HiRes 90K Activation (12/26/08)

[Guest guest]

Hi, everyone:

My HiRes 90K implant with Harmony processor was activated yesterday.

First we obtained a barely perceptible " threshold " level. At that point, all I

heard was an emphasis on conversation, only the loudest vowels or consonants in

the sentences were loud enough to hear. We never did set a " most comfortable

loudness " level during this appointment --- the audiologist just bumped the

volume up gradually. The computer showed basically the same loudness all across

the electrodes. There was no " fine-tuning " during this appointment, no pitch

comparison or anything like that.

I kept urging the audiologist to turn it up the volume. I thought she was going

to leave me for 10 days with barely any sound! Finally, I convinced her to bump

the loudness up one last time. Almost like " pop " , suddenly, the voices began to

pour into my new implant!

At first it was sort of strange. The women were coming in pretty good in that

little 10 x 12 room. My husband's voice was hard to hear at first and sounded

more high pitched than I am used to hearing. He was speaking as if he were

scared to death that I wouldn't like the new sound and very softly (soft

speaking is not like him at all, he was scared as to what my reaction would be).

He had to move to the side of my new implant. Once he realized that I could

comprehend speech, he relaxed and began to speak normally. Within the next

hour, he achieved this wonderful younger sounding, very clear voice that I find

is delightful!!! Ha, ha! He sounds like his younger brother! (He now insists

his younger brother sounds like HIM, that he had that voice first).

During the following HOUR of listening to conversation that consisted of

explaining the attachments, etc., of the system and discussing practice I could

do, voices gradually became pretty clearer, but accompanied by the sensation as

if I were hearing through a hollow tube.

There were 4 of us in the room ... my husband and I, the new audiologist and a

student audiologist, they were chatting away and mostly I was listening to

everything. It was amazing to hear the crinkle of paper and all of the new high

pitched sound being piped into my brain. Remember that I had residual low

frequency hearing and wore a hearing aid for 42 years in this newly implanted

ear.

I am sorry if I can't elaborate more, while it was a big experience for me, it

was just much more simple than when I first got my AB Clarion 1.2. I walked out

of there with much more hearing than I had with my AB Clarion 1.2 when I

initially was activated --- I had some speech comprehension that was working

very well with my old ci. There were no robotic voices with this new implant,

but I did have that sound like talking through a hollow tube. I was given 3

programs of progressive loudness. At home, I discovered I could use the loudest

program and turn the volume up a bit and hear the TV talk shows with just the

new ci (I could hear the talk shows with the old ci & hearing aid combination,

but not much with the old ci alone).

I still have the audio tapes and book that I purchased to practice with when I

got the first implant in 1997! At home, I used the Direct Connect and listened

to the first chapter of the unabridged version of " The Gift " by le Steel

while reading along with the book --- if I looked away, I could listen and find

my spot in the book further down the page. While I miss some of the words (some

sounds do not seem to have enough emphasis on them) I hear a lot of them. I

skimmed smoothly over the markings in the book that I had made as I struggled to

learn to hear with my old 1997 Clarion 1.2.

Then I tried listening to my iPod recordings of lectures of Anatomy &

Physiology. I could hear certain phrases of what my favorite instructor said (I

spent 9 months listening to her in class). Listening to the lectures with the

new implant will have to wait, there isn't enough there yet to comprehend a

lecture.

It seems as if the learning to hear with the old 1997 Clarion 1.2 has helped me

a lot with learning the new HiRes & Harmony sound --- I just don't have to start

from scratch, yippee! However, I do have to practice listening and will need

some fine tuning of my programs to get better emphasis on certain speech sounds.

In bed, I could take the old Clarion 1.2 off, lie on that ear and talk to my

husband with the new Harmony alone. Yes, there is lip-reading involved, but

this is something that I could not do with the hearing aid. He watched the news

on the little Sony TV on his side of the bedroom and I found that I am not

hearing with enough distance on my quietest program to comprehend the news.

I was so worried about losing my residual hearing prior to going into surgery.

Now, this seems a mute point, as I have gotten the full range of sound that was

promised, and SPEECH COMPREHENSION that I didn't have with the hearing aid when

worn alone. I feel as if someone finally removed a plug out of my ear that was

keeping me from hearing. But, sure, I'll need adjustments and I will do some

practicing to get the comprehension better --- I suspect that have been down a

much " rougher " road of ci training with my first ci that I have had for 12

years, this new one will require!

My first ci was done in 1997 to an ear that was profoundly deaf for 32 years.

This new HiRes 90K implant was done to a 42 year hearing impaired ear that, with

a LogiCom transpositional hearing aid, I was picking up low frequencies very

nicely, and perhaps a tiny smudge of high frequencies.

June

AB Clarion 1.2, 1/97

AB HiRes 90K, 12/08