§ ¶Ooo eee, ooo ah ah
Today was my last rehab session of the summer: ten sessions in all. I asked Kris if we could keep going, as I'm not ready to stop. Hopefully we'll be able to start back up in September, though I'll be working with another student.Stephanie gave me the same exercises that we did at our first session, so we could compare the results. When it came to hearing words at the end of written sentences (deciding whether the word was kit or cot), at my first session, I scored 70%. Today, I scored 80%. I did well enough the first time, and still have trouble differentiating between certain vowels.
I can't tell the difference between /oo/ and /ee/. I never guess "orange" when doing the color category (or even the fruits!). I can't always tell "one" and "nine" apart. "Four" and "five" are also hard. Maybe this is why I'm bad at math.
But the exciting news is when it came to hearing words in sentences with no visual cues, I went from 6% to 90%! These are everyday sentences that people say, like "Turn on the TV" or "What's your name?" It was so exciting being able to understand most of them, and I was pretty confident about my answers, too.
§ ¶Slow and steady
At my rehab appointment last Friday, Kris gave me a graph of the progress I've made with the Ling Sounds. The Ling Sounds were developed by Dr. Daniel Ling as a means to easily test hearing across the spectrum. They include oo, ah, ee, sh, m and s. When I first started rehab, I couldn't differentiate among the sounds, but I've gotten better, as you can see. It's exciting to see a visual representation of my progress!The other night, I tried to do rehab with Aaron. I told him to list basic shapes. He started off with "cube," and then "line." Geek. I switched to basic vegetables, but after "onion" and "garlic," I told him we had to do something else entirely. His idea of basic is very different than mine, which was making me frustrated! I need some kind of context to help me figure out what he's saying at this point in time.
I've been trying to turn my HA off a little bit each day, but it's hard! I've done it at dinner a couple of times and enlisted Samara's help. She loves trying to help me to hear, and is just as excited as I am when I guess correctly.
I was all set to order the Advanced Bionics interactive software program to help with rehab, but it's not Mac compatible. Argh!
A couple of things I've heard recently:
- When on the couch, I heard what sounded like music. I picked up the baby monitor, thinking there was no way it could be coming from Doran's room. Then it occurred to me that maybe it was the ice cream truck. I turned around to look out the window, and sure enough, it was right in front of our house!
- A couple of nights ago, I was in the living room when I heard Aaron in the other room. Both kids were asleep, so I was confused - it sounded like he was talking, but who was he talking to? I found him in the kitchen talking to his parents. Maybe I would have heard this before, but Aaron doesn't think I would have - and it likely wouldn't have been with the same sense of certainty.
But with every new sound, there's sounds I have yet to hear. I was changing Doran's diaper yesterday when he started gesturing and talking, as if he was hearing something. I checked Caller ID when I was done, and sure enough, Aaron had called. I should have heard it, but didn't. Doran also tried to let me know when Samara woke up from a nap and was on her way downstairs. I guess until I can hear these sounds, it's good that I have Doran (and Samara) around to help out!
At my mapping appointment today, we created two new programs that are slightly louder versions of one we made last time. Sharon tested me in the sound booth again, and the results were similar. She says I'm stable, and doesn't think we need to go up much more. There's still room to go up in the high frequencies. The low ones are probably set, as they seem to hurt if we increase them further.
I won't go back for another appointment until late October, for my six-month check up. Of course, if I experience any problems or feel the volume needs to be increased, I can return earlier.
