DeffJeff's Blog

Forgot to include this in the previous post (I think).

I’m hearing so much better.  Things are really coming to me – and fast.  Ever since I picked up the slack a couple of days ago and started wearing it 10-12 hours a day, the sounds are learned everyday, and things are really starting to come together.  I expect at this pace, I should be at 60% of my potential by August.  That may seem like a far time away, but I am going on a road trip in July that will be 10-12 days long, depending how much driving we get done in the first couple of days and the the day we leave Vegas.

I am probably not going to bring my CI to Vegas.  I have perfectly good reasons as to why not.

1) I am going to two clubs that are guaranteed to be crazy, and packed, and this is bad news for a CI.

2) I have a reputation for breaking or losing my phone in every Vegas trip I take.

3) I like to drink and have a good buzz going, and that would be really irresponsible for a rookie CI user to keep his CI on while drinking, potentially not noticing it might have fallen off.

4) It’s Vegas, baby, Vegas. The CI can take a little vacation.

I am really, really excited by my progress up to date, and I can’t wait to see what it’s like come August.

When I turn on my CI, especially the last couple of days, the shocks (aka the high-pitched EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE sounds upon turning on the CI for the day) have been really short.  To the point where it lasts for less than 8 seconds.  That’s a MAJOR improvement over 60+ seconds!  Honestly, if the shocks weren’t so bad and/or lasted just 8 or less seconds, I would have worn my CI more often.  Lesson learned:  trust the people with experience that this will eventually go away the longer you use it.

So in other words, if you are a new CI user, and you are experiencing this issue, I strongly suggest you go through those tough two minutes, more or less, and then wear the CI for 10 hours a day so your brain and ear cells gets used to it.  The longer you wear it, the better.  Even sleep with your CI on with the TV blasting if you can.

Well, today is the day of the third mapping, or at least was supposed to be.

Going straight to the story, basically, I thought my appointment was 11:00 a.m.  It wasn’t.  It was 9 a.m.  I missed it.  Luckily for me, my audiologist, Jill, was kind enough to give up her lunch break the following day (June 17th) at noon just to see me for a short time.

Anyway, the past two days before this scheduled appointment, I wore the cochlear for the first time in about a week, and I wore it for at least 10-12 hours both days.  This made huge progress, leaps and bounds.  I hear so much better, it’s starting to come all together, and I easily jumped two levels in the Sound and Way Beyond CD program.

So after this appointment came and went, I had the audiologist adjust the volume.  By adjusting, I meant jack it way up.  I felt that as the day went on, it seemed to get quieter.  I like things loud.  I had the CI set on to the maximum volume allowed by the remote.

After this appointment, we jacked up the volume and made it a 7, so if I wanted to go even louder, I can. 🙂

I have a busy weekend this weekend, but Monday should see me making more progress.  CI-wearing days are to be: Monday, Tuesday, Friday, and Sunday.  Saturday is a wedding and I’ll be drinking, so I don’t want to chance losing my CI!

I might consider wearing my CI at work to see how that goes.

The next appointment is on June 28th.  It is at 11:00 a.m.  I will make sure I am not late for this one!!!

Okay, so I haven’t really been using the CI as much as I’d like to.  The shocks were just too much of a bother and hassle for me to even consider wearing it, and when I do wear it, it’s never for longer than a hour or two.

I did try turning the volume down, and that did help a bit, but I am still not hearing the way I did with my hearing aid.  I am unmotivated, but I am hoping there is a turnaround.

The second mapping came and went.  We re-tested everything since I have a better picture of what was supposed to be done and how it’s supposed to be.  I felt the second mapping made things easier and better.  Unfortunately, I had a busy week coming up, so I won’t have a chance to wear it for 10 hours yet.

Okay, what am I hearing?  Just the quiet sounds, like shhhh, ssss, etc.  BOOM, BOOK, even my dog barking, I can’t hear yet. This annoys me, but apparently I need to wear the implant longer and everyday to obtain the ability to hear that kind of stuff.  Just figured I’d let you know where I am at.

I do like, however, how I can hear ssss and shhh when watching a movie.  I’m hearing parts of a word (like shut” that I never heard before.  Everything else is pretty much in morse code, one big, boring beep.

I already got mapped the day they turned on my implant.  However, apparently in the CI world, even though you get mapped on Activation Day, it’s called Activation Day, no matter what, and the next appointment that follows that is recognized the first mapping day.

Don’t ask me why.  I’m just going with the flow.

Okay, forgive me, for I have sinned.

I haven’t worn the CI much, if at all.  And if I did, it’s for a half hour to two hours tops.  I made excuses not to wear it and whatnot.

Those high pitched EEEEEEEEEEEEEE that are so physically strong when turning the CI on for the day just really scares me away.  It annoys the shit out of me, it bothers the hell out of me, and I won’t put myself through that.  No way.  I’d rather let Mike Tyson or Floyd “Money” Mayweather knock me around for a round than go through that damn noise that feels and sounds like an electrical shock.

First mapping came and went, and I explained the shocks to them.  My audiologists explained that can be common and with time and use, it will go away.  To be honest, I was unconvinced.  If anything, I know my body, so I know more than them, and I was convinced that something was wrong with me, or even my CI.

