Activation Video #1 FINALLY!

Hello! I finally was able to upload my activation videos, I am very excited! I tried to sign for myself and interpret what my audiologist was saying for those of you who cannot hear; sometimes I didn't catch everything because I was so nervous, excited and overwhelmed all at once.

My voice sounds different to me, but I think that is normal for everyone. I plan to have someone videotape me now to see if my voice has changed since my activation. I've had a couple of people say it has especially my Dad says it sounds more clear and articulate than before. I think I sounded nasally before, not sure if that is still the case. I cannot believe how white I am! Need a little sunburn!

Kristine

To use an earmold or not...

One of the reasons why I was excited to get a cochlear implant was to not have to use an earmold (the piece that fits in the ear, see photo above) anymore. Sometimes when using an earmold, it can make your ear feel plugged or itch. My older brother Scotty does not use an earmold with his implant and I was planning on not wearing one as well. Recently, the tubing of my earmold broke, so I had to go without an earmold for two weeks, this made me realize how much my earmold helps me. I have found that my speech processor will fall off more easily due to pushing my hair behind my ear, putting on sunglasses, leaning on my fist or bending over to pick up something. The most challenging thing is talking on a phone without using an earmold to keep it in place, it constantly slips off.

So, I have recently made a new earmold that has a vent to allow air to flow through and not feel as plugged. This works perfect and I am happy to have an earmold again. I did try "huggers" from cochlear, this clipped onto my ear from the top and bottom and left the inner ear free of an earmold. This didn't feel that comfortable because I was not used to having something touching my ear in those areas. Also, it looked odd when I was wearing it, so the earmold is the best choice for me.

Another thing, a few months ago, my boyfriend gave me an MP3 player to experiment with when listening to music. At first, I didn't use it that much because I never really used anything like it, maybe a walk-man in high school. There is a special cord that plugs into the player and plugs into the base of the speech processor. Lately, I have used the player when I go for walks around the lake or while I am working on something. I appreciate it more and starting to pick up more words in songs. Also, I like that it types out the song that is playing and the artist. This helps with my song recognition and usually the title is repeated throughout the song. That's all for now. Kristine

MUSIC :)

Hello friends and family,

Last week, my hearing aid was not working well and I could not use it. This was the first time since I got implanted that I had to experience hearing unilaterally (one-sided). It was an eye-opening experience because it made me realize how much auditory benefit my hearing aid gave me and that I do not only rely on hearing through the implant. It was a frustrating few days of not hearing on both sides. I became a little crabby and it made me terribly tired because I had to focus harder on listening. So, I was thrilled to get my hearing aid back and have it reprogrammed. It is actually better than before, I do not notice that one side is more dull and quieter. My personal audiologist said it is probably how my brain is functioning and picking up new sounds with the implant that it may influence how I hear with my left ear.

Often I am asked about how the cochlear implant helps me. Initially, I thought that the implant would fix my hearing and bring it to perfect hearing. The implant is like a very powerful hearing aid. I am still a little hard of hearing especially in situations where many people are talking at once and there is a lot of background noise. However, I do hear much better than I ever had. This morning, I caught myself focusing on the words in the songs on the radio. I usually listen to the beat and most of time cannot make out the words. It was kind of a fun experience to catch myself singing along and figuring out the lyrics. One thing I realized was that lyrics are not sung in full sentences and there is a lot of repetition. There was a song that I used to like, but when I figured out the words, I was like "that's kind of cheesy" and really don't care to hear it again, ha.

I hope this finds you well!
K

Still Small Improvements Here and There :)

Hello everyone,

It has been a long time since I have posted a blog. Things are still going well. I had another mapping appointment on January 5th. It went well, I was able to get a boost in volume and now have room to grow with the volume until my next appointment in July. My audiologist tested me again in the sound booth. She was amazed how much I significantly improved with my speech understanding in noisy environments. At my last mapping appointment, it showed that my hearing aid helped in noisy environments, so at the current appointment I reached that level with cochlear implant only and then improved past that point with both the hearing aid and implant. I appreciate that I do have the hearing aid, even though sounds can seem dull on that side. Just to think that used to be my better ear!

I discovered another new sound the other day. I was pouring Diet Coke into a glass of ice and I heard the loud fizzling sound! At first I looked around confused at what that noise could be coming from, then I saw the glass in front of me. I poured more pop and sure enough it was coming from the glass. I could not believe how loud it was!

Recently, I had a dentist appointment and had not been into the dentist since right before my implant surgery. I was able to clearly hear and understand the dentist with the mask covering her lips. It felt weird to talk this way when most of my life, my dentist have taken off their mask to talk with me. Along the same lines, I went to my chiropractor on Monday and when I was faced down on the table. I was able to carry a conversation while getting adjusted. One more situation...on a weekly basis my teaching team meets with the Reading Specialist to go through a manual to learn new strategies. Normally, I would have to look up at the speaker while she talked and not be able to follow along in the book. I have been able to look at the book and still hear what she is saying without looking at her. Sometimes I forget how much I used to struggle in situations like these, trying to read lips to get information. What I am finding now is that I am losing my skill of reading lips, so that has been hard at times, but I just learn to adjust like I do with everything else.

