Guide for a music rehabilitation: step by step.

[Ivana Marinac]

Of course it is everything connected - but if some chain fail there are always us who are motivated the most to get maximum of our potential.

If it requires to change something or someone in that process - of course, why not: it is up to us to try everything what is possible. From an objective angle, of course.

[Mary Beth]

@Wendy

[Kara of Canada]

@Mary Beth and @Ivana Marinac  question for you both. I have an amazing Audi but she is on maternity leave. The replacement is telling me that I should have stabilized by now and I shouldn’t bother to come back for at least 18 months! I haven’t managed to go more than 7 months without a visit to change my mapping. What’s the best approach to this? I went in in August because I needed an adjustment. I’m scheduled for my two year appointment in December. Not sure of the best route here. 

[Mary Beth]

Audiologists may use the term “stable” to describe when we are finished with our activation process and no longer keep requiring increased current (increase in MCLs).  That happened for me after 3 months or so.  So from that point on I was stable.  However, that doesn’t mean that I no longer required small changes to my MAPs.  I did.  And I return whenever I need my MAPs to be tweaked.

 

If you feel like your MAP is working great, there is no need to return soon.  If you feel like your MAP needs to be adjusted, I would return.

 

What do you think?

[Kara of Canada]

It just bugs me because my health in general has never been “textbook”. I have always been a special case and needed special treatment plans. I hate that someone thinks that she can decide what’s best for me when she has only seen me twice. 

[Mary Beth]

I am sorry you are having this frustrating experience.  I would follow your gut instincts on this Kara.  You know if you need a MAP adjustment now or if your MAP is working well for you right now.  In my opinion, how we function in our real lives is much more indicatative of how our MAPs are working than how we test in a sound booth.  Follow your instincts.

[Kara of Canada]

Thanks I was just asking fir some seasoned experience! Thanks again @Mary Beth

[Ivana Marinac]

On 10/23/2017 at 0:25 AM, Kara of Canada said:

@Mary Beth and @Ivana Marinac  question for you both. I have an amazing Audi but she is on maternity leave. The replacement is telling me that I should have stabilized by now and I shouldn’t bother to come back for at least 18 months! I haven’t managed to go more than 7 months without a visit to change my mapping. What’s the best approach to this? I went in in August because I needed an adjustment. I’m scheduled for my two year appointment in December. Not sure of the best route here. 

Hi Kara,

I support Mary Beth's thoughts regarding this issue.

As pretty substantial portion of tests done in the audiometrical testing are subjective - elementary taken, only we can say whether we should stop doing fittings or we still think there is something what we can change or we've made a mistake or even have to do "an average solution" which satisfy us more in functional than overall experience. To be more precisely, I can describe my recent activity when I returned to one of my old map from the March of 2016. after almost a year and half of wandering around because I could not differ whether my understanding issue is linked with different setup of hearing frequencies. At the end we have found that dust on the microphone made a speech intelligibility alteration in order I could not presume. So, I am thankful up to the heaven and back for a patience and support provided by my clinical engineer regarding the particular issue of my own feeling of "comfortable" hearing.

Regarding the stability of hearing, it lasted longer for me with shorter perioda between mappings but when I reached the level of "enough" intensity I have found stable - this does not mean that small alterations were not required but with incremential effects on my everyday life.

[Mary Beth]

@Ivana Marinac

Did the dust on your mics impact the high frequency sounds more than the mids and lows?  That is what happens to me when the Sonnet mic cover needs to be changed.  The high frequency sounds are impacted first.  Just wondering if your experience was similar.

[Ivana Marinac]

 

Actually, as the route of sound transfer for a bone conduction hearing loss is different than in sensorineural (transfer over bones of the skull) the lower frequencies are impacted at first in order of speech intelligibility and sound quality. That's why I thought that I should work more with lower frequency band than with a high band. This was a mistake, higher frequencies were underestimated on the expense of lower and were overlapped by them. So, practically my overall speech intelligibility started to deteriorate and we couldn't reach the conclusion why is this happening.

Taking into account of my own experience of what is the real hearing spectrum, I used to think and still have this feeling that it is more in the lower frequency band. But, more and more I think about all my fittings, I start to understand that my intelligibility is more of how I perceive higher band no matter what timbre and the overall roundness sound is given by lower spectrum band.

So this is part of my own subjective acoustical experience where none road is exactly right - you have to choose each one, sometimes being boring but getting the best possible result taking into account of your own needs. Practically, this means that none of us has same daily scheme and surrounding acoustical challenges. Our working environments surrounded with different equipment or teaching in the classroom are fundamentally different. Not to mention if you are home-based or visiting restaurants which have a different level of background noise in different cultures. 

To reach the conclusion  - we have concluded that dust on the microphone distorted to sound more easily because the lower band overlapped the middle and higher band.

[Mary Beth]

Isn’t all this tech so fascinating?!

[Kara of Canada]

So a new addition to our rehab section. For music use the Sound Hound app. It can find the lyrics to the song your listening to  and follows along as well. Love it!! The reason is so you can understand every word your hearing. If your like me you have been making up the words as you go along as a kid. 

[Mary Beth]

Sound Hound is a terrific app.  If I hold my phone horizontally, it highlights every word as they sing.

[Mary Anne Cormack]

Reading lots of comment about listening to music.  As a newly turned on user (yesterday) and a performing musician before all this ear stuff got out of control, I'm hoping for some input about rehabbing to play again. I play the viola. Have been fooling around today and discover that I can actually hear the tones quite well, especially in the lower registers -- understanding the conductor will be more of a problem.  And it's been fun hearing my voice singing -- sounds so different than with the aids I've worn for the last years. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.  

