One Week With the Cochlear Implant
| It has now been one week with the cochlear implant. What am I capable of doing so far? So far, as reported earlier, I can hear hearing people's voices when they talk to me. With the hearing aid it was more effort; with the implant, it seems to require less effort to hear the voices. Combined with lipreading, I can now understand "strange hearing people" without much difficulty. To my surprise, I have also begun to hear words on television! I am now learning how to follow the words and captions together. I do have to turn the volume up high on the TV and/or the implant to be able to hear the words on TV though.
My "CI Moments" so far have been few. Things like walking past a group of people chatting in the hallway and realizing I can hear them talking (but not understand). A few more environmental sounds as well (including some I would rather not hear). Also, I have discovered that the implant seems to allow me to "direct" my listening focus. For example, if I want to hear someone talking a little way away, I can "focus" my attention in that direction and kind of "tune in" to their speaking. The processor has two programs and I am still trying to figure out which is which. So far, the P1 program seems to be good for listening to low frequency sounds. I haven't yet figured out what situation the P2 program works best in. I still have that annoying feedback-like sound, a "click-click" noise and an occasional "whoosh" in the head, but it seems to be improving slightly. Bob took a picture of my cochlear implant surgery scar. I was a little surprised at how minor it is. I actually have trouble seeing it in the picture - it is just a line or two behind the ear. You can also see the remaining bump(s) that were previously mentioned. The hair is still growing back there too. Finally, some people have been asking where I had my surgery done, and who did it. With the permission of the surgeon, I can now say where. I had the surgery done at Johns Hopkins Outpatient Clinic in Baltimore, Maryland. The clinic houses the Listening Center. My surgeon was Dr. Howard W. Francis, who had gone to Harvard Medical School. I have to admit that when I learned he had gone to Harvard, it helped me to be more relaxed and confident about the upcoming surgery. Update: A commenter asked which implant I got. It is the Cochlear Nucleus Freedom contour advance. |  My Cochlear Implant Scar |
Comments
Thats great - one thing I learned when I got my CI was not to TRY too hard. I noticed the harder I tried the harder was for me to get good results. But the more relaxed I was then it easier it came to me. It will take time, but this is great that you are seeing progress! Did you get the Freedom? Thats what it looks like.
You trust your surgeon just because he
went to Harvard Medical School.
Look at President Bush! He was a struggling C- student at Yale and
Harvard, but he got two degrees just
because of Affirmative Action which
awarded him 40 points each just because
his father and two grandfathers graduated from these universities.
Now look at the disasters Bush has caused. War. 47 million uninsured Americans. The stock market is plummeting because he has spent $3 trillion on Iraq and Afganhistan.
He’s a Yale and a Harvard. What say
you?
I’d first look at his resume and opinions of the CIers.
When do you go for your next mapping? with kids, they load up several maps and as the child progresses, the parents move them from one map to the next, which increases the levels slowly. I have no idea how it works for adults though.
Looks like it has been an interesting week for you! May there be many more!
Pretty cool…
Do continue to keep us updated…thanks.
I am surprised that you was programmed with two maps because Freedom can hold up to 4 maps. I have both Freedom and Nucleus 24 Contour Advance…
Everything looks great. Enjoy the new sounds.