Activation May 28

[Daniel the Stranger]

@Mary Beth, I'm using an iPad iOS version 11.3.1.

[Daniel the Stranger]

Day 17

Well, this week started in a good way for me as I decided to take the risk and going to work with my CI only. Of course I did take the HA with me just in case things didn't go well.

So far I have been 3 days to work without my HA and 7 days since I have not used my HA. I only use it when I need to talk on the phone as the echo is still present. I could say for sure that I'm at the same level as when I had both HAs. My "normal" hearing with both HAs was a bit challenging for me, as I couldn't follow conversations with more than 1 person and in case of one on one conversation I needed to ask here and there. That is the level I have today with my CI only which means that it has improved a lot since activation day 2.5 weeks ago.

I think as things are progressing, I'm going to request the surgery for my next ear in about 3 months when I finally decide that my HA is not needed anymore.

I'm still doing AB Clix, improving bit by bit, still not happy with the m and n sounds, also a bit confused with the words ending in f or p or t. But that is the idea of aural rehab, to train our brains to hear better. I'm also going to tell my audi about this to see if she can improve this in the mapping, along with the echo issue.

I feel more confident when I talk as I can understand myself better now than when I had my HAs. I also feel that I actually can understand when people say hello to me and I'm busy doing something. 

I also wanted to report that when I was driving to and from work today it was raining hard. Processor immediately went into "defensive" mode and rain sounded softer, but also voices in music in my car.

Today something unexpected happened and I'm still curious about it. When I got to work, my boss' voice did not sound as usual. I thought that I was going to get the flu as I had been sneezing a little bit last night. Before I continue, I have to tell you that the last mapping my audi gave me 4 programs where the only difference was the loudness. Program 1 was the weakest and program 4 the loudest. Well I started with program 1 until today as changing to program 2 was too overwhelming and I couldn't stand my own voice. Continuing with the issue I had this morning, I started changing programs and not only got to program 4 but I aso had to increase the volume by 4 steps. But I feel that it is still not enough.

Does that mean that I'm getting used to it? I have to say that it is the first time I have a map for more than a week so I will tell this to my audi to find out if there is something wrong with the processor or it is just an adaptation to the mapping.

Some wow sounds:

I'm used to eating an apple mid morning everyday. Well, I could hear when I broke the apple's steam. It is something I'm used to do before I eat it. I was surprised by hearing this.

I can hear from the lounge room when the toilet's tank is filling after being used. This is a small unit, toilet is about 5 metres from the lounge. But I couldn't hear it before.

I can't believe how noisy our mouths are. When eating, swallowing food or just saliva, or better yet just by moving your tongue inside!!.

I can hear the voice on the other side of my boss' mobile phone. However I can't understand it.

Well I hoped I didn't bore you with this long post. I hope you enjoyed it.

 

 

 

[Mary Beth]

You are doing great @Daniel the Stranger!  I love reading about your journey.  

 

Each brand has different automatic sound management.  Talk with your audiologist about setting options for your brand.  You definitely do not want music and voices squelched when your processor deals with rain.

 

In the early weeks, my need for more volume was frequent but then it stabilized.  Everyone progresses through that differently.  You are still in your early days.

 

Reporting speech phoneme difficultly to your audiologist is a great idea.  She will know if a MAPping adjustment will help or if time and practice is needed.

 

Glaf things are going so well for you.

[Jewel]

I always enjoy reading about your journey. Thanks for all the details. It can only get better in the future. @Daniel the Stranger

[Mary Featherston]

@Daniel the Stranger - you are progressing really really well!  It's great reading your story.

[Daniel the Stranger]

Day 22

I had wrote quite a post that I deleted by accident by hitting Ctrl + V instead of Ctrl + C. that sucks lol.

Well, not much has happened since my last post. My hearing is still different from last Thursday and I just remembered some @Mary Featherston and her frustration with listening to music from a couple of weeks ago (except that I'm not frustrated lol ). Some voices and lots of the songs have like a screeching sound that it is not at all comfortable. Let's see if we can change that in my next mapping this Friday.

