Activation May 28

[Daniel the Stranger]

Hi guys,

I was activated today. Very happy with the results so far in the sense that all my electrodes are intact and working as they should. 

Tested with different sounds, I could differentiate the high from low pitches. Everything sounds like helium, even while I'm typing on the keyboard. Same with voices, all of them sound like helium voices. Wind is the only different sound I have got, I felt it like a person blowing a whistle. 

Sometimes I need to remove the processor to make sure that I'm getting sounds and not the tinnitus giving me false sensations. 

Audiologist decided to go for the cautious start and decided to give me to programs with different level of volume. I have to go back next Wednesday as I can "hear" the voices but not the background sound. I went to the gym and the background sound didn't affect me, maybe the mapping was very conservative. Not that I'm complaining though.

I will have to use my HA for work but I'm planning on using the CI only as soon as I get home and when I go to the gym.

I will keep you posted. Exciting times are coming. 

[Mary Beth]

Sounds like a great start @stranger.  I am a fan of slow, careful activations.

[Mary Featherston]

@stranger, that sounds like my experience.  I'm starting to hear a bit better.  It's not fast, but I'm gaining confidence that the end result will be what I hoped for.  Best to you too!

[Megan L.]

@stranger welcome to the noise! Sounds like you’re off to a good start. Looking forward to hearing about your WOW moments ?

[Daniel the Stranger]

Thank you all for your kind words.

I wanted to wake up early today, was eager to put my processor asap. Went to school to work with my HA and CI, not much noise as I thought it was going to be. Managed ok, didn't have to remove my processor. As things stand now, processor is  triggering the tinnitus more and for that some times I'm not sure if I'm hearing background sounds or not. Can anyone tell me if background noise sound like a whistleblower in action most of the time?, Like if it was ringing? Voices still sound like helium as well as everything else. 

Removed my HA as soon as I finished work and stayed like that for the rest of the day. Not tired so far, and very keen for the appointment tomorrow. I'm going to ask for more volume and more background noise. After this appointment, the next one will be a week after.

[Mary Beth]

Eyes open, ears on!  Smile.  Works great.

Have you started any aural rehab activities with your CI ear alone yet?  I understand people are having trouble with the CLIX app, which is unfortunate because it is very helpful in the beginning.  Angel Sounds app and computer access both are working well.

[Megan L.]

@stranger

When I was activated, I heard a lot of ringing due to the fact I never heard anything in high frequency. So consequently everything rang and whistled! It is possible it’s not your tinnitus you’re hearing. I paid really close attention to the sound of the ringing/whistling and my environment. It turned out to be: the air conditioning, water rushing into the fridge, people whispering, wind, female/children voices, food sizzling, and the list goes on.

And of course continue your aural rehab ? that will help you significantly on your journey. Good luck at your appointment and let us know how you do!

[Daniel the Stranger]

@Mary Beth and @Megan L. I have not started Aural rehab yet. My audiologist recommended me to just listen to the environment for a couple of days, today I'm going to start with Aural rehab according to our schedule. I will have 2 more appointments for the next 2 weeks after today and then a wait of 3 weeks for the next one. Hopefully I won't need an appointment between them!

This thread will become like my blog lol, I will keep posting my everyday experiences here.

[Mary Beth]

So much changes over those first weeks, it is quite amazing.  Enjoy your journey.

[Megan L.]

Sounds like a plan @stranger. Looking forward to reading your posts about what you hear! Enjoy the CI ride. It truly is a journey ?

[Daniel the Stranger]

Day 3,

Same as yesterday, first thing that came to my mind was to put my processor on. Has the appointment with my audiologist. Told her about being conservative (which we agreed) and she tested everything again and then went to the part where she ask me if every sound I'm getting is loud enough or not, or if it is uncomfortable for me. I suppose that is called mapping?

Anyway, after all that,  she proceed to turn on my Processor. Felt much more noise (same high pitched sound lol) but I also felt that while she was talking to me I could catch her real voice in between that helium voice. I could feel the sss differently and also the ed r t and the end.

Forgive  me if I'm not translating my hearing properly as English is not my first language so I never got to hear the real sounds in English.

