§ ¶Back to school
This past Saturday night, Aaron and I went out for an early anniversary celebration. On the way out of the restaurant, I heard a noise and asked what it was. He said it was an ambulance driving into the valley below us. Normally I don't hear an ambulance until I can see it, so it was exciting that I heard this one right away.Today was my first rehab appointment, with Kris at Pitt's Center for Assistive Technology. An audiologist who does aural rehabilitation, she's also a professor. Her student Stephanie will also be working with me. If they're both there, Kris will likely be supervising.
I had to fill out a questionnaire before arriving. Questions ranged from how my hearing loss affects me to what's important or essential for me to hear. Kris had me answer some more questions during our session, and then we did some exercises. If I thought the ones I did with Sharon were hard, these were on a whole other level. First, however, Kris read off some sounds. I didn't get the /s/ every time. I certainly can't hear it in conversation, so I guess if I'm in a quiet environment with someone who just says the /s/, then hearing it is more likely. It's a start!
With Sharon, I just had to raise my hand if I heard a sound, or point to the correct column. With my HA off and Stephanie's mouth covered, I had to circle which word Stephanie said: the one with one, two or three syllables. The three syllable words always gave me pause, because there was extra sound that confused me. I got a few wrong.
After that, it was which sentence out of four was said. I think I did well on that one. The exercises got progressively harder. Stephanie read a sentence and I had to decide which word - in the middle of the sentence - was read. The two choices were very similar, like teak vs talk. Then they took the closed sets away and Stephanie read random, every day sentences that people say, like "What's your name?" I failed miserably at that one, along with the next one, which were individual words that consisted of a consonant, vowel and another consonant. I occasionally guessed a sound, or a consonant or vowel that was similar, showing that I'm on the right track.
What was encouraging was that at one point Kris said she knew exactly how to help me improve. She and Stephanie will go through everything, see if they can find any patterns and just generally figure out how the next sessions should proceed. My homework is to listen to some children's books on tape. My first thought was, oh, I just went to the library yesterday! But then I remembered: Mom was a kindergarten teacher for years and has a ton of books on tape - several of which she's already given to Samara. So I have some tapes AND books (important at this early stage) to get me started. Now I just need to get Samara to let me use her tape player...
§ ¶Supercalifragilistic S Sounds
After being at P1 about a week, I started experiencing some pain in my ear. I contacted Sharon, who called AB audiology support. Apparently this regression sometimes happens with prelinguals, where the volume of the sound may be OK for a while and then too loud. It was suggested to either turn the volume down or take the CI off. After a few days, the pain went away.Because of the pain, however, I couldn't get beyond P1. P2 and P3 were too loud and I started feeling some of the pain again. I haven't been hearing anything new, and in fact, didn't hear the phone ring this morning. I only knew it rang because Doran - who's only 16 months - rather insistently pointed in the direction of the sound.
As a result, I walked into my mapping appointment today feeling like nothing had changed since I was there two weeks ago. Sharon deviated from protocol a bit, theorizing that the source of my pain was due to a low frequency band being too loud. She had me go through each electrode individually and tell her when the volume got to a comfortable level. I had to balance the volume out again. We put a program together this way.
She also did some manipulation where she increased a few pitches and opened the sound window more. As a result, I was able to hear /s/ for the first time - a big deal. She covered her mouth and went through a list of sounds. I asked if it was a fluke that I heard the /s/, and she assured me that I raised my hand right away each time she said it. During this whole time, my HA was off, by the way.
P1 is now a pairs strategy, P2 is sequential, and P3 is also sequential, but louder. The low frequencies are now lower compared to my past programs, but some of the high frequencies are higher. With the differences in pitch and sound window, hopefully the new programs will be more comfortable and allow me to hear some new sounds.
§ ¶P3 or not P3? That is the question...
This past week, I was able to work my way up through the programs. When I was in the living room with Doran last Saturday, I heard Samara crying in the kitchen at the other end of the house. That in itself isn't necessarily unusual. The fact that I knew she wasn't just making noise but crying was something Aaron says I wouldn't have known before.We went out for dinner with friends that night, and the topic of my CI came up. I don't know if it was the flowing wine we had with dinner, but I decided to stick something to my head (besides the CI magnet, that is) for the first time. Unfortunately, nothing I tried - a key, silverware - worked. I can't imagine what the other diners must have thought...
I'm committed to doing the CI rehab, but this wasn't a good week for it. We all got sidelined with colds and Aaron had to work really long hours most of the week. By Tuesday night, I was at P3, the highest level. I'm still trying to figure out when my battery dies so I can preemptively change the battery, as sometimes it takes me a while to realize that it's gone. If the CI falls off and I put it back on quickly, there's no noticeable difference. When I put it on in the morning, however, I get the biggest jolt because I haven't worn it since I went to bed the night before. I turn the volume down and brace myself for the electrical onslaught. It's this part I hate the most.
At my mapping appointment yesterday (apparently they're generally 2.5 hours in length), we moved the P3 setting down to P1, thus making it the lowest/safe setting. We created new programs for P2 and P3. The new P3 has the perception of being louder, but it's a different strategy. P2's electrodes are sequential, whereas P3 is done in pairs. Some people prefer the latter as they feel the quality is better. At this point, they're too similar for me to be able to tell. We did some closed-set exercises and a couple of hearing tests to compare the two programs, and the results were similar as well.
After all of that, I asked Sharon to turn P1 up as it felt too soft. But in the process of doing that, I started getting pain in my implanted ear. She theorized it was due to one of the frequency bands. She turned on the first one - nothing. When she turned on the second one - ouch, there it was! We started turning down the frequencies, but after a few minutes, Sharon said we were actually regressing. She opted to not make any further changes and stick with the original programs. We don't want to push too much, especially when I'm not ready.
My next appointment is in two weeks. Until then, I can revel in the fact that even though my nose is stopped up, at least one of my ears isn't affected!
