I'm Back!

Yes I am back home and really back in more ways than one. This may be a long post as I will summarize the week after Monday's turn on. Tuesday started with the elimination of one of the programs. The first 2 programs or mappings as the are called were very basic and an introduction to my new way of hearing. They were to determine at what speed my ear was more comfortable processing this new sound. We eliminated the slower one and added a quicker one on Tuesday morning. We also added a program called ADRO which is supposed to automatically adjust to keep sounds at a comfortable level for maximum clarity. We entered this program based on the mapping of the before mentioned program one. I should mention at this time things are going pretty well. I am still only using my new CI and the clarity of voice is excellent. I can't believe that I can hear people talk so soon and my doctor is impressed with the early results. At the end of the day we do a speech test and we have promising results. We conducted the same test with my hearing aid last spring and of 50 words listed I was able to correctly repeat one of them. On Tuesday afternoon, with only 2 days of my new CI, I was able to repeat 26 words! Very exciting and promising as it should only get better. Returning on Wednesday morning after an exhausting 6 hour day of testing and programming on Tuesday I came to the conclusion that my ear liked the sound I was getting at the medium speed so we eliminated the fast program and started to focus on fine tuning the program I was comfortable with. We left the basic program in and added a program called ASC, which is supposed to automatically reduce the background noise that interferes with understanding speech. I find this program to be very useful in noisy environments and am astonished I can hear Belinda talk to me on a busy downtown Vancouver street. We also add a another program and it is called Whisper, it is supposed to help to pick up soft sounds when you are in a quite environment. So by the end of Wednesday I have all 4 program slots used up, understanding speech better and starting to feel comfortable with my new sound. Because it is just that, a completely new sound, it still is like nothing I have ever heard before. I am not complaining though the sound is very foreign but it is bringing speech to me better than I have heard in years. We are progressing nicely so my doctor suggest we put back in my hearing aid. I put it in and right away I figure something is wrong with it. It sounds terrible, muffled, unclear, I think that maybe the batteries are bad so I replace them, but it doesn't help. Then I come to the realization that this is how I have heard for the past 5 years. I can't believe I have managed. I want to take it out and only use my CI but I am encouraged to have patience and that they should eventually compliment each other and besides this is what I wanted isn't to hear on both sides. As usual my doctor/audiologist is right, I start to get used to both sounds and we do some testing and I am doing well so off we go. We had dinner with some family on Wednesday night. There are 7 to 9 people there at different times and all through the dinner I am doing my own little experiments seeing which programs are better for what and observing how I am doing. At the end of the night I come to the conclusion that my new CI has really just giving me the ability to lip read better. It picks up sounds that are more important for speech, the softer sounds so it makes it easier for me to follow conversations. In situations where I could not see the speaker it was the same old really, pretty difficult to follow. Thursday morning it is determined that this will be my last day of testing and programming. My doctor is pleased with my progress and we seemed to have reached my maximum as far as volume that my ear can take. We eliminate my basic program and add a new one called BEAM, it is supposed to help me in situations where I want to listen to the speaker in front of me. It will shut down sounds behind and beside me and pick up in front only. We also do some telephone testing and I do ok, but it doesn't sound that great. I finish up my physical testing, which we have done all through the week to make sure that everything inside is working and responding and all of those have checked out 100%! My doctor sends me home at lunch on Thursday, a day early and tells me to come back in a month. Each morning I wake up I want to say I am excited to put on my new CI, but I'm not. It's a very hard and foreign sound and takes some getting used to each day so its always toughest first thing in the morning. I have tried and use all programs that have been installed. I find that each has it's own benefit and helps in different situations. I know it is still early and people that have had their CI long term say they are still improving 20 years later so I can't believe that it will only get better because it has already exceeded my expectations.