Listen: there's a hell of a good universe next door, let's go

I think I've figured something out.  I'm not absolutely sure, because I haven't been in to see my audiologist, and she's the person who could confirm it.  But I've been wondering why, after my January appointment - in which we decided not to change the mapping in my left CI - the unintegrated high frequencies suddenly became so much more prominent. I mean, why the need for aural rehab when there was no change to the mapping?  But the brain's a complex thing, and it's actually happened before, though not nearly so prominently. But I wonder if what we did on the right side affected what I hear on the left.  Because we did reduce the volume on the lower frequencies in an attempt to reduce (or even get rid of) the echo on the right.  And if the lower frequencies are reduced in volume, that means the higher frequencies are comparatively a higher percentage of what I'm hearing overall. So maybe that affected it.  In my February appointment we remapped bo...

I'm still working on my second CI.  It's been sounding a lot better in the last couple of weeks, but it's not up to the right when it comes to music yet.  Most of what I listen to in the car is rock, or old folk stuff, or blues and a couple of old country pieces.  As I've noted before, some of them sound not too bad, but the more complexity there is, and the more instrumental accompaniment they have, the less likely they are to sound really good, at least so far. But another thing I do for aural rehab is watch videos, with my left CI only, and since that's primarily voices, it's starting to sound pretty good.  I recently started to watch a show called Code Black at the recommendation of a friend, and just now watched an episode while I was on the treadmill.  The program takes place in a trauma center in Los Angeles, and in this episode, a singer was brought in with pain in his throat.  Turns out he had an abcess, and it was lanced and he was just waiting ...

First things first:  I had my three-month post activation (second CI) check today.  This involves a 90-minute appointment with my audiologist and a battery of hearing tests in addition to the usual mapping of my processors. The results of the hearing test were great - and a good reminder to me that even though it's probably good for me to keep on moving the goalposts - to increase my own expectations - that the progress made so far is (according to my audiologist) better than average CI recipient results, and in comparison to what I was hearing this time last year, an order of magnitude better. And that's the main thing.  Will I ever be able to hear what people with normal hearing do?  Probably not.  But the improvement over what I was hearing (or more to the point, what I wasn't hearing) prior to implantation is astounding.  The fact that this is my new normal and I want more, more, more?  Well, that's okay, and I'll be working on it.  But it...

I've been struggling a bit with the sound in my second CI; on the 16th I had an audiology appointment and we made some changes to the map on the right CI to try to reduce the echo, but didn't change the one on the left because it was sounding pretty good. Two days later the tinniness increased exponentially.  It was ugly, to the point of distorting the sound I was hearing.  Since we didn't remap that processor, I know it wasn't the CI (also, I was experiencing the same problem with both my Sonnet and Rondo2 processors, so this was clearly something that I had to rehab my way out of). So for the last week and a half I just kept on with the rehab on the left.  The tinniness is finally abating a bit - which of course just means that now the echo on the right is prominent again.  Sweet. But I was talking to a friend this weekend who is having some issued with hearing loss and made the comment that I've been trying to keep my social media posts and my blog posts up...

This week - just the last couple of days, actually - I've experienced some changes to the way I hear with my newer CI.  It's following the same pattern the first one did, and I think it's taking about the same amount of time, but because it felt a bit like starting over, it's FELT as though it's been a slower process. And that makes the step-changes I've had this week that much sweeter. I went to a party on Saturday.  I can't even remember when I went to a party and was able to talk to pretty much everyone.  I went from group to group and I could hear their discussions, and take part.  I didn't really think about it much while it was happening, but when I got home and started digesting all the wine, I realized, " Hey, that was actually fun, and I didn't have to work to hear!"  And then I was amazed in retrospect, assisted, I think, by the wine.  But this was one of the things I've been waiting for, and it was incredibly gratifying. ...

Well, jeez.  It's been over two weeks since I posted anything.  That feels like a long time, I guess I've grown used to publicly obsessing over the little details of becoming a ciborg.  Heh. I had an audiology appointment on December 19; we remapped the left side and let the right side stay where it is for now.  We also activated my NEW NEW NEW Rondo 2 processors; these are a different model, just released by Med-El - there's nothing behind the ear, the entire processor is over the implant magnet.  I've been excited to get those, and I think they're going to be great for at least some things.  There are some differences - among other things, they have only one microphone so there's no directional listening capability.  But as I have been in the habit of using the omnidirectional program with my behind-the ear processors, that itself isn't a big deal for me.   But I'll admit I've not been using them all that much.  They sound a little ...

For all the gratitude that I expressed in my last blog post, it's not been easy, starting over again, more or less, with the second CI.  The sound quality went back almost to what it was the first time - the better sound in the first CI couldn't overpower the poor sound in the new one.  Overall, it was better than the second one alone, but not as good as the first - even with the persistent echo. And that's just been how it is.  Each day I get up and put on both processors, and then when I leave for work I'd turn on the sound system in the car and pull the magnet off on the right side, to help with the rehab of the left.  And then when I get to work I use both again, till I get home and put the right one away so when I listen to my husband or the TV or anything else it's just that one, so it could start sounding better.  On weekends I sometimes used some of the aural rehab apps, but not much, because even with the second CI I can understand, it just doesn't so...