She left me 3 programs in my processor, one that was the mapping she did today and the other two were one softer and one louder just in case. It has been 8 hours since the appointment and I'm already in the loudest one lol. It seems that I get used to the loudness pretty quickly and every time I want more and more. 

So far I haven't been feeling tired, on the contrary, I don't want my day to end.

Now for the list of WOW sounds:

When I was going to pay for my appointment at the end, I could listen to the beeps of the credit card reader when the receptionist was typing the price of the consultation. I removed the processor to make sure it was the HA and voila!! I couldn't hear the beeps with my HA!

Once in my car I could listen to the sound of the turn signal. Again, removed my HA and I couldn't listen to it!! I also heard the turn signal lever coming back to its starting position.

I went to buy a burger and I was surprised at how much noise the paper that cover the burger makes lol.

Those sounds I mentioned started to sound more like the real thing and not the usual high pitch noise like days before. For example, as I type in my keyboard, I can hear the real sound of the keyboard while I'm typing. That is a lot of progress today as everything sounded the same before the second mapping.

Another thing I heard was the sound of the car remote keys buttons. It made some tick when I disabled the alarm. I knew already that they had some kind of sound because you could feel the tick but never heard it before.

At work today I could hear some door hinges squeaking.

Listening to music in my car, I could identify some songs but the sound is still high pitched, just heard the rhythm and made a lot of sense. 

I think that my tinnitus will be disappearing when I get more and more sounds, it will be displaced from the overwhelming amount of sound I'm going to get as time passes.

I'm going to start Aural rehab tomorrow to see how it goes.

 

 

[Mary Beth]

Sounds super!  I was surprised at how many squeaky things were in our home!  Smile.

[Megan L.]

Finally having fun now!!! Crazy how much noise is in the world ? enjoy

[Jewel]

Wow @stranger. The progress is coming quickly! I'm enjoying your daily posts. Keep 'em coming. ?

[Mary Featherston]

Wow, @stranger, that's GREAT progress in such a short time!  Good for you!

[Daniel the Stranger]

Day 4,

I don't remember when was the last week where I was too keen on waking up and so looking forward for the rest of the day. I usually wake up at 6:30 am and these weeks I have been opening my eyes about 5:30 am already lol.

When I got to the school I had to park at the back a bit further from my office and then I had to walk through a soccer field because the car park was reserved for new families coming for open day. While I was walking through the soccer field I heard the birds chirping (or singing). Oh boy!! I remember hearing the birds before but they felt like if they were chirping very close to my ear but I couldn't see them!! that was a very nice feeling.

I think that sometimes there are sounds you are not sure if you heard them before, but a thing I'm sure about is that the richness of the sound is much much better than hearing with HAs. It is like watching a movie in 4K, in this case the sound is of a very high definition, I'm very very surprised by this.

Yesterday I didn't have the opportunity to try the new mapping at the gym as it was my rest day. But I went today, so many sounds, confusing at times but I could hear some very sharp sounds like the weights hitting the floors or some of the pull machines moving up and down. A thing I found curious at some point was that there were a salesman showing the gym to a potential customer and while I was resting I tried to focus on his voice and I could hear it despite of the noisy background. One thing to note is that despite I could hear his voice, it still sound the same as all voices at the moment, like helium voices and of course I could not understand what he was saying without reading his lips. It was funny because I was trying to focus a lot and when he started to talk I heard him and when he stopped, the helium voice stopped too, and so on.

I also heard my keys jingling, as I said before, surprised as the quality and detail of the sound when my keys jiggle from time to time. It has been only 4 days and I already can hear sounds I can't with my HA in the other ear!!

Another thing to comment is that I was in the higher volume for the whole day. I don't know if it is because my brain is catching everything so fast but I'm also surprised that I don't feel more tired than usual... do you guys think that being at the gym help me to cope with that mental tiredness? Or maybe I need to tell my audiologist next week to be more aggressive with the mapping?

 

[Mary Beth]

@stranger

 

Isnt it an amazing journey?!  Enjoy it.

 

Let your audiologist know how quickly you moved up to the max MAP and she/he will know what to do.  At some point you will stabilize.  This need for more and more power slows down and ends in a stable MAP at some point.

 

 

[Daniel the Stranger]

@Mary Beth, thank you

I just did Angel sounds, this is my first time doing aural rehab.

