Third Mapping Appointment on September 19th

Hello everyone!

It has been a while since I have blogged on here. The beginning of the school year is always a crazy time of year. The last time I blogged on here was the day before school started. At that time, I mentioned that sounds were becoming more natural and that there were no new sounds to be learned. Well, I was in for a treat! Different environments most definitely bring different sounds! My first week back was spent getting used to all the new sounds in my office which is in a portable. I appreciate the patience of my co-workers as they tried to identify all the nonsense sounds that I was hearing!

I work with eight other people and the first week is usually crazy getting inservice materials ready for our new students. Just to name a few things I heard...eight other people clacking on their keyboards at once, the dings of the incoming mail on our work e-mail, various cell phone rings and beeps, shuffling of a lot of paper, tons of stapling, computers whirring, refrigerator and electronical equipment humming in the corner, various voices talking around me, the leaf blower outside of the portable, crinkling of many snacks, the microwave running...I was sooooo exhausted by the end of the day that whole week! Talk about overload! I had to give my ears a break, so I took out my hearing aids often.

A month has passed since my first week back at work. Things seem to be much easier. I am understanding new staff and my students' voices a lot better. I am not constantly straining to hear like I was before. On Monday, I gave an inservice to a 2nd grade classroom. It was funny to be able to explain the cochlear implant by showing my head and taking off the speech processor. Usually I had a mock implant or photos of someone with an implant. The students were very fascinated with the magnet sticking to my head.

Another thing others have noticed is my speech. According to others my speech seemed to have improved greatly over the past month. My cochlear implant audiologist noticed this the most. She was amazed of how different the voice was in a month. Other friends have described my voice as being more clear and articulate. I guess I am hearing myself a little bit better these days, ha.

Anyways, on September 19th, I headed back down to Mayo to have my third mapping appointment. It was similar to first two of identifying sounds and making sure they are comfortable for me. Then, she adjusted my programs and made suggested new things to try. She said the quality of my hearing will continue to improve with the new map.

Lastly and the most important part of the visit was getting tested with my cochlear implant. I have posted my audiogram above. I scored within normal ranges with the implant! It was weird to see normal levels on my audiogram! Very exciting! It didn't hit me that I have been doing so well hearing until I did this test.

Then she tested me by giving me a variety of words with different voices. I recognized 68% of the words and 85% of the phonemes. My sentence recognition with the implant only was at 95%!! I scored a 58% when I first qualified for the implant, so this is a huge change. My tests also showed that I demonstrated significantly better performance with the cochlear implant and hearing aid in the noisy condition only. Overall, my implant is doing most of the work. My next mapping appointment will be in January 2009.

After my mapping appointment, I met with my cochlear implant surgeon and he said he was pleased with the progress I made and impressed as well. My scar looks good and there are no concerns.

This Friday, my brother Scotty, sister-in-law Tracy as well as my favorite little kids in the world are coming to visit! They will be the first family members to see me with the implant. It will be neat to see if they can tell a difference from before. Then following weekend, I will be in Atlanta visiting my other brother David with my parents. I am so looking forward to spending quality time with my family. Thanks for reading!