Three Months Since The Switch On!

Hello all, I’m sorry it has been quiet on this blog. My life literally has been all about uni, it is a good way to keeping busy when my photography business had gone downhill and money isn’t coming. I need something to keep busy so doing courses is the way to do it. Anyway, three months on since the ‘switch on’, I have learn a lot of sounds I never heard before like hands rubbing together, the breathing, all those quiet sounds you could hardly hear.

Music has been my life, for a while since I had it on, it has been really frustrating listening to music; I couldn’t even get the sounds of the instruments and song words properly, all I get mostly was beat. I was angry so I took out my cochlear and put my hearing aid on just to hear the music. I bet now you are thinking, “How is it possible that she could still hear with the hearing aid?”. Well most CI recipients hear nothing since the implant, I was one of the few rare CI recipients who was lucky that I still have the nerve hair without any damage thanks to Dr Que Hee who operated me carefully, inserted the cochlear implant without damaging any of my nerve. Had a hearing check that there was no change in the audio-graph from pre op to post op, it’s still the same. Few friends said that I will lose the nerve after few months, well how come I can still hear with the hearing aid on my right ear? So I’m keeping my hearing aid for whenever I need it, cos I haven’t lost the nerves. I am lucky, really lucky! So lately I realised that with the hearing aid I am wearing on my left ear isn’t helping, so I took it off and focus on trying to listen with the cochlear on my right and closed my eyes. Finally I could hear every music instruments they play and every words they sang. It felt so good to have that feeling again; the feelings you have when you listen to music. Goosebumps!

So ever since, whenever I need to hear or learn, I turn off my left hearing aid or just take it off, which has now been a lot of time I don’t wear my hearing aid and just focus a lot more with the cochlear on my right. I am learning a lot more, recognising many sounds, and the words. It won’t be long before I don’t have to lipread much and let my eyes rest from all the hard work of lipreading.

I’ve had my 3 months appointment on Friday 30th, January. And to her surprise, the specialist, I have improved a lot more than most CI recipients (hearing people) who lost their hearing which took them a year or more to get there with the sounds. I have had a hearing test with the cochlear and the graph showed that I hear as much as hearing people hear, the mapping had improved so much. She didn’t think I would have got that far in such short time, normally for someone like me with profound deafness it should take a year or more but it took me 3 months. I was confused with her intrigued by my speedy recovery of sounds but I get it, I understood what she meant. I was surprised myself…..I’m what my mother used to say all the time, I am a determine person and a fast learner. Persistent is what I am! Persistent, persistent, persistent!!! Maybe I learnt too much from Bruce Lee (big fan of him and Jackie Chan), or I am just a person who wants what I want. If I want it, I get it and I did.

A mapping is a reprogramming of the cochlear implant, to readjust the electrical stimulation limits of the electrodes as each user’s brain adapts to sound and fibrous tissue grows over the internal implant. Mappings are typically carried out once a fortnight for the first 3 months, then once on the third months, once on the sixth month, then once annually. At each mapping I was given increased volume and it was an opportunity to address any concerns with the audiologist. This was followed by a speech therapy session. I have one more mapping session which was on the 30th January, then my next one is in April. I have not yet reached full levels, I’m almost there. Increased sound levels can be problematic for cochlear implant users because they are more sensitive to loudness changes. A normal hearing person can hear a wide range of sounds from very soft whispers to loud rock bands; this dynamic range of hearing is about 120dB (normal speech is within the 40-60dB range). However, a cochlear implant processor’s input dynamic range (IDR) or sound window is limited to an electrical current of 20dB, and 120dB of sound needs to be compressed into this. Therefore the cochlear implant user is more sensitive to changes in loudness than a hearing person. But not much of a problem for me, like I said earlier – the specialist was surprised I have improved so much. She said I could hear as much as hearing people hear. Below is the image I took of my cochlear implant mapping, the green dots are when I started hearing sounds at that electrode and the red dots are when I reached the tolerance for maximum comfort loud sounds at that electrode.

 

 

I am really happy with how things are going.

Until next time, I’ll try to keep up with with the CI journal. Blessed be,

Cynthia xo