Today has been a long day, but well worth it in the end. Today was my first mapping since I went bilateral three weeks ago. The results were awesome and unexpected...especially by me.
I have been activated for two weeks today with the new ear. I was pleasantly surprised with the results.
On the tests (new ear only)....
Hint in Quiet 96%
Hint in Noise with SNR of 10dB 97%
They did not do the CNC test on the new ear. However they did do a new test with both implants. I am one person involved in the initial use of the new assessment. It was very interesting and much more difficult than the HINT or the CNC. I did well on that assessment as well. We did not go into great depths with that assessment today, just one list from each category.
I am just glad that I don't have to drive back to Chapel Hill until July....YAY!!! I have been up and down the road a lot lately, it is tiring.
Also best wishes to Sara as she has her first CI surgery this Wednesday!!
This is an answer to some of my visitors' questions. First of all THANK YOU for all of your well wishes and excitement for me. To answer one of your questions about things I am hearing now. I am hearing the same things I heard before, only better and clearer. There is one thing though that I did not hear until I received the new implant. I heard crickets for the first time. They were amazing. I just stood out onthe back porch and listened to them.
Have a GREAT week!!
Monday, April 27, 2009
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Things are continuing to get better...matter of fact they are AWESOME!!! I never thought I would say that I am actually looking forward to an audiologist appointment at UNC next week to test my ears, but I am! Things are sounding marvelous, but some times a tad too loud. We will have to play with my thresholds next week. We had my right ear up to 15-25dB across the frequencies. When we activated the new ear last week we did not check thresholds, but I think between the two that maybe they are just a tad loud. OR it could be the people around me. I know everyone is used to talking louder for me and now they don't have to, but they still are out of habit. I am trying to find "nice" ways to tell people to speak normal!
Anyways...all is well and I LOVE having two ears. After five months with only one ear I am thrilled to have two ears. I never thought I would say this...but I am actually looking forward to my graduate class tonight....I want to see how much better I can hear!
Have a great day!
Anyways...all is well and I LOVE having two ears. After five months with only one ear I am thrilled to have two ears. I never thought I would say this...but I am actually looking forward to my graduate class tonight....I want to see how much better I can hear!
Have a great day!
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The First Couple of Days with 2 CIs
Well the first few days of both CIs have been very interesting. Things have dramatically improved. The bells that I was hearing the first day are gone. I am not hearing those anymore, which I love. I do still occasionally hear a bell if something drops or anything like that. The "voices" in my head have started to merge into one central voice. By voices...I am talking about how my ears sound. One ear sounds like Darth Vader. The other ear sounds like chipmunks. They have started merging together in my brain...I am now for the most part only hearing one voice.
Things are a lot easier to hear. I am able to hear conversation entirely without speechreading at all. This is a huge benefit, and I love it. I was able to talk on the phone with my new ear. I was talking to mom, so it was a familiar voice but I was not expecting to be able to do this. I am doing well with the new ear...I have been doing some therapy. I am able to use the new ear alone and understand about 95% of conversation without speechreading right now. I am hoping this will continue to improve as time goes on....I know it will.
But for now I am extremely satisfied with both implants...I do not regret having the second ear implanted by any means, even though they were not able to achieve deep insertion with the electrode. It has drastically changed what I can hear. I am actually looking forward to my first graduate class since the second implant to see how things are different in class....I am not looking forward to class on other terms because I have yet to complete all of the work from when I was out for surgery...that will be my weekend.
Things are a lot easier to hear. I am able to hear conversation entirely without speechreading at all. This is a huge benefit, and I love it. I was able to talk on the phone with my new ear. I was talking to mom, so it was a familiar voice but I was not expecting to be able to do this. I am doing well with the new ear...I have been doing some therapy. I am able to use the new ear alone and understand about 95% of conversation without speechreading right now. I am hoping this will continue to improve as time goes on....I know it will.
But for now I am extremely satisfied with both implants...I do not regret having the second ear implanted by any means, even though they were not able to achieve deep insertion with the electrode. It has drastically changed what I can hear. I am actually looking forward to my first graduate class since the second implant to see how things are different in class....I am not looking forward to class on other terms because I have yet to complete all of the work from when I was out for surgery...that will be my weekend.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
ACTIVATION DAY for CI #2
Well yesterday was my activation for my bilateral CI. I knew it would be interesting as the electrode positioning was not the same as the first CI due to the ossification in my ear. However...it was dramtically different.
