Wow

It's been less than 2 months since activation and up until my last map, which I had on December 9, I was doing well with my implant but I was still struggling with comprehending about 40% of what was coming thru, especially since everything still sounded very chipmunk-like. So at my mapping appointment I complained a little about the chipmunk voices and how words seemed to run together, making it difficult to understand word for word what someone was saying. So with that my audi lowered one of the tones or something, I'm not really sure.. but as soon as he started talking I noticed immediately that his voice sounded deeper and more realistic.. human I should say. It's utterly fantastic. I can hear about 99% of what's coming thru. He also added a program for the phone this time and when I got home I called my sister.. I heard everything she said! Sure, she sounded a little different, but I understood her! Also music sounds MUCH better now..
I also wanted to add that at my mapping appointment my audiogram showed 20-25db across the board. Then I visited with the speech therapist to find out how well I was hearing certain sounds, like s, sh, c, t, etc.. and I scored 100% with the implanted ear but only 50% with my other hearing aided ear.


I don't know how I lived without this! Oh wait, I wasn't living. I was holed up at home avoiding the world. I'm still getting used to being able to hear again and learning to relax when around other people. I'm still not very confident and I get shaky..I imagine it will take some time but I'm getting better.
The very best incentive to having this done is my kids. After all these years of frustrating communication problems, especially with my daughter, I am finally able to hear them and hear them well. My daughter and I both noticed a few weeks ago that I didn't ask her to repeat herself once. Already, communication problems I've had with them are a thing of the past. Then yesterday at a family gathering they all were amazed at how well I was picking up on the conversation. We were laughing and joking about it. I won't lie, I had a hard time hearing everyone at the same time and they can get pretty loud and confusing with everyone talking at the same time! But it was great all the same and I was able to keep up with them for the most part.

The other day I was feeling brave so I finally completed the community college registration and financial aid stuff that I've been putting off. One side of me is scared that it will be another humiliating experience.. but the other side says it's time to stop being scared and start living again. So that's what I'm going to do.. starting January 12 I am going to begin another chapter in my life.



Thanks for reading... and big hugs to my fellow cochlear implantees! What an amazing journey we've been thru and if it wasn't for you guys I would've never had the guts to have this done!
Much love and thanks to you guys!!

First MAP

I had my first real map today since being activated last week and I'm just amazed with this thing! At first I was slightly disappointed. It sounded very high pitched, metallic and garbled, but after 2 or 3 days I started understanding some words coming thru and that was so cool!
It is going to take some time and effort but I already know that this is going to help me tremendously. I've been doing some listening exercises on the internet and it seems to help a lot. I wear a hearing aid in my left ear but I turn it off for a few hours a day so I can concentrate on the implanted ear.

I forgot to ask for a copy of my audiogram but I was in the mild-moderate loss range. I got 100% on the words that my audi read (NO lipreading), but the sentences weren't as good, I scored 38%. I did terrible on the words read from the recording, but I was close on quite a few(duck, dock.. cab, cat, etc). But hey, it's only been a week and the test was before the new map so I'm very happy with my progress so far!

The new map is slightly better, it's not so high pitched. My audi also put 4 programs in... 1 is for everyday, 2 is for backround noise, 3 is focus and 4 is for music. I can't say they sound very different yet. My only complaint is that voices still sound chipmunk-like and sort of distorted but it's not nearly as bad as it was. I can't wait for next week!