[Mary Beth]

Hi @Mary Anne Cormack and congrats on activation!

 

Do you have the Sonnet or Rondo?  Did you receive a Roger Pen and Roger 21 or Roger MyLink receiver?  Those will help you understand the conductor.

[Mary Anne Cormack]

Looking for rehab program I can put on my computer and use daily.  Have tried the Angel Sound one but more of the sounds won't down load properly -- after many tries and much frustration.  Would happily pay for one that I could get to work.  That may be the reason many people give up on training.  You need to add "Tools" to your list of reasons people give up on training.  Having the tools ready to use from the very start when motivation is high would make good sense to me.  

[Mary Beth]

Med El sells a set of CDs to train with.  You can contact them for ordering info.

if you have an iPad both ABCLIX and iAngel Sound are great and free.

[Mary Beth]

Music training is great in Auralia Pitch Comparison app and MCItest app.

[Mary Anne Cormack]

Love all your thoughts.  Now for mine.  Spent an hour playing the organ yesterday.  Hasn't sounded so well in several years.  Was fun trying out different stops, especially the strings.  Could even make out the richness of a good vibrato, and I haven't had my Rondo turned on for even a week yet.  Gave it a real test this morning -- went to my old spinning class at the Y.  Had some difficulty dealing with music so loud, and used the lowest settings the audiologist gave me.  The bass notes came through beautifully, I could understand about 50% of what the instructor was saying (that's a big improvement), but the lyrics were still just noise.  I asked some of the fellow riders with normal hearing and they said they couldn't understand them either so I didn't feel too bad.  Strangest part is hearing music in mono.  I only had one ear done, and the other ear wasn't much help.  Hoping they can make a better program for the old Phonak that will cooperate with Rondo.  Am looking forward to singing with my choir tomorrow morning and am going to sit in the back of the viola section Monday night at orchestra rehearsal.  Will be fun having a whole symphony of instruments surrounding me, and figuring which ones I can hear.  You all say to keep practicing, so that's what I'm going to be doing.  Will let you know how it progresses.  

 

[Mary Beth]

@Mary Anne Cormack

You are off to a fantastic start with your Rondo!  I’m so excited for you.  I can’t wait to read which instrument voices reveal themselves to you first.  For me it was percussion (drums) then high frequency bells, triangles....the instrument voices just continued to reveal themselves.  Now I have the full orchestra and it is unbelievable.

I realized that all the instrument voices were here when three things happened along my journey.

1.  I recognized a saxophone part as a tenor sax instead of an alto sax while listening to a musical clip a friend shared.

2.  My acoustically hearing family commented on the clarinet playing in the bar of a restaurant we were dining at but it sounded like a muted trumpet to me.  On the way out, I peeked into the bar and it was a muted trumpet!

3.  We were in Cape Breton at a ceilidh (unique fiddle music) and I heard when they changed keys while fiddling at top speed.

 

Definiteiy our musical backgrounds help us enjoy music with our CIs.  I am so very thankful and look forward to reading all about your journey with your Rondo.  Enjoy your WOW moments.  There are many more in store for you.

 

If you enjoy swimming in the ocean, just wait until you try that with your Rondo in waterwear!  Unbelievable!  Secure it well though.  It sinks like a stone.

[Kylie]

This thread had been very informative for me, as my greatest interest is how I will return to enjoying and performing music after my CI (early next year).  I currently sing in a choir, though with great difficulty since my R) hearing loss. Something I am wondering is if I will continue to sing with them during early activation time or if I will need some time out to focus on the basics first. It sounds like a tough time. I would appreciate your thoughts!

 

[Mary Beth]

@Kylie

That is a great question.  Unfortunately you won’t know until activation.  My right CI would’ve needed a few months off.  My left CI was ready right away.  It varies.

[Kylie]

And is active music rehab similar? Do some start early and some wait until later in the process?

[Mary Beth]

@Kylie

I actively trained musical pitch.  I posted about my favorite apps for that here.  I did not start actively training music right away with my right ear because it wasn’t ready for that yet.  I believe our brains need repeated success to learn so I listened to music and paid attention to the features that were accessible to me at the time and then started training later on.  But everyone’s journey is unique.  Each of my own ears were unique, especially for music.  My left ear loved music before speech!

[Hearing Again]

I was slated to go to a school for the performing arts before I chose to go to law school. I was offered a full scholarship as a violin forte. But, after receiving a full scholarship to St Johns Law School in NY, I decided to go there, get my law degree and continue my true passion of music after that. Well, three days after becoming a lawyer, I was forced to undergo the first of what would turn out to be 13 brain surgeries for a brain tumor.  I was still able to hear well immediately after, but had to learn all my body skills again...walking, talking, seeing, dexterity, cognitive, and everything else. And by the time I did, the hearing problems started...never to resume my passion for music, never picking up my violin again. 

My violin sits on display in my living room as you walk into it. I see it every day, but never thought I’d someday be able to play it again. I had played it in concerts, my church folk group, theatrical venues in both acting on stage while playing it, and it the orchestra pit, and most importantly, for a one person audience, ME! Reading these articles about music put tears in my eyes, as does writing this. To thing, I’m going to soon be able to hear it sing again on my shoulder...thank you so much for sharing all this.