All my life, I felt invincible, like nothing can stop me, and nobody knows me any better than myself, yet these two people who I barely know were telling me it was no big deal, that it’s a common occurance?

Then again, these people are trained professionals, have a license, have a degree, and are the ones that put this thing inside my head.  So maybe I should listen to them after all?

Except I couldn’t.  Something wasn’t right…  At least, to me, it seemed.

The appointment went well, we re-did everything, and the shocks were still there.  We went through everything since I have a better picture of what was supposed to be done and how it’s supposed to be.  I felt this mapping made things slightly easier and better.  Unfortunately, I had a busy week coming up, so I won’t have a chance to wear it for 10 hours yet.  Soon, though, soon.

BUT, don’t get excited yet.

One of the reasons I wanted the Nucleus 5 was it’s ability to have a cord that can plug from the CI to an iPod so that I can hear music directly, if/when I ever get to that point.

So I mentioned this to my friend MFK, asking if he had a spare that I could borrow since he used to fix up iPods for side cash.

Instead, MFK gave me a sweet 30GB iPod, which can hold 7,500 songs.

Good friend I have.  Thanks, MFK, again.  Much appreciated.

Later on the night of the 24th, I decided to find a forum where my questions and concerns could be answered.

Welcome to my life, Hearing Journey Forums.

Pidge, Tina, and everyone else who chimed in on my problem with the “electrocution” feeling I was feeling, suggested maybe it was too “loud” (even though I wasn’t hearing things, just feeling the sensation).

Pidge suggested I use the remote to program my processor to #4, which is the lowest level volume programmed, so I took her advice.

Put the implant on the 26th, and it came back!  However, this time, with my dad at my side, I gave it a minute or two, and finally………. some relief!  It became “quiet”.  So I underwent a quick testing trial on the software and got a 64% score on my first test using the implant.  It was Pure Tone Discrimination.  Three beeps, only one is different, so I had to figure out which one it was.

Today, on the 27th, tried that test again, and after only the second time (altogether from the 26th), it went from 64% to  92%, and the software said I was ready to move on to level two.  I took it’s advice and got an 88% score.  Not too bad, but I would rather I get 92% or better before I move on.

The CI is still on #4, and I am going to keep it that way until my next appointment, where me and Jill may possibly re-map and re-test everything.  The implant still goes EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE when I put it on, so I have to compose myself for a minute or two before it “quiets” up.  I can hear the clicking on my Blackberry (which is weird because I never really heard it click before).  Just gotta get over the EEEEEEEEEEEEE part at boot-up.  Very annoying!

The funny thing is, today, I was working outside, and as a result, I was sweating a lot, and now my hearing aid might be broken!  OH NO!

Thanks to everyone at Hearing Journey Forums for their great advice, support, and help.

I forgot to mention that somehow, there was some confusion as to what magnet I may need and we never had the strongest magnet available.  So as a result, I had to wait until Monday for the new magnet to come in so the cochlear implant would stay on my head.

That night, I tried it on again, and that high-pitched EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE was still there!  I yanked the implant off and said I needed a couple days to be mentally prepared for this.  It is very aggravating, annoying, and unbearable!  I almost considered quitting altogether if it was going to be like that forever.  Even my right eye was feeling its effects.

So in order to kill time leading up to activation day, I have been pretty productive.  Let’s review:

Went to the gym a couple of times (supposed to stay off heavy weights for 2-3 weeks post surgery)

Had a week off work, but due to low hours at work, I pretty much slept until 11:00 a.m. everyday if/when I can.

Played and beat:  Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Batman: Arkham Asylum, and New Super Mario Bros. Wii.

Watched the entire series of: Seinfeld, Dexter, Entourage, Chuck, How I Met Your Mother, and The Big Bang Theory.

In addition to that, I watched many movies as well.

Also, made fun of MFK (inside “joke”) whenever I could and every chance I can.

Very productive, right?!

Activation day came.  Both of my parents came.  As big of a day it was for me, it was for them too.  They have supported me all my life, and I wasn’t going to turn them down the opportunity to come with me on this big day.

Met with my audiologist Jill, who ran some tests to make sure each electrodes were working, they passed.  We did some beeps to see how many there are (from 2 to 4), and tested how high and low the volumes were.  She asked me to point on a provided chart to show her where I felt a sound/volume was comfortable or if it was too high.  I think I may have messed up here because with hearing aids, I loved it being loud, even against my audiologist’s recommendation.

Well, when Jill activated the cochlear implant, it felt like an electrocution shock!  It felt very physical.  Another woman’s blog, described it perfectly.  She said it was like a high-pitched, nonstop EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.  I couldn’t have described it any better.  Jill reassured me that it was my brain processing a million things per second, and that it would eventually go away.  We did some tests, some words, pretty basic stuff.  I wasn’t hearing things the way I could with my hearing aid.

With my hearing aid, it was the way a sound was supposed to sound like.  At this point, the cochlear implant sounds like a morse code in my head.  Jill told me to use the program that came with the unit for retraining purposes and use it as much and as often as I can.   We will see what happens.