So, time to update once again.
At this point, it's been ten days since the implant was turned on. I went in for an appointment at the 5 day mark. That went well. I had to undergo the booth testing which is my least favorite thing ever to do. Basically, for hearing tests you go into this sound-proof booth with a glass wall dividing you from the audiologist and all the machines. In the room that I am in is basically a chair and speakers. I usually listen to the speakers through my hearing aids, or FM, or the implant or even nothing too. During that day, we primarily focused on how well I am doing with the implant alone in my right ear. The first test he did was have me listen for beeping sounds and raising my hand when I heard them. It's often very quiet beeps or a different range of them, from low frequency to high frequency. I cannot really hear high frequency/pitch sounds right now since that has not really been enabled on my program for the implant. But I am hearing a few.
The second test he did was my absolute least favorite thing ever to do. I always have a hard time with it because I hear it but I have a hard time figuring out what I just heard in my head. Also it is a man's voice on a tape recorder... not my audiologist's. It goes like this: "ready" "ball"... so i usually know the word ready to heart by the end of the tape. But I am supposed to repeat back the word after "ready" and it's tough for me. I even get to the point where I give up and just say random words which is kind of a bad idea... either that or i really think i am hearing the same word over and over... specifically in this section i hear 'push' a lot... i think. haha. So i did this test with the implant alone, then again with my hearing aid which made it a bit easier for me i think.
After all those testing, my audiologist tells me that based on the beeping tests, I am hearing at the level of a person with a mild hearing loss which is quite amazing! But with the results of the 2nd test, I am still pretty stable of what I was hearing before the surgery, however this is good due that I did not lose any hearing or progress. I just have to practice more and listen more and figure out what everything is. My audiologist was pleased with my progress for 5 days of using the implants and says I'm on the right track with it.
Now, my own personal view of my progress has been up and down a lot. Some days, I feel like I am not really hearing as much as I should. While other days I am just being driven crazy by sounds! It's tough going in my head because I tend not to be very patient with progress and get tired easily with everything. So it's a trying experience for me. However I do discover something new that I can hear every day, like I started hearing the tea kettle whistling yesterday and again today. Today I am noticing the birds a lot which is extremely annoying... it's like being repeated in my head right now, like a bad song going over and over.
I do notice more sounds though with the implant, and I feel like I am talking better and holding conversations a bit better but it is still a process to go through. My mom said that she has noticed that I am speaking better than usual and maybe it's because I am actually hearing myself? Also, I can finally hear the sound 's' 'sh' 'ch' which were always tough sounds for me to hear, and I've actually never really heard the 's' sound before which is remarkable for me to hear now! =)
Next appointment for me is in August at the one month mark, so we'll see how that goes then... probably will not update this until then but who knows.
-Annie
Monday, July 26, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Time flies
Okay, July 16th has come and gone.
That was the date of turning on my implant. And I am still not sure if it was successful... =/ makes me quite worried.
But anyways, I'll tell you about how the day went. Headed to the hosptial in the morning, and waited till my audiologist got me.
He started off by checking with me if everything went well and etc etc. They did. =)
And we went right to it... after tons of opening boxes and taking the plastic off of individual containers and numerous remarks saying 'why are they destroying the environment with all this plastic!?' we finally get my device out and put together. He did not turn it on right away and had to do some tests. The first test was tough for me, since it was pretty much turned on and was testing to make sure all of the individual nodes inside my cochlear on the wire thingy was functioning. It was a hard test on my head because it just sounded like really strong sensations being shocked into my head. Not like a static shock, but like a sound shock. After a while my whole head was booming and my heart started racing. I was kind of freaking out at that point because I thought that was what I was hearing and it wasn't anything specifc. Finally he stopped that after I was in a lot of pain via my head.
The second test was a test of beeping. I basically had to listen for beeping at different tones, most were soft to figure out how quiet I could hear things. I tried my best with it but after a while I felt like I wasn't hearing anything and making it up in my head.
After he did that, he said that he can turn it on and I'll hear what everyone's voices are like. He does... at first... I hear nothing. Just feeling a weird sensation. He tells me it's at a low volume and that he needs to increase it until i feel comfortable and can hear voices. Increasing... more and more... I barely hear anything. I'm mostly in shock at this point of how it is not what I was expecting at all. The sounds aren't the same as what I heard with a hearing aid.
