favorite WOW moments

[Lauren]

I haven't been having an easy time with activation but earlier was playing around with my AudioStream and forgot it was on. Also didn't realize it had automatically connected to my phone. Anyways, I'd been having issues with audio on my phone when using InnoCaption so over the long weekend turned it off and forgot about that too.

Just recently, I got a tune in my left ear and realized it was my phone ringing. I was in a work meeting so couldn't answer anyways, but did have to return it quickly as I recognized the number as being the office an SLP I've been waitlisted with. Of course my phone streams to the AudioStream and before I know it I'm on my first actual call with just the processor and am at least catching all the important stuff. To cut a long story I have a virtual appointment for today in like 30 minutes and did that with just my processor, no HA or captioned call. It was far from perfect, but still gave me a much needed boost.

[Mary Beth]

@Lauren

Congratulations!!!!!  That is a huge accomplishment! Yay!

[Hila]

That's awesome @Lauren

[WenD]

My newest WOW moment happened when I began using my AudioStream receivers full time after upgrading my right Sonnet to a Sonnet 2. As a bread baker at home, I weigh my ingredients on a scale I've had for several years. With these receivers, I heard the scale BEEP as I changed measurement styles, etc. I'd never heard that before, and my husband assured me that the sound was very slight! WOW. I loved it. I actually played with the scale for a bit!

[Dianna]

Good morning,

In these days of heat warnings ive especially loved mornings and 60 degree temps. Last night my 3 roomies and i went out to dinner. The restsurant was small but crowded. I decided to try my map with strong ai. While it did not really help a ton, it did help with the folks around the table. I am still getting used to this map. It feels to me that sounds i want to hear get muffled. When we got home, i was very happy to hear cicada, more than the night before!

Ff to this morning, woke up put ci on and WOW i could hear the outside birds like they were in side!!!! I had actually left the setting at map 4!  So i guess i will spend more time with this map before i go next month for annual testing and map adjustments, i had already kind of decided i did not like ai, now i have a few weeks to make myself use it more! The humming bird fights are louder too!!!

Wow for me!!!

 

[Lauren]

I had a nice audiologist appointment today. Still lagging behind in single word recognition but my sentences with just the Rondo was better than 6+ months ago with the Sonnet 2 EAS. And back then I couldn’t understand a darned thing with the Rondo 3 (we tried, audiologist had me switch back after maybe 30 seconds). To go from that to today was a massive WOW. 

And apparently my demeanor changed noticeably when it was the same tests with just my HA. We both could tell I was working 10x harder only to get the exact same results. 

I’m amendable to going bilateral and so is my audiologist. She said she would be comfortable too and would make it happen, I just have to say the word. 

[Mary Beth]

@Lauren

WOW!  That is very exciting!!

 

What are your thoughts about going bilateral?

[Lauren]

@Mary Beth

After a few false starts and setbacks we are finally on the right track. I’d actually wanted to bring it up only she beat me to it and mentioned it first. I’m not really benefitting from the HA that I just bought back in February LOL. I feel more comfortable with my processors than HA now. In fact unless I need both ears I’m usually just wearing one of the processors. In fact, when I walked in for my appointment I was carrying my HA and wearing my Rondo. 

It’s definitely been on my mind more and more these past few months. I do want to do it, just want to make sure the timing is good. 

[Mary Beth]

@Lauren

That is how it went for me too.  At some point my hearing aid was of no help and actually made listening more difficult in my real life and I stopped wearing it.  Then we implanted my second side.  For me hearing with two balanced CIs is sooo much better!  But there are others who continue to do well with one CI and one HA.

[Lauren]

@Mary Beth

Thats what’s making it a hard decision. I’m better off with CI+HA than either alone and the past year had ups and downs so not rushing into it. My right ear does qualify of course so no issue there. I’m going back in a week and a half and so will be able to discuss in more depth with my audiologist. 

[Enegra]

36 minutes ago, Lauren said:

I’m not really benefitting from the HA that I just bought back in February LOL. I feel more comfortable with my processors than HA now. In fact unless I need both ears I’m usually just wearing one of the processors. In fact, when I walked in for my appointment I was carrying my HA and wearing my Rondo. 
 

