§ ¶6 month mapping
Reva spoke to Sharon, my audiologist, earlier this month. She shared what we've been doing in rehab and inquired about some of the sounds I'm having trouble distinguishing. Sharon said it was probably just a matter of time and practice.The sounds I'm hearing continue to be mixed. Sometimes I hear things I wouldn't have before, such as the phone ringing downstairs when I'm upstairs, my car when I leave the headlights on, or the occasional sentence when I'm not looking. But for every one of those, I miss sounds that I feel like I shouldn't, like hearing Aaron say hello from the other room when he got home ahead of us. Samara heard him, I didn't. I almost had a heart attack when he walked into the kitchen!
Today was my six-month appointment. Even though it's technically been six months since I was activated, as Sharon told Reva, it's really more like four. It took me at least two months to get used to the volume and get it up to a workable level. In spite of that, Sharon said I'm doing well. She said I'm hearing well, my audiogram is where it should be, and she even thinks my speech has improved a bit.
I told her the program I had been using was too quiet, so we boosted the frequencies, which gives the perception that it's louder. The other two programs are similar, but with increased volume. My new audiogram is a little more smoother than my last one, which is good. My hearing with the CI is currently in the 20-40db range. I was in the 90s or worse with hearing aids.
§ ¶Orange you glad I'm back?
When several different people start asking me how my CI is going, I know it's time to update the blog. It's been a while, sorry! There hasn't been much to report. I'm ashamed to say that I haven't been doing my part. I promised myself that I would only get a CI if I could do it right, meaning I'd put forth all the work necessary. It's easy to say, harder to do, especially when you have two kids and work deadlines to make. I think it's a lot to blame for my lack of progress.Sure, I have the occasional blind sentence recognition, but I haven't really heard any new sounds. What's interesting, however, is that sometimes I seem to be more sensitive to noise than others. It's not very consistent. One night, for example, I turned the television down because it was so loud. When Aaron came home, he turned it up! How's that for a change? Last Friday, my jacket was bothering me, as the rustling was making too much noise. I wore it the day before, though, without a problem. I don't know if it's a change in environment or what, but the inconsistency is puzzling. I plan to ask Sharon about it.
The big news is that I've started rehab again. Kris, told me in August that she's moving in January and could no longer work with me as she has projects to finish up before then. After some panic, I found out that a couple of her colleagues were available. I've now had three sessions with Reva and her student Megan; we have a regular date through winter break. I feel like I've regressed in some ways, since I'm out of practice. There are other things I definitely have down - like being able to identify numbers.
Reva plans to share some of her findings with Sharon - for example, I can't differentiate between /m/ and /ah/. To me, /m/ and /ah/ sounds like /ah/ /ah/. I want to shake my brain and say, Come on, those are two very different sounds! Get with it! It'll be interesting to see if this recognition is something that will come with time, or if Sharon can tweak the program to make it more clear to me - and if she can, will that affect everything else that I do get?
I did finally understand "orange," which was a big deal given that I haven't gotten it until now. Most people tend to drop the "g," but Megan made an effort to pronounce it clearly, which really helped.
