switch on

[steveeggy]

well what can i say ? WOW .At first i had to do beeping test on different pitches to make sure that i am comfortable with loud sound.After the beeping test is time to switch on .It is very strange listening people talking but in time is will get better that for sure .To be honest i can hear it well with some sound are very sensitivity which i don't have with the hearing aid.It is very different sound hearing aid and cochlear implant .I not telling you anymore so you will find out for yourself while u go for switch on .When i left the hospital two annoy sound were bothering me was bus and train brake squealling cos is so senitivie sound in my ear so i asked my father that the bus and train brake squealing are nightmare to listen, My father reply to me welcome to hearing world ha i think he was so right .

Sound i never heard off before - train brakes squealing, i was walking and hit the stone or pebble all i could hear knocking noise .i stopped & try again hit (my feet) stone and hear the same thing WOW

i am struggling to hear what the tv sound so in time u will hear the tv sound cos i am not ready yet so have to be patience .Music - I do recognise my favourite music but little bit hit and miss .

thank steven

[Mr-LJ]

Hi Steve, Its a year now since you posted here and were switched on. Hope all is going well and your used to the squeeling brakes! lol

 

I remember seeing a film (Jaws) where a person drags his finger nails down a black board and everyone in the room cringes. I remember wondering why that seems so bothersome. Now with my ci I am also a cringer when someone does this, terrible noise! lol 

[Adam]

Steven, PATIENCE!! you will get there but it does sound like you are progressing nicely. It took a while for music to come back for me and the television same thing.

laurence, wow that movie brings back memories. when I first saw it i had normal hearing and I do remember that scene.

[Kristie]

Adam,

I was activated a week ago. I have heard several new sounds as I was deaf 2 keys above middle C but am anxious for word recognition. What can I expect the first few months ? My loss was also progressive.

Warm Regards,

Kristie

[jpl2ci]

Hi Kristie and welcome to HearPeers!

 

Everybody has an unique reaction to sound after activation so there really isn't any magic deadline. Since you have been activated for only week, it is normal to want to hear things perfectly! This is a journey, not a sprint. You can help your brain get acclimated to this new type of sound by having pre-planned conversations with friends and family such as, "what we're not having spam fritters again, are we?"  Listening to books on tape, turning the closed captioning on the TV and using them to help determine what is being said are good ideas to help. Hearing therapy can really help as your brain is having to learn how to hear all over again.  Do not be concerned if you feel overwhelmed at first.  after 3+ years of being bilateral, I still enjoy removing the external processor to let my brain cool down and refresh itself.  Start a journal where you note successes and bumps in the road to share with your audiologist to help with future maps.  Your audiologist works for you and any information you can present and share will help in future sessions.

 

Patience, practice and perseverance are keynotes. Use this forum as a sounding board, please. Post away in other words.  Adam will join in later, I'm sure.

 

John

[Adam]

Kristie, Welcome to Hearpeers!!! congratulations on your activation. That I know can be exciting and a little overwhelming at the same time.

When you will hear words as John says, can be a difficult question to answer. some depends on your hearing history, your brain, and the work you put in.

If you read different peoples activation stories, each can be similar while being totally different at the same time. My surgeon told me of a guy who walked out into the hallway and called him on his cell phone. WHAT!?!?!? That did not happen with me.

what I would suggest is dont see so concerned with when you hear this or that. Each new sound is a milestone and should be celebrated.

Think of speech as the tour De France bike race. you just learned to ride a bike so it will take some time to get to that level.

With me it was strange in that some people sounded like cartoon characters and other people sounded like white noise or static on the tv.

As John said, your brain is having to relearn how to hear. It is going to take time and the 3 P's. PRACTICE, PATIENCE, and PERSEVERENCE.

Try not to focus so much on what you cant hear yet and celebrate what you can now. Also remember, how things sound now will get better and better as your brain figures things out.

There will be times that you get frustrated. Music took the longest to come back for me and i got so fed up and can remember telling my wife that I dont think I will ever be able to hear music again. Now everything sounds exactly as it did when my hearing was "normal"

As John suggests, predetermined conversations on the phone where you know what the pwerson is going to say will help a lot. listen to childrens books on cd and read along. CC on the tv helped me out a lot and sometimes I still need it. Remember, the more frustrated you get, the harder it will be to pick out what you are trying to hear. You have plenty of time, enjoy the ride. Keeping a very detailed journal will really help your audi as john said. note the acoustics of the room, were you talking to man or woman, what it sounded like. Echo, tinny, too low, too high pitch, outside, inside. all this information will give your audi valuable information as far as trying different maps. Please let us know if you have any questions at all! There is no such thing as a stupid question, just a stupid answer. If you think one implant is cool you should try going bilateral! holy moly!