Did the Assessment test in the basic part of the program, it went very good with the pitch discrimination (90%) but very bad in vowel and consonant recognition, like 5% or so as expected. I also did very well in environmental sounds, about 80% or so.

Lots of work to do, but I'm most than happy to do it.

[Daniel the Stranger]

Day 7,

Well, there weren't much to tell after day 4  lol, I started doing Aural rehab with AB clix. I did level one with spoken words by itself. Level one was 98%, level 2 80% and level 3 is at 58%. It is not bad considering it had been only 5 days since activation day.

Voices are starting to sound a bit better, as Leisa said in one of the other posts, I'm getting half voice and half beep, it is wonderful how things change in a matter of days. I'm starting to recognize my wife's voice too. 

I also have been listening to music in my daily commute. I said before that I was recognizing some of the songs, well, I was, but I wanted to make sure that my other ear wasn't helping as I can perceive most of the low pitches in songs with that ear, so I decided to come home today and listen to music from the ipad with sound only to my implanted ear. I was surprised to find out that I'm actually recognizing lots of songs and also the voices of the singers, that is definitely a step forward in my opinion.

I found out that you need to be aware of the sounds, otherwise you would think that some days things are not progressing but they are!! it is just that you can't stay 100% focused on your CI as you have times where you need your HA in the other side for communication and also because you are just tired on focusing too much and just leave your CI to do the work for you  

Lets see what happens this week!!!

 

[Mary Featherston]

You're doing great, @stranger !  I have had the same experience, I can hear voices from people who are quite a ways away.  Can't understand them yet, but I bet we will!

I have not used my hearing aid this last week and a half except for a meeting.  I find that now that I'm forcing myself to hear through the CI, I actually can (well, and I'm four weeks post-activation) though voices sound odd I can understand and mostly function.  I did have a phone call today and THAT was a total failure, but one of my team was there so he could hear for me.  I find myself wishing I was bilateral already, I bet it would help a lot.

Keep at it, @stranger!  Isn't this cool? 

[Daniel the Stranger]

Hi @Mary Featherston, I wish I could be able to come to work without HA. As soon as I finish work, I turn off the HA and spent about 5-6 hours with my CI only. I realised that I'm still a way to go to depend only on the CI. But at the moment I'm not worried, I have been feeling progress since I got my CI so all good.

[Mary Featherston]

Oh, you're doing great, @stranger - I'm three weeks ahead of you, activation was May 9.  And I'll be honest, if my co-workers weren't helpful and supportive I'd have to use my hearing aid more.  But I like trying to function with just the CI!

[Daniel the Stranger]

Day 10

I had my third mapping today. Oh boy!! What the hell is this? Suddenly I started to recognize all voices!! I finished the appointment today without realizing that I had my HA off!! and I was talking to my Audi and her receptionist as I usual do!!

I have to say that my usual conversation with is reading lips and asking for a repeat here and there but I think now I can risk going to work without my HA. Let's see what happens tomorrow.

I am hearing much much more now and I'm getting for the first time a lot of chirring sounds that I still don't know what they are yet. I have been asking my wife the whole time since the appointment and also at the gym. My voice sounds much louder than I'm used to, I also have discovered some sounds I'm going to report at the end of this post.

I'm very happy with my audiologist, she is an old school one and she likes to map every electrode by itself and not let the software to to the mapping automatically. She is also happy with my progress.

WOW Moments today:

- Recognizing voices. That was the best one!!

- Treadmills at the gym. Oh boy, they need to do maintenance to them!. I knew the sound of the engine of the treadmill but I didn't know they screeched a lot!!!

- Driving my car today, when turning the wheel back, I didn't know that the friction of your hand against the wheel while turning it back had a sound.

- I could hear my wife taking a shower today.

- I knew about the sound of the fan in the bathroom, but what I didn't know was the sound of the rotor that make the fan works. Like a little screeching, I had to ask my wife for that one.

- Sliding my feet on the floor while I'm sitting writing this post.

- Sliding my hand gently over my clothes.

- Just heard a motorbike passing close home, I had to ask my wife for that one too. 

That is all for now, I hope I have a post for tomorrow to share more good news. Don't go anywhere!!

 

 

[Mary Beth]

Wonderful report @stranger!

[Megan L.]

@stranger awesome!