I finally found a volume level that my head was comfortable with and could hear everyone talking in that small office. But at the same time, I really did not know what I was really hearing. The voices do sound cartoonish right now, and it's mad weird.
However now i have become worried that it is not working the way it's supposed to... like did i mess up on that second test and make myself think that I really was able to hear now? Over the course of 2 days since then, I feel like I am not really hearing anything. I have my hearing aid in the left ear helping me maintain some level of hearing that i am used to but if i have only the implant on... i can't really hear anything, just keep getting a weird sensation on my head from the magnet sending electrical currents to my cochlear/brain. I have been continuing to increase the volume and move through 4 programs that my audiologist set up for me to get used to a more normal level of functionality on the cochlear implant.
The only major difference that I have noticed is that I am hearing music more clearly now. Like I can actually pick out the moments when someone is singing, and I am trying to pick out the words but it's not so easy. Before the implants, I could only listen to music through it's beat and rhythm rather than the actual lyrics which i could never really hear.
Crossing my fingers at this point that this worry goes away quickly and I can improve slash get used to this implant quickly. If the worry doesn't go away quickly I probably will start to regret all of this and be in a terrible mood for days. So nobody wants that... =(
Anyways,
it's tough for me to describe all of it... like i cannot find the right words at all to make it make sense to everyone. Not even my mom understands what is really going on in my head right now. I hope I can find the words to describe it and will post a new blog when I figure it out.
Night ya'll,
-Annie
That was the date of turning on my implant. And I am still not sure if it was successful... =/ makes me quite worried.
But anyways, I'll tell you about how the day went. Headed to the hosptial in the morning, and waited till my audiologist got me.
He started off by checking with me if everything went well and etc etc. They did. =)
And we went right to it... after tons of opening boxes and taking the plastic off of individual containers and numerous remarks saying 'why are they destroying the environment with all this plastic!?' we finally get my device out and put together. He did not turn it on right away and had to do some tests. The first test was tough for me, since it was pretty much turned on and was testing to make sure all of the individual nodes inside my cochlear on the wire thingy was functioning. It was a hard test on my head because it just sounded like really strong sensations being shocked into my head. Not like a static shock, but like a sound shock. After a while my whole head was booming and my heart started racing. I was kind of freaking out at that point because I thought that was what I was hearing and it wasn't anything specifc. Finally he stopped that after I was in a lot of pain via my head.
The second test was a test of beeping. I basically had to listen for beeping at different tones, most were soft to figure out how quiet I could hear things. I tried my best with it but after a while I felt like I wasn't hearing anything and making it up in my head.
After he did that, he said that he can turn it on and I'll hear what everyone's voices are like. He does... at first... I hear nothing. Just feeling a weird sensation. He tells me it's at a low volume and that he needs to increase it until i feel comfortable and can hear voices. Increasing... more and more... I barely hear anything. I'm mostly in shock at this point of how it is not what I was expecting at all. The sounds aren't the same as what I heard with a hearing aid.
I finally found a volume level that my head was comfortable with and could hear everyone talking in that small office. But at the same time, I really did not know what I was really hearing. The voices do sound cartoonish right now, and it's mad weird.
However now i have become worried that it is not working the way it's supposed to... like did i mess up on that second test and make myself think that I really was able to hear now? Over the course of 2 days since then, I feel like I am not really hearing anything. I have my hearing aid in the left ear helping me maintain some level of hearing that i am used to but if i have only the implant on... i can't really hear anything, just keep getting a weird sensation on my head from the magnet sending electrical currents to my cochlear/brain. I have been continuing to increase the volume and move through 4 programs that my audiologist set up for me to get used to a more normal level of functionality on the cochlear implant.
The only major difference that I have noticed is that I am hearing music more clearly now. Like I can actually pick out the moments when someone is singing, and I am trying to pick out the words but it's not so easy. Before the implants, I could only listen to music through it's beat and rhythm rather than the actual lyrics which i could never really hear.
Crossing my fingers at this point that this worry goes away quickly and I can improve slash get used to this implant quickly. If the worry doesn't go away quickly I probably will start to regret all of this and be in a terrible mood for days. So nobody wants that... =(
Anyways,
it's tough for me to describe all of it... like i cannot find the right words at all to make it make sense to everyone. Not even my mom understands what is really going on in my head right now. I hope I can find the words to describe it and will post a new blog when I figure it out.
Night ya'll,
-Annie
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