Today there was another change of sounds but in my both ears: It seems I'm going to get the flu (or cold, no idea), as I'm hearing less than it should be. I don't know if some of you also experiences the same as me when you get sick from Cold or flu, that your hearing decreases. I have a funny throat at the moment, it is not sore but I have that feeling as if someone was tickling my throat with a feather and this makes me cough. This is a little bit frustrating mostly for work, as it affects your confidence when you try to understand your coworkers. I hope to get better by Friday so I can go to my mapping hearing better and not waste my time with my Audi. 

I forgot to report something after my surgery and it is the feeling of the food in your mouth. I'm grateful of not having lost my taste but what I'm still feeling is that buttery feeling when you place food in your mouth. Anyone of you have had this experience? It does not matter what I eat (with the exception of fruit), everything feels like covered with butter in my mouth.

That is all for now, I will post again hopefully by Friday when I have my next mapping session.

[Daniel the Stranger]

It seems I had some issues creating my last post. It didn't want to create, took me to 403 Forbidden. Tried removing @Mary Featherston tag but it didn't work. I had to remove an emoticon  which apparently was impeding my post to be posted. I had to replace  for lol to make it work.

[Mary Beth]

@Daniel the Stranger

 

I hope your cold/flu is short lived.

i am going to tag @MED-EL Moderator and ask her to read your post above about the error you received.

I did not experience a buttery texture......do you think your tongue is a bit numb?

[Daniel the Stranger]

2 minutes ago, Mary Beth said:

do you think your tongue is a bit numb?

No, I think my tongue is pretty much alive!!! :P. I'm not sure if you want me to bite myself to prove this to you!!

On a serious note, no, I don;t feel my tongue numb, I can feel it everywhere when I slide it against my teeth. This is not something that worries me too much though, as I said above, I'm grateful for not losing my taste of part of it after surgery.

[Mary Beth]

@Daniel the Stranger  LOL. Temporary loss of taste is due to disturbance during surgery.  I wonder if extra buttery is a similar disturbance.  Been craving popcorn lately?

[Daniel the Stranger]

10 minutes ago, Mary Beth said:

 I wonder if extra buttery is a similar disturbance.

I have no idea, I'm going to ask this to my surgeon on my next appointment the first week of July and I will report back.

10 minutes ago, Mary Beth said:

Been craving popcorn lately?

Not really!!!, I have tried pop corn a couple of times after surgery and it does taste nice but not a good feeling!!. You just made me remember that feeling, yucks!!!

[Daniel the Stranger]

Day 29

I’m back guys, after a bit of absence.

Well, I was supposed to have my mapping last Friday. It couldn’t be as I got a bad cold during mid week last week and my hearing decreased a fair bit. I went to the appointment as it was my second postponement and I did not want to get in trouble with the Audi, besides, I didn’t want to wait 2.5 weeks more for the next appointment as she was fully booked until then.

I was lucky as my Audi told me that no way we were going to do a mapping in my condition and she offered to move my appointment for next Monday (yesterday) which I accepted.

Mapping was not “as good as I expected”. Let’s say that I was hoping to see a big change the same way as my last mapping 3 weeks ago. But I wasn’t disappointed. Sometimes I have to remind myself that it has been only a month since activation and that things are not going to be always as fast as it has been since activation.

My audi is surprised of my progress, she said that she has patients of 1 year post activation that still can’t hear what I hear, and she is greatly surprised that I’m enjoying music at this point in time.

I’m still having echoes; the echo is still a high pitch sound at the end of every sound. My audi told me that I need to give it time as my brain have never been able to recognize high pitched sounds and it needs to figure it out what to do with all those high pitches I get everywhere.

She gave me 2 programs, one with reduced high pitches to see if the echoes decreased and the other one is the “new mapping” with more high pitches. At the appointment it felt good with the first program but after I was out, I moved to the higher pitches as I felt that the other one was too soft, voices sounded a bit softer.

I’m back again at school using my CI only and so far, things are good, I would say I’m still at the same level as if I were using my two HAs.

For now, I will keep doing audi rehab every day, I can’t understand speech without lip reading in English. In Spanish I do a little bit better but still can’t talk on the phone.

My Audi and my doctor are aware of the possibility of doing the surgery for my other hear in the incoming months, we are estimating 2 or 3 months depending on my progress. I definitely going to move forward with this as long as I can talk by phone in Spanish, otherwise I would be uncommunicated to my family and friends at all and this is not something I’m looking forward to.

