I should have came on to update on my one year mark of the surgery which was june 22nd, then the one year mark of having the implant turned on which was like mid-july, do not actually remember the exact date of it though.
Anyways, I just went for my appointment last week with Mark. It was the usual testing that he does, nothing new to report there. We decided to do a hearing test on my left ear since the last test was december 2009... a super long time ago! and way overdue. Once again the most favorite word of Mark's is "stable" I am the most stable hearing person. No changes with my hearing aid side, no changes with my cochlear implant side. It's all quite dandy.
We did also go to a speech pathologist that day too to just chat and see how I am doing mentally with the implant. The process of getting an implant and learning how to use it requires good mental strength... I have to be strong in my mind of how I really am doing and need to take measures to remind myself of my hearing strengths. I often feel like I am not doing good with my implant and that it isn't making a huge difference in my life. There are times where I have to pull the magnet off my head to remember that it is on, so basically wearing an Implant is easy in how you do not even notice that you are wearing it, which is a good or bad thing sometimes. I like being able to know that I am hearing through vibrations or feeling the sounds in my ear like the hearing aid does. But the Implant is not through my physical ear at all, so it makes it difficult for me to even know that it is on and that I am truly hearing these sounds.
Anyways I was talking about this with this doctor, and she confirmed my thoughts and said that it is tough for a person of my age to pick up the use of the implant quickly, and also I do not have a real sound map in my head since I was born deaf. Most people have that critical period when they are young to hear and learn these sounds for a map in their brain which will help with hearing everything later on in life. I do not have it, so it makes it more difficult for me to even know what I am hearing and have to ask a lot of what i am hearing.
I was feeling a bit down about how my progress was going, so she decided that we should do some tests to see how well i am hearing things. she put these sheets with words on them in front of me and said those words to me without me looking at her and i had to say back what word she just said. I got all of them right... finally she gives me her hardest test which was no visual cues or anything at all, and she asked me these everyday kind of questions and I had to repeat back them. I also got almost all of those correct, just not "how old are you" i said "how are you" instead. but on the second try i managed to figure that out. So those tests helped me feel better and realize that I really am suceeding with the implant more than I thought. My dad was with me at the appointments and he said that he thought I was doing great since getting the implant and it was nice to hear that from him since he doesn't often tell me things like that.
Overall, the appointment wasn't any different.
I do not have much else to report, and I have decided that I have grown tired of updating my blog, so do not expect me to update much more after this unless there's something new. It was useful for when I was going through the process of getting the implant, now it's just about growing older with it and using it.
Until next time, probably not until wintertime which is my next appointment I believe.
-Annie
