Yesterday was my 3 month check-up at the audiologist since my Cochlear Implant was switched on. I did a hearing test and it has been a very long time since the lines on my audiogram have been that high ;)
She asked how it was going, its all good... she doesn't think I'll need to come in at the 6 month mark because I'm doing so fabulously and I'll see her in a year! Sounds like she'll pass on my email address to people having CI assessments so they can talk to someone who has recently had it done, yaay!
I think I've reached a stalemate when it comes to the CI, I think I'll always need subtitles with the TV and the phone is difficult.
Thursday, May 11, 2006
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
Superceeded
I am SO depressed. My 22 channel CI has been superceded by a 120 channel CI. How on earth did they manage that huge jump? And just 2 months after I was implanted?
Its a different company to mine, and their old CI had 16 channels. 16 to 120!
I knew I'd get depressed as technology advanced but I thought they'd at least jump just a few channels, not quidriple it!
Its a different company to mine, and their old CI had 16 channels. 16 to 120!
I knew I'd get depressed as technology advanced but I thought they'd at least jump just a few channels, not quidriple it!
Thursday, March 23, 2006
1.5 months
Yesterday was another audiologist appointment, she did a proper speech test with me, rather than "exercises" which is what I've previously been doing. I've been calling them speech tests, sorry folks!
This involves using a decible measurer (whatever they are called) so Anne speaks at a certain volume (ie, very softly, gah).
So this time we used the exact same sentances she used when she tested me before the CI. Here are the results
PRE-CI
Left hearing aid : 10%
Both hearing aids : 40%
POST-CI
Left CI : 75%
CI and hearing aid : 90%
I thought that was terrible, I wanted 100% :P
I got it turned up *Grin* And now I don't see her again until May!
Then I went to visit the actual surgeon, who I haven't seen since switch-on. He's a very serious man (*serious deep voice*) so I was telling him all about my progress and he's smiling and saying how pleased he is and he thought I'd do well and giving me a pat to show how pleased he is (this is his bedside manner, god its hilarious). And that he bet Anne was just excited as me at my progress (which she is!!).
I also asked how my speech was. Yes, it has improved. Which I thought was amazing because it was really only supposed to stop more deterioration. (I couldn't tell my speech was deteriorating and either could my family)
In ipod-ci-cord related news, Anne (audiologist) emailed me this morning to say its 100 DOLLARS and do I still want one. No bloody way!! Even she thought it was expensive!
In other bits and pieces, last night Penny said something to the back of me and I answered it and it wasn't until she said "I love how you don't have to look at our face to understand us!" that it clicked, THATS RIGHT!! HAHAHA! I did a mental dance last night when I realised I was joining in just fine at the dinner table! And I love when I'm at the folks' house and they ask "do you need a light on?" and I DON'T!! And apparently I'm a lot easier to talk to *grin*
This involves using a decible measurer (whatever they are called) so Anne speaks at a certain volume (ie, very softly, gah).
So this time we used the exact same sentances she used when she tested me before the CI. Here are the results
PRE-CI
Left hearing aid : 10%
Both hearing aids : 40%
POST-CI
Left CI : 75%
CI and hearing aid : 90%
I thought that was terrible, I wanted 100% :P
I got it turned up *Grin* And now I don't see her again until May!
Then I went to visit the actual surgeon, who I haven't seen since switch-on. He's a very serious man (*serious deep voice*) so I was telling him all about my progress and he's smiling and saying how pleased he is and he thought I'd do well and giving me a pat to show how pleased he is (this is his bedside manner, god its hilarious). And that he bet Anne was just excited as me at my progress (which she is!!).
I also asked how my speech was. Yes, it has improved. Which I thought was amazing because it was really only supposed to stop more deterioration. (I couldn't tell my speech was deteriorating and either could my family)
In ipod-ci-cord related news, Anne (audiologist) emailed me this morning to say its 100 DOLLARS and do I still want one. No bloody way!! Even she thought it was expensive!
In other bits and pieces, last night Penny said something to the back of me and I answered it and it wasn't until she said "I love how you don't have to look at our face to understand us!" that it clicked, THATS RIGHT!! HAHAHA! I did a mental dance last night when I realised I was joining in just fine at the dinner table! And I love when I'm at the folks' house and they ask "do you need a light on?" and I DON'T!! And apparently I'm a lot easier to talk to *grin*
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
Phone!