Let’s hope my next post is not too far so I can have lots of experiences these days ?

[Mary Beth]

@Daniel the Stranger

Its always nice to read your posts.  Embrace your journey....the slow parts as well as the WOW moments.  We are asking our brains to do a lot!  Smile.

[Daniel the Stranger]

I'm sorry guys, I have a nice and long post to show you but I get 403 Forbidden error unfortunately. I could post this but not my Daily report.

[Mary Beth]

@Daniel the Stranger

Well that is discouraging.  Hopefully you can find a way to post your report.  I hope all continues to go well.

 

@MED-EL Moderator, please see Daniel’s post above.  We really are having a lot of trouble with the forum.

[Jewel]

@MED-EL Moderatoris pretty quiet these days.

I hope they sort out the problem@Daniel the Strangeris having. I always love to read about his progress. 

[Mary Featherston]

@Daniel the Stranger it sounds like you're doing really well, aside from the posting woes.

I have the same issue with going for a new MAP, it feels like a bit of a step back for a few days till the brain works it all out again.

Today I heard a song that actually sounded like it should!  That's fairly unusual for me.

[Mary Featherston]

@Daniel the Stranger it sounds like you're doing really well, aside from the posting woes.

I have the same issue with going for a new MAP, it feels like a bit of a step back for a few days till the brain works it all out again.

Today I heard a song that actually sounded like it should!  That's fairly unusual for me.

[MED-EL Moderator]

Hi @Daniel the Stranger , 

Sorry that you have been experiencing technical problems posting your story. Unfortunately I haven't been able to recreate the problem so have had a hard time trying to work out what is wrong. In the meantime, would you be able to try posting it again and taking a screenshot of the error? We're working hard to get technical issues like this fixed and to improve the overall HearPeers experience, so we really appreciate it when you let us know about these errors. 

Once again, sorry for the inconvenience caused and thanks for sharing your story so far

Kind regards, 

Mary 
 

[Daniel the Stranger]

Thank you Mary @MED-EL Moderator, please have a look at the links for the screenshots:

I tried with Chrome and Firefox, got same error. I don't know if it is because my post is too long?

Post I want to submit

403 Forbidden Error

Post Keeps Saving after clicking on Submit

[MED-EL Moderator]

Hi Daniel, 

Thanks so much for sharing these. Unfortunately I can't see anything wrong with the post itself. It could well be that the post is too long. Could you try splitting it in to two parts and see if that works? 

Again, we are very sorry for the inconvenience. 

Kind regards, 

Mary 

[Mary Beth]

@Daniel the Stranger

Thanks for the link to your post!  Sounds terrific!  You are doing great.  I enjoy reading your updates.

 

If you notice that you hear a steady noise when you are in a completely quiet room and there really is no source of the sound (like an air conditioner or refrig or something), tell your audiologist.  I know you do not have a Med-El CI, but for Med-El users this is a sign that we are hearing a threshold setting and that is something our audiologists can fix.  Just a thought.

[Daniel the Stranger]

Thanks @MED-EL Moderator, I tried to split my post in two but it didn't work. Still get the same error. I have no idea what is going on really. What I do to avoid deleting my post by accident is that I write in on Word and then I paste it here removing formatting.

 

@Mary Beth, can you explain what a threshold setting is? 

[Mary Beth]

Here is a helpful link for MAPping terms

http://firstyears.org/c3/u6/mapread.htm

@Daniel the Stranger

Thresholds for Med-El are the loudest setting that we CAN NOT hear on each electrode.  It is tested by finding the quietest level that we can detect on an electrode and then setting the threshold one or two clicks below that.  For Med-El, default thresholds tend to be 10% of our MCL or set at zero.  

If thresholds are set too high, we may actually hear them and we are not supposed to hear them.

If thresholds are set too low, we may not hear the softest sounds that we are intended to hear.

For most people, default threshold settings work great.  My left ear needed to have thresholds tested and set manually by my audiologist so we tested thresholds on my right side too.  It made a big difference for me but that is because my left ear has very interesting threshold levels.

After thresholds are set and our audiologists play them back to us, we should not hear anything at all.

 

Thresholds may be handled differently by your brand.

[Daniel the Stranger]

Thanks @Mary Beth, I'm going to comment this to my Audi next month that I have my appointment.