When the first CI was activated everything sounded like Darth Vader as I have much deeper stimulation in that ear. This CI sounded like the three chipmunks singing on helium. In other words it was atrocious. When she first turned it on...I heard the sound, looked at the audiologist and said "turn it off." We turned it off and made some adjustments. After we got everything adjusted and some more power in my lower frequencies and less in the high frequencies we turned it back on to live mode. This time it was better but everything was still high pitched. Although this time I started hearing the bells that most people with other implant companies talk about but this is not something I had experienced with my first CI. At the end of every word I would hear this little high pitched bell ring. I found it rather annoying.
Anyways...we got both CIs up and running together...everything sounded really weird, but I was able to understand speech without lipreading which was promising.
Today was my first full day using both CIs and the sound became better as the day went on. The bell sound is still there but I am not noticing it now like I did yesterday. I am ready to adjust my old ear though...I want some more power in the low frequencies to see if that will help balance out the highs on the new ear.
Overall...all is well. I love both of the CIs and it is amazing how much more I can already hear with the two CIs as opposed to the one CI and even the one CI and HA that I was using sometimes.
Now I am off of here for the night....it is time for the new ear therapy and then therapy with both ears. I go back to the audiologist on the 27th for my first official bilateral mapping.
More later!!
When the first CI was activated everything sounded like Darth Vader as I have much deeper stimulation in that ear. This CI sounded like the three chipmunks singing on helium. In other words it was atrocious. When she first turned it on...I heard the sound, looked at the audiologist and said "turn it off." We turned it off and made some adjustments. After we got everything adjusted and some more power in my lower frequencies and less in the high frequencies we turned it back on to live mode. This time it was better but everything was still high pitched. Although this time I started hearing the bells that most people with other implant companies talk about but this is not something I had experienced with my first CI. At the end of every word I would hear this little high pitched bell ring. I found it rather annoying.
Anyways...we got both CIs up and running together...everything sounded really weird, but I was able to understand speech without lipreading which was promising.
Today was my first full day using both CIs and the sound became better as the day went on. The bell sound is still there but I am not noticing it now like I did yesterday. I am ready to adjust my old ear though...I want some more power in the low frequencies to see if that will help balance out the highs on the new ear.
Overall...all is well. I love both of the CIs and it is amazing how much more I can already hear with the two CIs as opposed to the one CI and even the one CI and HA that I was using sometimes.
Now I am off of here for the night....it is time for the new ear therapy and then therapy with both ears. I go back to the audiologist on the 27th for my first official bilateral mapping.
More later!!
Friday, April 10, 2009
Pictures
I said I would post some pictures. There is nothing graphic here...just pictures of me and mom hanging out in my room. I was bored, there was nothing to do with the exception of watching t.v. and nothing good was on.
So this is a picture of me and mom....
This is a picture of me indicating that this is implant number 2....aka bilateral time.
So this is a picture of me and mom.... This is a picture of me indicating that this is implant number 2....aka bilateral time.If I remember to take my camera I will have mom record part of my 2nd implant activation on Monday.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
2nd CI Surgery Update
Well I guess I should post about recovery and all that is going to follow. This was an interesting and long surgery. To start off my surgery lasted an hour and a half longer than expected. The surgeon found an unexpected surprise when he got inside my head that will affect some things, but makes me glad that I did go ahead with the second surgery.
When the surgeon was inserting the electrode into my cochlea (he was using the S array, long electrode array manufactured by Med-El) he ran into a slight problem. The electrode would not go all the way into the cochlea. He tried several times but it turns out that I have some ossification in my left cochlea (bony growth) that prevented full insertion. So eventually he switched out and used the M electrode (shorter array but still has 12 electrodes on it). He was able to get 11 out of the 12 electrodes on this array inserted in my cochlea. So overall the effects on me....well I will not have access to all the frequencies that I have with my other implant...but that is okay because I have them with the other implant.
The benefits...well primarily I am glad I did not "SAVE THE EAR" for later technology because chances are I would not have been able to be implanted in 10-15 years as the ossification would have continued. So I am glad I decided to get this done now.
