Mapping appointment - almost a year later

Hello family and friends,

I am currently at the Mayo Clinic, I just finished mapping (updating) my cochlear implant. It will be a year in August since I have been activated. This is the last season to experience with the implant and so far I am finding that there are birds chirping everywhere!

The past few months, I have felt like things were a little too quiet and noticed I started to use program two on my implant. This is the whisper program, which is increases the soft sounds in the environment, therefore it was the program I liked the best because it seemed louder than the other three programs. Lately, I have found myself a little more frustrated because I was not hearing well in noisy environments. I actually felt like I went backwards and was hearing like I still had my hearing aids on and straining to hear people. I found out that this is actually a terrible program to use when in loud places like in a school, party or noisy environment.

SO, I am VERY happy to finally have my implant readjusted and boosted! I am hearing things now! I am excited to be able to hear the sounds in my environment again. I didn't realize how much I was missing. Next time, I will not wait so long and go in to get remapped again. Usually when you are mapped, your volume is set at five then it will give you room to increase volume gradually to nine. So, I hit nine a month after I was adjusted last, so I been hearing too quiet for a while. Now, I am at volume three and have plenty of room to increase my volume if I want. It is fun to hear the littlest and most simple sounds again, such as people talking, walking nearby, faucet running and newspapers shuffling are a few I noticed greatly in the past 30 minutes. :) Also, I was able to improve the clarity of my implant as well, so we will see...

Thanks for reading!

Kristine

Activation Video #2

Here is the second video that was taken. I had turned off my hearing aid and started to recognize voices with the implant only, especially my friend Sarah's voice! It was funny to hear it in a different way. This is how many people's voices started to appear to me, different than what I was used to, however now when I have the hearing aid turned off, I much prefer the crisper and clearer way that the implant provides of people's voices.

I tried my best to explain how things were sounding, it was truly a surreal experience. My audiologist finally did move out of that room with that awful fan noise! Also, the audiologist mentioned that not often do people recognize voices right away like I had. I feel very fortunate to have had so many years of using hearing aids with my residual hearing to be able to make this transition to implant smoother.

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!