I heard voices!

* I am currently working on uploading the videos...hopefully they will upload soon! I guess there are issues with uploading videos in the past week, I will have to try again later!

Yesterday, I picked up my friend Sarah Trudeau (thanks for coming with me!) and we were off for my initial activation appointment at Mayo! I was feeling pretty good until a few minutes before my appointment, I became very nervous and a little excited. I was worried that the implant would not work. I felt that I accidentally sneezed a few times too many during my recovery and possibly screwed up my implant. I know...very silly.

We met with Rene' Gifford who is an audiologist and the assistant director of the Cochlear Implant Program. She placed a large rectangular box on the desk that contained all the equipment for my Nucleus Freedom processor. I was amazed at all the items that I received for my implant!

I got a back-up processor, so basically like a another hearing aid, but these processors are $7500 a piece! I will make sure I don't lose this back-up! A little story for you, I had been proud of myself to have never lost a hearing aid in my life. So, when I arrived home to recover, I had two small plastic containers that held my hearing aids when they removed them in the operating room. At the time, I was the under influence of many drugs and I thought, I have my hearing aid on so I don't need the containers anymore. I accidentally threw out my other hearing aid that I was going to use as a back up for my left ear! AGH!!! So, hopefully if anyone finds it at the dump, will know someone who needs a good working hearing aid! Unbelievable!

Anyways, my kit had many accessories: a carrying case, a rechargeable battery case, twelve earhooks, monitor earphones, lapel microphone, four battery racks, eight microphone protectors, personal audio cable and TV/ HiFi cable. I also got stickers to put on my processor if I felt like decorating it, ha, such as rainbows, stars, bears, hearts, soccer balls, basketballs, etc. I also got adapters for my two rechargeable batteries, so I can use it in other countries. Ten packs of Implant Plus battery packs to use as back-ups for the rechargeable batteries. I guess the rechargeable battery usually last about 12 hours. What was really cool was the Dry and Store kit to keep my implant in, when not in use to keep the moisture out. I wish they would give this away when you buy a new hearing aid! I was very impressed with everything. Then, I asked about how much the actual implant costs...$35,000!!! Wow!

Moving on to the activation...I was given some of the technical descriptions of the chart on the computer and completely blanked out on what it means, but I will explain the best I can of what I remember. The coil was placed on my head, but the magnet was not strong enough. Most people use #2 & #3 strength, I needed a #4. My head may still be swollen. I thought the magnet was on the scar line, but it is actually past the shaved part of my head. I guess it got tucked underneath the skin. Then, I put my speech processor on for the first time. It felt interesting having something stuck to my head and the processor was bigger than my regular hearing aid. I quickly got used to it and it was no big deal. On the computer screen, there was an animated picture of the coiled electrode in my cochlea and showed 22 electrodes lighting up as it was activated. I was not hearing anything yet.

Rene' explained that on the day of my surgery, she was in her office in another building working through a modem to test my implant while I was on the operating table. She said she gave it many tests for about 15 minutes. If I was awake during the tests, it would have been unbearably loud. Rene' said that my implant gave very good responses on the day of surgery and that it was was working properly. She also explained that some people do not hear voices right away and it takes a while. I had no idea what to expect. I remember hearing noises in my ear for a few days after my surgery when I would lay down going from soft to loud like it was going through 22 electrodes. I wonder if this is something I was remembering from being out on the table? Next, she sent me some beeps on some of the high frequency electrodes. I had to identify if they were soft, medium, okay or too loud! We were working on getting all the sounds to sound "okay".

Then, it was time to turn on the implant! I really wasn't sure what to expect. The sounds were like major explosive cackling, computerized and very unpleasant! I tried to explain the best I could of what I was hearing on the videos that I attached. The sounds I was hearing were very unexpected and insane. I was worked hard to detect and recognize any sound. It REALLY helped to have my other hearing aid.

Then about five minutes after being activated, I was told to turn off my hearing aid, I heard my first voice! I focused on Rene's lips while she was talking and I slowly started to detect her voice. Her voice slowly started to make sense to me and it felt like she was very close to me and not far away. Then, my friend Sarah said something and I was surprised! I know her voice very well since I have known her for about nine years. Her voice sounded so different than I know! It was startling and a little funny at the same time.

As time went on and we talked more, my levels were increased slightly and I was learning to accept more noises in my environment. The processor and sounds were getting a little better as time went on. Sarah asked how much I would hear potentially, Rene' printed out my audiogram and said with the implant I should be hearing within the normal ranges at 20 decibels. We will see! Rene explained that I may want to continue to increase the volume because it might sound too soft. I left the office on volume one and I am currently at volume 6. Soon, I will report about the various new sounds I have heard in my next post. Thanks for reading!

Photo #1: With my friend Sarah, thanks again for joining me!
Photo #2 of my speech processor
Video one: I was first activated
Video two: Hearing voices for the first time