A week after switch on

Well, it’s been nearly a week since my cochlear implant was switched on last Thursday and, in terms of what I can hear, it has been quite a week!

 

Last time I mentioned that the adjustments the audiologist made to the implant on the second day of switch-on made a huge difference to what I could hear. Since then I’ve been able to have conversations with Victoria without my hearing aid in the other ear and can often hear her even when she is some distance away. The hearing therapist had given us homework, similar to the exercises I outlined in my last post and I am now able to hear the words easily in nearly all cases. While I could hear Victoria’s dulcet tones (she told me to say that) very easily, the test would be whether I could hear other people speaking. So,  we were interested to see how I would get on when my PA came to work on Monday as I’ve often struggled to hear her more high-pitched voice. Well, after a couple of minutes of being freaked out by how deep and manly she was sounding through the implant (!), I could hear her just fine. I was able to chat to her in the car, which I haven’t been able to do previously, and I could even here some of what the guy in the shop was saying to me, which is a definite improvement.

 

I bought a pair of cheap headphones so that sound from my radio/computer etc could be brought directly to the implant. The way the implant is designed makes it easy to put a pair of headphones over the top, and straight away I was able to hear a football match on the radio. I couldn’t get every word, but I could follow the gist of what was going on. I listened to another couple of games the next day and it got even better. I’ve also been experimenting with audio books and talk radio to see how much I can hear, and, the answer at the moment is pretty much everything. Music still sounds pretty horrible but I haven’t spent much time getting used to that at the moment. All in all, I’m really pleased to be doing some things that I really enjoy, but haven’t been able to manage for quite a while  🙂

 

The headphones are only a temporary measure. When the stuff from Advanced Bionics finally arrives at the hospital, I’ll be able to use something called the ComPilot. This clever little thing is warn around my neck and can be paired with my Bluetooth devices, i.e. my Iphone and laptop. This will send the sound directly to the implant which should improve things even more.  If you’re interested, you can find out more here: http://www.phonak.com/com/b2c/en/products/accessories/compilot-tvlink-s/overview.html

 

I’m very lucky that the audiologist at my hospital negotiated hard with Advanced Bionics and persuaded them to provide the compilot as standard to their patients. Great news for me, as it’s not cheap!

 

I’m hoping it will be available when I go for my first mapping session on Friday. I’ll update the blog on Saturday with how that went 🙂