28 04 06 First real mapping
I've come to the conclusion that for an adult, getting a CI is like childbirth: no one talks about the bad parts until after you've gone through it. I didn't realize that most people hate theirs at first, or that it takes a long time to get used to. It's thanks to the wonderful letters of support and encouragement I've gotten this past week that I've come to realize that my experience is - thankfully! - not unique.
Herewith, the two bits of advice that people have imparted:
1) Adults tend to hate their CIs at first
2) Don't compare yourself to others
The past couple of days, I was able to increase the volume level a notch or so. Last night when I was in the kitchen, I heard Aaron laugh in his office (both rooms are separated by a hallway). What was amazing was I not only heard the sound, but knew what it was. This morning, I was on my computer when I heard some noise. I immediately looked at the monitor thinking it was Doran waking up from his nap, but it was silent. Then I realized - it was the TV in the living room; I had turned it on earlier for Samara. I've had trouble hearing the doorbell in our house - sometimes I hear it, sometimes I don't. Today, I had no problem hearing it when the plumber came a calling.
I was a little nervous for my appointment today, but also fortified with what I'd learned this week. In the 2.5 hour appointment (that I thought would only be an hour), it soon became apparent that I'd made a lot of progress.
Soon after Sharon and I started, Dr. Hirsch paid a visit. I'd emailed Sharon earlier this week about some pain/pressure in my implanted ear, thus worrying the both of them. Dr. Hirsch took a look at everything, inside and out, and said it looked very good. I asked about a tender spot on the outside. He said it can take three months for everything to really heal. There's no more blood behind my eardrum; I guess it was eliminated without the drama of a horror film. Sharon theorized that the pain/pressure I've been experiencing is from the electrode stimulation. Dr. Hirsch also said what Sharon had last week: being prelingual (my deafness occurred before the development of speech and language; I was born deaf) likely plays into this and means I have a steeper learning curve.
One of the first things Sharon did was to adjust the volume control. Now I should be able to wear the CI at 12 all the time and hopefully not have as much of a jolt when turning it on or increasing volume. We were able to get a real mapping done. In other words, Sharon controlled which electrodes were on and I helped her find my comfort levels for each arrangement. This is part of a mapping, which can have a seemingly infinite number of permutations. I'll be having a lot of mappings over the next several months, and eventually may only need one once a year.
During this process, I was able to tell the difference between the low and high frequencies. Because of my deafness, it is very hard for me to hear high frequency sounds. I liked hearing the lower ones better at first, because the high ones were almost uncomfortable to hear, I wasn't used to them. I helped Sharon balance out all of the channels so that despite the different pitches, they were all about the same volume. She said my ability to do both of these things was good.
We did some closed-set exercises to determine how much I was getting from the CI in terms of speech. I had a piece of paper in front of me with a list of words: one syllable words in the first column, and multi-syllable words in the second column. For each row, Sharon covered her mouth and I had to tell her which (word) column she had said. I think I got 13/15 on that one. The sound was the same no matter the word; it was BOOM versus BOOM BOOM. Another exercise involved telling her if the two words she said were the same or different. I think I got a perfect score. I can't discriminate speech yet (it's too early for that), but could obviously tell syllables.
We also played around with the volume levels, trying to set the three programs (P1, P2, and P3) to keep me busy for this next week. I went in the sound booth and got a hearing test while on P1 (I think??) and the results were similar to my HA. She said it was a very conservative program. P2 was 16 levels higher, so I told her to increase P1 a bit. She brought it 8 levels closer. P3 is a lot louder, and not comfortable enough for me yet, but the hearing test with P3 was more successful. I have P1 so that if P2 or P3 become too overwhelming, at least I'll have a "safe" level rather than having to take the CI off.
When we compared the new program numbers to the ones I had this past week, Sharon realized that the volume was way too high last week (and apologized). No wonder it was so uncomfortable! So with that and the fine tune, I'm feeling better about things.
I asked if there were any exercises I could do, so she gave me some home assignments. Short of the occasional refresher, this will be the start to my first speech/hearing rehabilitation in 8 years. I'll start with a therapist in a month, but I want to get started in the meantime. I won't fully benefit from the CI unless I work at it. Intensive speech/hearing therapy is nothing new to me, but now it's a whole new ball game!
I’m so glad to hear about all of your positive developments – how encouraging for you and exciting to see that everything you’ve been through is starting to pay off, even if very gradually!
Suzy () - 28 04 06 - 09:09
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