Exciting news : I was at Mums last night and I called my Aunt and had a conversation… on a NORMAL PHONE. Without ANY volume control! And I understood her!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, March 9, 2006
More tests
After I finally got to the Audiologist, it was explained it would be a quick appointment and I didn't even get hooked up to the computer!
More speech tests, more blitzing. She is SO pleased at how I'm going.
I asked about rehabilitation/therapy and she said I don't need it, I'm doing fine as I am. It's just a matter of exposure now.
I also asked am I just doing really, really well or if my progress is normal. She said its not unexpected with my history of hearing aid use and they tell people it'd be months before understanding speech so expectations are low.
"Now we'll test the phone" she says. I said I tried testing the phone with Mum before, I couldn't understand a thing. "Does she have a cordless?" Yes...apparently cordless phones are really terrible.
She also said it helps if I know what is being said and while I'm practicing phone use, to get the call-ee to read out my speech exercises and me work them out
So WE practiced that (she went into another room and called) and I got it! OMG, USING THE PHONE! I even got all the stuff like 'ok, I'll read them out now' and 'thats great, I'll come back in a sec' !!!
Sooo.... who has a corded landline and wants to call me and read out nursery rhymes (or something familar) for me to practice with?!! :P
More speech tests, more blitzing. She is SO pleased at how I'm going.
I asked about rehabilitation/therapy and she said I don't need it, I'm doing fine as I am. It's just a matter of exposure now.
I also asked am I just doing really, really well or if my progress is normal. She said its not unexpected with my history of hearing aid use and they tell people it'd be months before understanding speech so expectations are low.
"Now we'll test the phone" she says. I said I tried testing the phone with Mum before, I couldn't understand a thing. "Does she have a cordless?" Yes...apparently cordless phones are really terrible.
She also said it helps if I know what is being said and while I'm practicing phone use, to get the call-ee to read out my speech exercises and me work them out
So WE practiced that (she went into another room and called) and I got it! OMG, USING THE PHONE! I even got all the stuff like 'ok, I'll read them out now' and 'thats great, I'll come back in a sec' !!!
Sooo.... who has a corded landline and wants to call me and read out nursery rhymes (or something familar) for me to practice with?!! :P
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
Music
I was listening to music on the weekend... it doesn't sound the same per se, but it sounded a lot better than it did the first day I tried listening to music. I did expect to be hearing new instruments and I was right!! I don't know what its called... its part of the drum kit, the bit that looks like 2 cymbals. Run to Paradise uses that instrument in the first few bars, did you all know that? :P
And Axel F sounds a hellava lot better!
Garth and I went to see Revenge of the Sith at Moonlight Cinemas... about halfway through, some people from the audience walked to the front, lit up their LIGHTSABRES and did a mock fight. It was so cool.
But the most exciting part of the night was actually understanding most of the movie! Even at the end Garth said to me “I could tell you were understanding the movie because you were laughing at what Yoda said”… you can’t lip read Yoda! YAAAAY!!!
I'll tell you what drove me nuts today.... black cockatoos!!! Sitting at my desk at work, then suddenly.... OMG, I can hear the cockatoos! And they SOUNDED like cockatoos! I got over that very quickly, they are annoying too :P
And Axel F sounds a hellava lot better!
Garth and I went to see Revenge of the Sith at Moonlight Cinemas... about halfway through, some people from the audience walked to the front, lit up their LIGHTSABRES and did a mock fight. It was so cool.
But the most exciting part of the night was actually understanding most of the movie! Even at the end Garth said to me “I could tell you were understanding the movie because you were laughing at what Yoda said”… you can’t lip read Yoda! YAAAAY!!!
I'll tell you what drove me nuts today.... black cockatoos!!! Sitting at my desk at work, then suddenly.... OMG, I can hear the cockatoos! And they SOUNDED like cockatoos! I got over that very quickly, they are annoying too :P
Friday, February 24, 2006
More tune ups
Another tune up today, only this time at the end we did a speech test.... and I BLITZED IT!!
I don't think either of us believed it :) The audiologist was saying "this is unbelievable!" and I don't know if she's so surprised coz I'm doing so well (I'm only at the end of my second week, afterall) or if its simply because the last time I did that test... with 2 hearing aids.... I didn't get ANYTHING!!
So now I have different programs/maps (which I change with a push of a button), one which will 'even out' environmental sounds (ie, if its going soft, loud, soft, loud), and another which directs the microphone right in front of me, so I can hear the person in front and it will cut out background noise.
