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.
Hearing Again 