That was also the moment for me to decide to go bilateral, when I found out that the HA just distracted me rather than helped.

1 hour ago, Mary Beth said:

But there are others who continue to do well with one CI and one HA.

Usually it depends on the degree/type of hearing loss. I know someone whose HA ear is still a lot better than the CI side, but they also wouldn't qualify for a second CI. I believe if someone gets qualified for a CI then it's with assumption it should give greater benefits than a HA in that ear.

[Lauren]

@Enegra

Thank you for the input. I will be asking my audiologist next time that based on the tests today (plus the progression of all tests from before til today) then from a clinical standpoint would it make more sense to keep the status quo or just go all in. 

[Dianna]

20 hours ago, Lauren said:

@Mary Beth

Thats what’s making it a hard decision. I’m better off with CI+HA than either alone and the past year had ups and downs so not rushing into it. My right ear does qualify of course so no issue there. I’m going back in a week and a half and so will be able to discuss in more depth with my audiologist. 

Hi lauren, i cant believe how similar we are. I have both a mapping (plus all day research stuff) and an a hearing aid appointments in august. I hve been feeling same. I wonder if i should just skip the ha. I will discuss with audi and research staff.

[pdk]

The sound of the water running in the shower just before you realise you have not removed your processors.

[Dianna]

Good catch!! 😄 

[Hila]

We were getting rid of old furniture that was stored away in a shed.  Emptied a drawer to find an old ornament from Christmas ornament exchange at work from  probably 15 years ago.  It's a good looking ornament, I always liked it, and I remember having it hanging on the home office door knob for some years before putting it up.  When I found it again yesterday, I carried it back inside I kept on hearing real soft chimes, sounded like little bells as I was walking with it. Turns out this snow flake shaped ornament has little hidden bells around the edges. And I had no idea . Unexpected wow moment!!! 

 

[Enegra]

There were some highlights in the last week that gave me some reassurance. That my battles are worth fighting for, and it's good that I haven't given up yet.

Day 2 of the newly activated implant, following a week of no hearing after my other side gave up. I was just sitting at my desk in the living room with the processor on, getting increasingly annoyed over high pitched wheezing sounds. Then eventually I snapped at my spouse: "take your bloody medication!". He chuckled and said "Ooh, my asthma hound is back!".

For the context, I usually could hear when my spouse struggles breathing way before he notices himself. It usually isn't very loud, but for some reason these repeated sounds of laboured breathing drive me crazy. And well, the issue stops once he actually takes the medication - usually it isn't a matter of forgetting, but the amount he needs depends on the day, sometimes he is fine with just the minimum amount and other times a few extra doses are required to make it through the day.

Then last weekend we were at an event, which is the largest LAN party organised in Finland. There were two thousands of people with computer desk tickets and on top of that a lot of regular visitors. So you can imagine, a lot of noise. I was sitting on my seat, which was second in the row. My spouse was standing behind a trashbin, which was next to the end of the desk. So maybe about two metres of distance. I was pondering which trash went where in each section of the bin - I don't recall the details, but we just had some snacks earlier and the discussion was about tossing the wrappers, since I get distracted by clutter. He went like "You heard me from there?". "Yes". "I could only just barely understand you".

Then on that day, or maybe the next one I had a discussion with him and he was going to reply on Discord. He started typing when I cut in and said "You could just talk to me", because he was sitting right next to me while I had the processor on. He stared at me and replied aloud "I am not used to that".

[pdk]

Wow,  what a story. Great to hear things are going better  .

[Dianna]

"Sounds" like stuff may be on the up tick for you agnes!!!! Yay, yippee ky yi, 💖 

[Enegra]

I wouldn't really call it an uptick. Those are just small bright moments, when I was able to wear the processor. The current situation is:

1. The right processor doesn't fit on the ear, hopefully it's only swelling causing the implant to block the way and it won't be like this permanently.

2. The left side is currently not functional at all. The implant has migrated, and there's heavy suspicion the electrodes are partially out of the cochlea as well. I have not had any image done yet, but the implant core has been confirmed to be out of place by two separate professionals. It's also constantly moving a little bit, for example trying to massage my right temple is causing the left implant to wobble around the place. Last attempts of using it resulted in heavy facial stimulation and very distorted hearing, missing high frequencies.