Then we talked about that guy who got 2 switched on at once this week and how ridiculous it was that he was going to listen to music in the car on the way home. Good luck mate. We also had a bit of a laugh at the reporter saying this guy will need "intense rehabilitation for the next month". The audiologist had a bit of a joke saying I was having intense rehabilitation right then ;)
I LOVE my CI. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
I don't think either of us believed it :) The audiologist was saying "this is unbelievable!" and I don't know if she's so surprised coz I'm doing so well (I'm only at the end of my second week, afterall) or if its simply because the last time I did that test... with 2 hearing aids.... I didn't get ANYTHING!!
So now I have different programs/maps (which I change with a push of a button), one which will 'even out' environmental sounds (ie, if its going soft, loud, soft, loud), and another which directs the microphone right in front of me, so I can hear the person in front and it will cut out background noise.
Then we talked about that guy who got 2 switched on at once this week and how ridiculous it was that he was going to listen to music in the car on the way home. Good luck mate. We also had a bit of a laugh at the reporter saying this guy will need "intense rehabilitation for the next month". The audiologist had a bit of a joke saying I was having intense rehabilitation right then ;)
I LOVE my CI. LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
Monday, February 20, 2006
Speech
I forgot to mention that last Friday, on my arrival at Mums, I was putting stuff away when Garth asks me a question from behind me... and I answered it without thinking. It wasn't until Garth said "You understood what I said!!" that I realised I wasn't lipreading!!
It happened again later on in the night when he tried to say "now we can't trick her anymore" without me knowing, haha.
But today was amazing. We had a section meeting where I can never understand anything. But I could today! Even when the speaker had her back to me, I was still understanding what she was saying! Of course, then I'd get so excited that I could understand, it would break my concentration and I'd lose the thread of speech again, haha. My supervisor looked over at me and asked if I wanted to swap seats so I could see/hear better and I said I could understand (!!) and she got really excited too :)
It happened again later on in the night when he tried to say "now we can't trick her anymore" without me knowing, haha.
But today was amazing. We had a section meeting where I can never understand anything. But I could today! Even when the speaker had her back to me, I was still understanding what she was saying! Of course, then I'd get so excited that I could understand, it would break my concentration and I'd lose the thread of speech again, haha. My supervisor looked over at me and asked if I wanted to swap seats so I could see/hear better and I said I could understand (!!) and she got really excited too :)
Saturday, February 18, 2006
First tune up
Yesterday was my first tune up. It was so funny, the audiologist walked into the waiting room and saw me and she broke out in a huge smile and said "Hi Nikki!! How are you going??!!" Then when we went into her office she said "I've been thinking about you this week, how have you been managing??" She's a lovely lady :) (I also think I'm only her second CI patient, lol)
It was all pretty straight forward, listening to tones and telling her the softest I could hear. I really hate doing this because the sounds get mixed up with my tinitus and my brain will repeat the sound back to me so I'll say "yep, heard that" when there is nothing there! Apparently this is NORMAL, haha!
I was a bit disappointed to find out that she'd given me all my pitches the first time round. I could swear I'm missing some, my really low tones have disappeared. She did try to explain it to me but I didn't really understand it, I think its something to do with a pitch threshold which gets smaller as you get older and I have the threshold of an old person. That didn't make ANY sense, I think I missed half of what she was saying (the CI was off at that point, haha).
So she changed some pitches and gave me more volume! YAAAY! I think she thought it was too loud but I love it and I don't have to worry about it being too loud and making me go more deaf :P She said it might sound strange but it sounded how it did before, which made me wonder how gradual the change was.
Now... the exciting bit. She did a speech test. I must admit, its a controlled environment but I closed my eyes (ie, no lipreading) and listed some random colours and I got them! Ditto with months of the year! OMG!
And at work yesterday, I had to check some videos to make sure the picture and sound is ok (I have no idea why they get me to check sound, pfft). But I was watching it and suddenly I realised..... I could understand the voice overs. And there was an ANIMATED video and I was understanding EVERY WORD.
Before we get too excited, I realised a few things. I had headphones, there was no background noise. And the videos I had the most luck understanding were children's videos and they tend to talk a bit slower. But.... OMG!!!!!!