So small improvements still happening here and there.

Thanks for reading!

Kristine

Clucking...

I have been collecting little moments of new sounds on post-its and when I feel like I have enough to share, I write a blog. These experiences are all very random, but each new sound is just as important and exciting as the first.

For a Halloween get together, I went to my friend Sarah and Xavier Arana's house. Most of the people at the house were profoundly deaf except for Sarah's brother and father. I was in the kitchen on the first floor talking with my friend Lynn when I kept hearing a distracting whirring sound. It was constant and I could not figure it out! After ten minutes, I could not take it anymore, ha. I went into the living room to ask Sarah's brother and father if they heard the same noise. Sarah's brother walked around the kitchen, then walked downstairs to the basement in the playroom to discover one of the kids left on a fishing game. I was surprised that I could hear something that was so far away.

Another situation was at work, my teaching team is still not used to how much I can hear. A custodian just left the portable and my co-worker Sharon ran to the door to yell after him. She was facing away from me about 15 feet at the door. She had a few more requests that she forgotten to tell him when he was in the portable. When Sharon finished and shut the door, she turned to me and started tell me what she yelling about, but I actually heard the whole conversation :).

Last weekend, I went to a hobby farm. The area is beautiful, it reminded me a little of Door County, WI. I walked out to the chicken coop to see if they had laid any eggs.  It was my first time in one of these. I did not find eggs, but I heard the clucking of chickens for the first time.  After that I saw sheep and I finally heard bleating ba ba noises!  It was really cool being so close to nature.  Later that day, I heard a loud lapping sound coming from the other room. It was a dog licking up the water from the bowl.  I guess she is a loud drinker!

One last story, I was asked to go outside to see if I could hear the calls of migrating of the Canadian geese.  At first I could not hear them, however it had started snowing.  The snow was coming down in small round pellets.  I could hear them hitting my jacket and things around me. It was fascinating to hear snow for the first time.  Then, another huge flock of geese were flying near us and I thought to turn my sensitivity on my implant to the highest number of 20, (normal people hear at a 10) to see if I could pick up some of the calls.  Sure enough, I was able to pick up the high pitch honking noise of many geese nearby.  

Thanks for reading!  

Leaves :)

Hello everyone,

It has been a while since I reported. I have a few new sounds to report! My brother and sister in law was in town a few weeks ago with my twin nieces and nephew. As you can see I have posted my first photo of my cochlear implant with my brother's. Now we look a little more alike :).

The first thing we did when they arrived was drive in the minivan to a park near by. I was sitting in the front seat giving directions, which is hilarious because I am TERRIBLE at directions! Anyways, my twin nieces and nephew LOVE to talk and they were very excited about heading to the park. They started asking a lot of questions and usually I have to turn around to face them to understand what they are saying. For the first time, I was able to look straight ahead and answer their questions. This was when my family noticed how well I was hearing!

Other new sounds... I was drinking out of a fruit box (yes, I still like fruit boxes just like a kid) and I heard an unusual sound, then I figured out that it was me sucking the juice out of the box. It is loud! Last night, I heard the click of the buttons when pressing the remote to change the channels. A little annoying!

The sounds I enjoyed the most happened last week when I was on a walk. It was a gorgeous fall day and the leaves were starting to fall on the ground and there was a little breeze. As I was walking, I heard a scraping noise and I looked around to see if I could figure it out. Sure enough, I saw a dried up leaf moving across the pavement. It was so bizarre that something so small could make such a loud noise.

Afterwards, I stomped through the leaves and it made such a loud crunching noise. It sounded so crisp! Then, I sat on a bench in the middle of the park and heard the leaves rustling in the trees! That was my favorite of all since the visual audiogram (a chart that shows hearing loss) that I have used with my students had a visual image of "leaves rustling" to indicate what a high frequency sounds like. I have always wondered what rustling leaves would sound like, it brought tears to my eyes when I finally heard it. I can't wait to hear the sounds of winter!

My latest sound discovery happened today when I was at work. I was in the office with my other co-worker and friend, Amy. She is the other member of the team with a hearing loss. Amy has a mild to severe high frequency hearing loss and wears hearing aids. Most of the time, she hears much better than I do, but today I was able to hear something she couldn't. This was a little funny. I think I have bionic hearing now! For the past month, I have heard an unusual tap sound occurring almost every second. I have repeatedly asked staff what it was and they could not identify the sound. Today I finally figured it out! It was the second hand on the wall clock!

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!