Update on 2017 Switch-on and Progress

[AliU83]

I realized I have not given any updates on my progress since my switch on, which was October 3. I wanted to post this hoping it will help someone who may be trying to figure out whether to get a CI or not.

Brief background for me: I am 34, and I was fully hearing until I was 7. My loss is genetic (my older sister was born with a similar loss) although the doctors were never certain why mine came about at 7. My loss ranged from profound in most pitches to moderate-severe in the highest frequencies. My loss stayed the same for about 26 years. In 2016 I experienced a drop in the high frequencies, where most of my best hearing was. Funny enough, this occurred after I entered the CI process. My speech discrimination has been poor since I was 7--never going over 10% of full words and 20% of partial. Some tests over the years showed it was as bad as 2% of full words.... I became a very skilled lipreader because I was able to use the sound I had left and the visual of reading lips to put the pieces speech together. After my hearing dropped in 2016, lipreading became so hard... I was really using the sound I had left to assist. Because of my poor speech discrimination, I was never a candidate for hearing aids. I even tried them around 13 and they were terrible--didn't help at all.

At my switch on in October, I heard sounds that day. The high frequency sounds were coming in as they should, or as my brain remembered them. The low sounds were not coming in as sounds at all, and wouldn't completely come in as sounds until 4 months later. I am hearing sounds easily now, and more range every week. The most unbelievable part to me is after 4 months my speech discrimination has gone up to 40% of full words and 66% of partial words. This is really without much aural therapy. I have been trying to figure out how my progress has been moving so fast without any routine therapy and I think my lipreading skills have played a huge part--lipreading allowed me to see the word at the same time I hear it, so I am probably getting training all day long!

I received a lot of support from people on HearPears when I first posted before my surgeries (I had my surgery twice due to a allergic reaction the first time), and I wanted to make sure I post a good update! I also remember reading any post I could find on people's progress with the CI.

Ali

[Mary Beth]

Hi @AliU83!

great update!  So happy things are progressing well for you!