New Sounds
Petrol station checkout beeping when reciept printed
Video rewinding
It was all pretty straight forward, listening to tones and telling her the softest I could hear. I really hate doing this because the sounds get mixed up with my tinitus and my brain will repeat the sound back to me so I'll say "yep, heard that" when there is nothing there! Apparently this is NORMAL, haha!
I was a bit disappointed to find out that she'd given me all my pitches the first time round. I could swear I'm missing some, my really low tones have disappeared. She did try to explain it to me but I didn't really understand it, I think its something to do with a pitch threshold which gets smaller as you get older and I have the threshold of an old person. That didn't make ANY sense, I think I missed half of what she was saying (the CI was off at that point, haha).
So she changed some pitches and gave me more volume! YAAAY! I think she thought it was too loud but I love it and I don't have to worry about it being too loud and making me go more deaf :P She said it might sound strange but it sounded how it did before, which made me wonder how gradual the change was.
Now... the exciting bit. She did a speech test. I must admit, its a controlled environment but I closed my eyes (ie, no lipreading) and listed some random colours and I got them! Ditto with months of the year! OMG!
And at work yesterday, I had to check some videos to make sure the picture and sound is ok (I have no idea why they get me to check sound, pfft). But I was watching it and suddenly I realised..... I could understand the voice overs. And there was an ANIMATED video and I was understanding EVERY WORD.
Before we get too excited, I realised a few things. I had headphones, there was no background noise. And the videos I had the most luck understanding were children's videos and they tend to talk a bit slower. But.... OMG!!!!!!
New Sounds
Petrol station checkout beeping when reciept printed
Video rewinding
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
Difference between hearing aid and CI
It is amazing the difference between the CI and my hearing aid… now, I still have to wear my hearing aid in my other ear or I’d never understand speech. But the sound from the CI is so *clear*, the hearing aid sounds “dull” in comparison (and I’ve done tests!).
So sometimes I’m unsure if a sound is new or if it’s just sounding crystal clear instead of muffled.
It cuts out background noise. Hearing aids are *supposed* to do this, but I can say that’s absolute bullshit, all they do is increase it. Unless the CI is on such a low volume that it doesn’t pick it up… we’ll find out when it gets turned up.
Speech is still a write-off, its still a horrible garbled noise. About the only thing I can make is “s”. I still love words with S in it after missing out on it for so long :)
TV sounds awful, only because music and talking are all garbled
I think I’ve only been given my “middle” pitches back. I’ve lost my low tones. Someone suggested they are just being evened out with the higher pitches but there are some really obvious noises I used to be able to hear which are missing. And the volume needs to be louder!
My mobile makes it buzz. Damnit. Will have to research if there are any phones which don’t make it buzz, I want to make mobile calls! (this reminds me, someone keeps calling me. I can’t use the phone yet folks!)
The batteries lasted 5 days. THREE batteries, FIVE days. As opposed to my hearing aid using ONE battery lasting 3 weeks. It just conked out just then *Grin*
It takes ages to get to sleep because my mind buzzes after the noise all day. And even though a lot of the time I try to let sound just wash over me instead of concentrating on it, its making me tired too. Then back at work! No wonder I’m buggered :)
So sometimes I’m unsure if a sound is new or if it’s just sounding crystal clear instead of muffled.
It cuts out background noise. Hearing aids are *supposed* to do this, but I can say that’s absolute bullshit, all they do is increase it. Unless the CI is on such a low volume that it doesn’t pick it up… we’ll find out when it gets turned up.
Speech is still a write-off, its still a horrible garbled noise. About the only thing I can make is “s”. I still love words with S in it after missing out on it for so long :)
TV sounds awful, only because music and talking are all garbled
I think I’ve only been given my “middle” pitches back. I’ve lost my low tones. Someone suggested they are just being evened out with the higher pitches but there are some really obvious noises I used to be able to hear which are missing. And the volume needs to be louder!
My mobile makes it buzz. Damnit. Will have to research if there are any phones which don’t make it buzz, I want to make mobile calls! (this reminds me, someone keeps calling me. I can’t use the phone yet folks!)
The batteries lasted 5 days. THREE batteries, FIVE days. As opposed to my hearing aid using ONE battery lasting 3 weeks. It just conked out just then *Grin*
It takes ages to get to sleep because my mind buzzes after the noise all day. And even though a lot of the time I try to let sound just wash over me instead of concentrating on it, its making me tired too. Then back at work! No wonder I’m buggered :)
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