10 days in.

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