 

Adam

[Adam]

Kristie,

I almost forgot again each person is a little different but I think we can all agree that we made huge improvements over the first few months. That is the short answer.

 

Adam

 

[Sandy]

Hi Kristie, as John and Adam have said, this is a journey and it gets better each day, also frustrating. I've been activated for 5 months and found practice is the key. Music for me is slow going too and keeping the volume up and cc on does help with TV. I also find going out and putting myself in situations that I avoided before my CI helps. This past week I heard sirens from an ambulance and fire truck. I haven't heard that sound in years. Welcome to HearPeers and don't forget to ask any question. Someone here will have the answer.

[Kristie]

Thank you all for your time and encouragement.   I am hearing several new sounds but am still learning the words.  There is excitement in hearing the oven timer, car blinkers and keyboard keys.  I have the Rondo device.  Some sounds are a bit over whelming such as paper crunching and the sound of the wind while driving.  Words spoken are distant and often echo.   I am sure that will improve in time.  I read about mapping.  When I meet with my audiologist we adjust sounds but they often sound different outside of her quiet office.   Is there a way to increase the sound of spoken words without all the background noise that comes with it ?   I coach basketball and the sound of the bouncing ball is much louder than the players voice.   When listening to music the instruments totally outweigh the lyrics.  Does your remote have the same sounds with a different volume ?  I was activated 3 1/2 weeks ago but wonder if my settings are where they should be.   Any suggestions ?

Thanks again,

Kristie

 

 

[Adam]

Kristie that will get better for sure between mapping and practice listening and i think maybe a lack of the cocktail party affect. basically what that is, is a built in filter so to speak that our brain uses to "ignore" sounds it deems unimportant. This is how hearing folks are able to hear a specific person they are talking to in a crowded room. Things like your refrigerator humming, your desktop monitor humming, ultrviolet lightsmake noise. most people do not even notice it because your brain ignores it. The problem with us who have just been activated is that we do not have that "filter". we hear EVERYTHING. It will take a little time but that will settle down as well. I'm sure John will chime in with way more wisdom than I can provide. I'm glad things are going so well for you.

[Nate]

Hi Kristie,

 

One thing that helped me in the beginning was to turn the sensitivity way down.  You can do that with the remote and it tends to mute the background noise a little more.  Voices are a little softer, but clearer and not as much background noise gets in the way.  Have you tried that?

[Kristie]

Thank you !!!!!!!!   I turned the sensitivity down this morning and it certainly helped !!  My fine tuner was just activated Thursday.  My audilogist thought it was done initally but must have missed a step. 

[MegGan]

Hi Kristie. One training trick my audiologist had me do was listen to an audio book while reading along in a hard copy. I really think it helped a lot in brain-training for speech recognition. (Reading close captions while listening to TV is also helpful but isn't quite the same because the captioning often doesn't really match the audio.) Additionally, I started listening to audio books that I had previously read. Knowing the story in advance helped me guess words that I didn't quite hear correctly.

 

I agree with John that patience, practice and perseverance are the keys to learning. Best of luck to you.

[Nate]

 

Thank you !!!!!!!!   I turned the sensitivity down this morning and it certainly helped !!  My fine tuner was just activated Thursday.  My audilogist thought it was done initally but must have missed a step.

Great!  Glad that helped!  Once you get used to hearing, people tend to not play around with the settings as much and forget they have those options.

[Camille]

Hi Kristie - Congrats on your CI and the great job you are doing of assessing & describing what you are hearing.  That information will be very helpful to your audiologist to create the best map for your hearing loss.  I was implanted in July 2010; activated in August 2010, and the first month I was only "hearing" at the same level as with my hearing aid before my surgery.  Needless to say, I was scared I'd made a mistake, BUT by month 3 my CI was by far my dominant ear, and I've never looked back!  As Adam has said, the 3 P's are the key!  Hang in there...

[Miriam H]

@Megan, that is a really good training advice, thank you! I'm going to try to get my daughter to do that with her newest implant (3 yrs old, but not up to speed with the "old" side quite yet). She is a teen with many opinions though, so we will see how that goes...