Progress since mapping

I thought it was high time for me to update the blog again with my progress since my first mapping session. I’ve spent the last few weeks just practicing listening and learning to use the implant and it’s been pretty amazing to be honest.
I’ll break down the things I’ve been hearing, into a list to keep things clear.

Environmental sounds:
When I’m out and about, I’m able to hear a lot more of the sounds around me. I can hear traffic, birds singing and people talking nearby among other things. I can also make out many of the announcements at the train station/when I’m on a train.

People talking:
I mentioned last time that I’ve been able to hear people talking much more clearly than when I had my hearing aid in that ear, and this has continued. It is particularly nice when I’m able to hear a voice that I previously struggled with. I’ve also been able to hear staff in shops/doctors receptionists etc. I’ve been out for a number of meals out with Victoria and these have been good practices. In the past, the only way I could hear Victoria in a restaurant was if she sat right next to me and yelled at me! 😉 Now, however, she is able to sit opposite me. It’s been a case of experimenting with the various settings I have to find the best one for noisier situations. I found the ‘zoom’ setting was great for the restaurant as it concentrates the microphone on sounds coming from in front of me, lowering the sounds behind me. The next big test will be to see how I get on when I’ve out with more than one person—that’ll be more challenging I think.

Listening with the ComPilot:
Previously I’ve talked about the Phonak ComPilot which connects to Bluetooth compatible devices and transmits the sound direct to the implant. I’ve been using this to listen to the radio via my phone and to audio books either on my phone or laptop. This has been great—It’s wonderful to just be able to listen to something without it being a struggle. I’ve been listening to a lot of talk radio to hear lots of different voices and subjects. I enjoy it, but the downside is that I am a bit bored of hearing ‘Dave from London’ ringing up to moan about immigration and to urge us to vote UKIP at the next election! Think of it as ‘Daily Mail radio’! I’ve also been listening to a lot of football commentaries and whereas previously I often couldn’t make out the commentators voice above the crowd noise, I can now easily hear almost every word.

Listening to the TV:
This is the latest thing I’ve been trying out. I recently purchased an accessory called TVLink (early Xmas present from my mum- thanks mum!) which again, is made by those clever folks at Phonak. For anyone interested, here is the link:
http://www.connevans.co.uk/product/4177263/3PATVLINKS/Phonak-TVLink-S

The TVLink plugs in to the back of your TV and transmits the sound to the ComPilot which I’m wearing, enabling me to have the TV sound direct to the implant! Before the implant, it wasn’t possible for me to hear the TV, even when the volume was turned up, so being able to listen again is pretty cool. I’m never going to be a couch potato watching hours of mindless cooking programmes etc, but it’s nice to be able to watch stuff if I want to. Last weekend, I watched X-Factor for the first time in years. Now, I’m unsure whether the terrible singing was due to my implant, or because they are all tone-deaf cretins… I’m guessing it is the latter!

I’ll blog again soon (no really I will) to update you on my second mapping session which took place last week.

Mapping Appointment

On Friday the 27th of September, I had my first mapping appointment for the audiologist to make any tweaks to the implant and give me some more programmes to play about with. Yes, yes, I know that was nearly 2 weeks ago but, to be honest, I’ve been distracted by all the things I can now hear. If that little teaser doesn’t keep you reading, nothing will…

It was set to be a long old day as, after seeing the audiologist I was meeting the speech and language therapist to check that I’d been doing my homework from the week before… (I had of course!)

The mapping session was great—I’d been hearing a lot already with the implant so the audiologist only made a couple of minor adjustments. Then she decided to test how much I could actually hear. She sat me in front of a speaker and played me a number of simple sentences such as ‘The boy bounces the ball’ or ‘the man forgot to update his blog for nearly 2 weeks’. 😉 I was only to listen through my implant taking my hearing aid in my left ear out and repeat as much of the sentence as I heard. Now, when I did this test back when I was being assessed for the implant, I only scored about 35% in my right ear with no background noise and around 20 % when background noise was added. So, what were my scores this time? I was staggered to be told that I scored 95 % in quiet and 74 % with background noise. I’ll take that as a result after just a week! Victoria had noticed the huge improvement, but we were both amazed by a result this good 🙂

The audiologist then gave me some extra programmes for noisier situations which I could play with until my next appointment. On programme 1 is the basic everyday setting that I’ve been using up to now. On programme 2 I’ve got a combination of ‘Clear Voice’ and the zoom feature which picks up noise from directly in front of me blocking out background noise from behind. Programmes 3 and 4 are these features on their own so I can decide whether I like them in combination or as individual programmes. I’ll come back to this a bit later.

We then came to the bit of the appointment I was most looking forward to. One of the major selling points of the particular implant I’ve been given is that, using the Phonak ComPilot, it is possible to stream sound from Bluetooth devices (such as my phone etc) directly to the implant. I was lucky that St Thomas’s had negotiated with Advanced Bionics to have the ComPilot included in the kit their patients get with the implant thus saving me a few hundred quid and ensuring that I can afford to buy my wife a Christmas present this year! At the time of my switch-on, the ComPilot hadn’t arrived but, fortunately, by the time of my mapping session it had turned up all shiny, exciting and new! This was a bit of a step in to the unknown for the audiologist as well as my good self and I think she was just as interested as I was to see how well it would work. Luckily, it was easy to set up and we paired it with my Iphone straightaway to see if it was working. (I do love technology when it works as it should). For anyone interested, this is the ComPilot device—it is compatible with some Phonak made hearing aids as well I understand.
http://www.phonak.com/com/b2c/en/products/accessories/compilot-tvlink-s/overview.html

So, after all that excitement, there was just time to grab a sandwich before my meeting with the speech and language therapist. She asked about the homework from the week before and, after we’d gone through all the things I could hear she said that she was really pleased with my progress. One of the exercises she’d planned for that session was to read aloud from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets with me reading along in Braille. She decided however to go straight on to just reading aloud with me repeating what I’d heard—which I was able to do. She then set me homework of trying to use the telephone before our next appointment in November.

In my next post (which will be sooner in coming than this one was, I promise!), I’ll talk about the last couple of weeks and what I’ve been able to hear.