In the meantime....recovery is going well...no pain. I have only had to take tylenol for any discomfort. The nurses were shocked in the hospital. I had the same nurses this time as last time, and last time I was not a pretty sight. After the first surgery I was on a morphine drip, demirol, and percocet. This time I was just taking tylenol. I was up walking around the unit...I was bored and tired of being trapped in the bed. I even asked the resident if the doctor did anything to my head...she laughed and said "oh he did something...I watched." I responded with okay...well it doesn't hurt this time and she just laughed.
Anyways I am passing the time until Monday when I get this bandage cut off my head and I am activated. I am curious to see how activation goes this time since the electrode array is inserted differently than the other one. I am just glad I have a doctor who was able to change things up during surgery and use the shorter array giving me more electrodes instead of staying with the longer one and having fewer electrodes firing off.
The surgeon brought my audiologist in while I was still on the table and had her test the newly inserted implant to determine the response. My brain did fire off a positive response, which is good. Both my surgeon and audiologist feel that I will do well with this implant as I have done extremely well with the first one.
Well I am off of here for now...but when I get the chance later today I will post some pictures from the hospital.
Lauren
When the surgeon was inserting the electrode into my cochlea (he was using the S array, long electrode array manufactured by Med-El) he ran into a slight problem. The electrode would not go all the way into the cochlea. He tried several times but it turns out that I have some ossification in my left cochlea (bony growth) that prevented full insertion. So eventually he switched out and used the M electrode (shorter array but still has 12 electrodes on it). He was able to get 11 out of the 12 electrodes on this array inserted in my cochlea. So overall the effects on me....well I will not have access to all the frequencies that I have with my other implant...but that is okay because I have them with the other implant.
The benefits...well primarily I am glad I did not "SAVE THE EAR" for later technology because chances are I would not have been able to be implanted in 10-15 years as the ossification would have continued. So I am glad I decided to get this done now.
In the meantime....recovery is going well...no pain. I have only had to take tylenol for any discomfort. The nurses were shocked in the hospital. I had the same nurses this time as last time, and last time I was not a pretty sight. After the first surgery I was on a morphine drip, demirol, and percocet. This time I was just taking tylenol. I was up walking around the unit...I was bored and tired of being trapped in the bed. I even asked the resident if the doctor did anything to my head...she laughed and said "oh he did something...I watched." I responded with okay...well it doesn't hurt this time and she just laughed.
Anyways I am passing the time until Monday when I get this bandage cut off my head and I am activated. I am curious to see how activation goes this time since the electrode array is inserted differently than the other one. I am just glad I have a doctor who was able to change things up during surgery and use the shorter array giving me more electrodes instead of staying with the longer one and having fewer electrodes firing off.
The surgeon brought my audiologist in while I was still on the table and had her test the newly inserted implant to determine the response. My brain did fire off a positive response, which is good. Both my surgeon and audiologist feel that I will do well with this implant as I have done extremely well with the first one.
Well I am off of here for now...but when I get the chance later today I will post some pictures from the hospital.
Lauren
Monday, April 6, 2009
2ND CI SURGERY TIME!!
Well tomorrow is the lucky day for me. I go in for my second CI surgery tomorrow. Right now I am hoping that my surgery is in the morning so I can get it over with and not have to wait all day for it.
Today I am heading down to Chapel Hill to stay overnight so we don't have a long drive. I will update when I get home from surgery.
Today I am heading down to Chapel Hill to stay overnight so we don't have a long drive. I will update when I get home from surgery.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
4 MORE DAYS!!!
Well I am four days away from surgery. I go in on Tuesday. I am hoping that this surgery is in the morning. Last time I did not go in until about 2pm and I was starving when I woke up, but I was unable to eat. Right now they have me in at 7:30am for surgery and I hope it stays that way.
Otherwise...one more day at work this week. I have to finish up some things for the boys tomorrow and get them squared away for the next week, as I won't be there.
Then I have to get things packed for the hospital and go get my second cochlear implant. I am excited...although right now I have either allergies or a cold that is aggravating me. I hope it clears up by Tuesday.
Otherwise...one more day at work this week. I have to finish up some things for the boys tomorrow and get them squared away for the next week, as I won't be there.
Then I have to get things packed for the hospital and go get my second cochlear implant. I am excited...although right now I have either allergies or a cold that is aggravating me. I hope it clears up by Tuesday.
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