3. The left side being outside of its well is causing enormous level of tension all over the head. Right now the skin is so tight that I haven't been wearing the right processor even on the headband. Basically, current situation is threatening that I might lose that implant too. There's a lot of pain and incredible level of tension / skin stretched all over it. I've already been to the hospital due to the pain, but they just put me on more opioids for now and on Monday I have an appointment to discuss the options.

 

[Tim]

Glad to hear that @Enegra was able to get some recent positive moments even though problems are continuing.  Wishing you the best. 

My biggest "moment" was a drawn out one.  Like Enegra, mine was a big event, albeit smaller with about 140 people and needs a little context. 

I've been helping run an annual academic conference for 25 years.  Two weeks before this year's conference the Conference Chair came to me and said he could not travel to the conference this year for family medical reasons.  He had started the conference and run it from the beginning but he needed me to do his job as well as his. It is a volunteer job so no pay bump but it would mean a lot of front of show activity, meeting with VIPs, etc. I prefer the lower key, technical work and had never done this front of show stuff. Seemed fair turnaround though since last year I had to miss the conference for the first time due to catching Covid two days before the start of the conference. Last year's was the first I had missed, this was the first he had missed.

I went and the conference went well.  There were many challenging situations like an awards dinner with 70 simultaneous conversations with clanking of silverware and the coffee breaks between sessions with everyone chatting.  Probably 80% of the people were not native English speakers so there were a lot of accents to deal with, usually staying on-point from 7:30 AM to about 9:30 PM at night for about 4 days. 

I was so busy, I didn't really have a chance to reflect on how well I did with the CI until after the conference was over. I'm not self-conscious about the CI and showed it off to a lot of people at the conference.  A lot of people were interested in the technology or learning about it for themselves/friends/spouses.  I knew it was helping a lot during the conference but didn't fully appreciate it until after it was over. Thinking back, here were the notable benefits for me:

1. I talked with people on both sides at the Awards dinner compared to previous year's where I was only able to talk with people on my right side.  (I'm SSD).
2. In 1:1 conversations surrounded by noise, I didn't do the head turn to point my good ear to their mouth. 
3. Before the CI, even a 1 or 2 hour meeting under adverse auditory conditions could leave me exhausted, I never felt that during the 4 day conference.  (There was a lot of caffeine though!)
4. Despite the accents, I don't remember asking people to repeat themselves.
5. When I attended a breakout session, I could sit in the back and still hear people present.
6. People talking elsewhere or making noise while I was listening to a speaker was not annoying since with "stereo" hearing I could focus in on the speaker.
7. Even when getting back to my hotel room, I would still have energy to do more direct streaming for doing rehab.

It all went so well that I sort of took it for granted, I didn't really even appreciate benefits 4-7 above until I started writing this post! 

It had only been 6 months since activation but I realized that it would have been an entirely different experience and an order of magnitude harder before the CI.

 

 

[Lauren]

I stopped at a small store on the way home from work and despite it being busier than it usually is for a Monday, I still caught that the customer at the register next to me had dropped a bunch of stuff. I politely let her know she’s dropped some stuff and she looked down and her eyes just about pop out of her skull as she’s dropped her ID, some cash and loose change, and at least one credit or debit card. 

I looked down without thinking and despite all the background noises going on. I just heard everything drop onto one of those thick rubber backed mats with fabric on the top side. Had it not been for my CIs I wouldn’t have noticed nor known to look down!

[Serena Metzler]

I was in the Store and it was So louder and I Heard everything's, yes I agree 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯 💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

[Lauren]

I took today off work and drove up to my hometown. It has an ongoing tradition of a train whistle going off three times a day at certain times. I haven’t lived there for 10+ years and don’t often make the drive on my days off. When I did live here it was with HAs and I would only sort of hear it.

So here I am just innocently driving around when all of a sudden there’s a horn going off and it is LOUD. Scared the you-know-what out of me. As soon as my vital organs returned to their proper place and resumed their proper functions, I realized it was a train whistle and it must be noon. Quick glance at the clock confirmed it. 

Did not realize it was that loud. Wow.