Progress

[Guest guest]

Hi All,

As promised, I am sharing my experiences with a new Cochlear Implant. Like many

of you, I have had a profound hearing loss in both ears for many years. My loss

has progressed with time from a mild loss to profound over a 32 year period.

I had the CI surgery on April 22nd and was activated on May 20th, just 24 hours

ago. Here are my experiences.

In audiologist's office, she turned on processor and did initial setup without

me having the device on. We talked as she worked. Also looked over the suitcase

full of stuff that comes with the CI. Books, CD, DVD, batteries, chargers,

cases, dehumidifiers, you name it.

Processor was placed on ear and initial settings were made, mostly listening to

tones of varying frequencies and responding with, " too soft " , " too loud " etc.

Had to laugh when I felt some tones in my throat and some in my teeth. Weird.

Then she started speaking normally and stated wording similar to some of the

hearing tests that I have heard over the years. " Baseball, hotdog, Tuesday,

Wednesday, airplane, etc. To my surprise, I actually heard the words without

straining to hear them.

The sound of course is not normal sound that I have experienced over the years.

All the voices and all of the sounds sounded like " Darth Vader " crossed with

" Mickey Mouse " . Computered digital sound and very high pitched. Audiologist said

that is normal and will change over time as the brain learns.

Audi (Audiologist) said she didn't want me to do any training this first week.

Just wanted me to get used to hearing voices and environmental sounds. Training

will commence next week when several more channels are turned on and adjustments

made.

On car trip to a graduation that evening, my wife conversed in the car and I was

able to hear her without looking at her to see what she was saying. Have to

admit that both her voice and my voice were really, really weird sounding but

understandable. Fan noise from the car's A/C and road noise were identified.

Cell phone chirps and turn signal tones were heard and identified. Very

enlightening.

Things turned bad at the graduation. Acoustics in the church were terrible, too

many echoes and too much background interferences with several hundred people

talking at the same time. I tried several of the program modes and varied the

volume and sensitivity modes. Got frustrated and just turned everything way down

and just gave up trying to hear.

I guess I expected too much too soon.

At the graduation party afterwards, Noise again was the problem. One on one with

people was not working due to interferences.

At midnight, went to motel, took off CI and got some rest.

This morning, after putting on CI, I had to retrain myself to some sounds.

Listening to my wife was tough at first but then I fell back into hearing her

" new " voice. Television sound and A/C sound in room were very distracting.

Went to breakfast with family members. Annoying noise and too many voices to try

to hear at one time. Unable to locate the voices I was hearing. I did, however,

hear sounds that I have been able to hear for years. The waffle iron alarm had a

high pitched chirp that I actually heard and others could not hear. That was so

amazing.

After breakfast, everyone broke up into smaller groups and we conversed in twos

and threes. Better hearing but still difficult when talkers don't face my

direction. Also I cannot yet pick out the speaking party with out looking around

to find moving lips.

At a very quiet location, I was able to pick out three different voices. That

was encouraging.

That's it for today. Heading to early church and then another graduation

reception. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Later, Tom

>

> Hi We were given a date for my husband Don's surgery on his first CI implant.

It will be June 22. I have been reading posts from all that have CI or are going

to get one and I have to say Thankyou to all that have responded. I will keep

all up to date on his progress. Diane

>