and concentrate on hearing with the implant), I listened to music with the direct connection cable. I could not hear any melody, but I could certainly follow the rhythm of some of the songs.
Being able to keep time with a song means I am recognizing the stimulation more and more. It used to be just “white noise.” Now it is a little more meaningful.
Oh, and I am starting to notice the CI sometimes, even with the hearing aid on.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Yesterday, the way things worked out, we were not able to go home at the usual time. We were out until 8:30, so we decided to go to a local restaurant and order a Mexidão* for dinner. Once we arrived, we also decided to go in and eat there, instead of taking it home.
The restaurant is really just a covered area near a soccer field. The roof is metal. While we were waiting for our food, it started to rain. Not just rain, but a storm. The rain beat against the metal roof and I thought I was noticing something different.
I turned my hearing aid off and sure enough, I was hearing something. It was a humming sound. It was a “Fa” as in “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So, La, Ti Do.” That’s a pretty weird sound for rain on a tin roof. It is, however, the first non-cricket sound I have heard.
As you can imagine, I really enjoyed the rain.
* Mexidão is a popular Brazilian night time food. It is a mix of rice, beans, cracklins, sausage, beef, eggs and collard greens. Great stuff. Do a google search to see a picture.
Today’s meeting was a lot less than I expected. There was no second mapping today. That will come in three more weeks. I guess I misunderstood. I also did NOT get permission from my audiologist to mess around more with my controller. I was told to leave it alone or leave it with her. So… My wife was right.
Today, Vanessa, my audiologist put my processor on level two. She then had me turn my hearing aid off and close my eyes, she played a drum, a cymbal, a rattle and a few other things to see what I could hear. The answer was the same for all of them… a little cricket in the distance. The good news is, I heard them all, except the rattle.
She explained that even though I don’t feel like I am hearing these things, that my brain is learning how to hear with my left ear, and that takes time.
It all makes logical sense…. I just wish there was a way to speed up the process.
