Switch-on!

Well it was ‘Activation Day’ today and I’m grinning from CI to CI, but before I tell you about it, please welcome a little friend of mine who is staying with me at the moment. The friend’s name is R2-D2 and you might know him (it?) from those Star Wars movies way back when. Yeah. Not sure how long he’ll be staying with me, but he’s punctuating every word, every sound, with those cute little characteristic beeps of his. My new shadow. Or is that echo? ;-)

I am feeling very blessed at the moment as A-day has turned out far better than I thought! My audi, Liz, explained that she’d switch on the left ear first. Then, once I’d gotten used to the signal, she’d switch it off then switch on the right ear. Then, once I’d gotten used to that signal, she’d switch them both on together.

When the moment came, I heard a static crackling sound and started looking around the room to see what might be causing it. I then realised that Jase and Liz were probably waiting for me to say something. When I started describing what I could hear, my helium voice gave me a shock and I burst out laughing. (‘Is that my voice?!’) That then made Jase and Liz start laughing which was about the time R2-D2 moved in with all his robotic beeping sounds. But when the laughter subsided, and Liz started speaking to me, I heard her perfectly! She sounded very high pitched, but I could understand every word! Switch-on for the right ear went pretty much the same, minus the surprised laughter. Even with the left side switched off, I could understand speech clearly through the right. When they were both activated together, it was fantastic! A little loud at first, but then the volume became more balanced and comfortable. I was thrilled to be hearing in stereo and very impressed with the way both CIs worked together. Sounds on my right were picked up by both CIs – they were just louder in the CI on the right. And vice versa. I haven’t experienced this sensation for three years and was stunned that it should happen immediately!

My first ‘CI moment’ came only a few minutes after switch-on, when Liz showed me how the remote worked. I realised I could look at the buttons and screen while she was explaining – I no longer had to read her lips!

Shortly after leaving the CI clinic, I played some piano at a local music store. It didn’t sound great, but mainly because R2-D2 was singing along - bit distracting. The melody was there underneath though – slightly off pitch, but not distorted. I think there’s promise! Especially when the ‘Music’ program is set in a future mapping session.

While walking along the city streets, I suddenly realised I was walking in a straight line because I no longer had to be fixated on Jason’s lips to carry a conversation. Neat! Without the need to lipread, I felt like a huge weight had been lifted – poor Jase, lugging around those two cochlear suitcases, probably felt the opposite.

Given I was understanding speech already, I decided to drop in to the office and say hi to everyone. Wow, my first group conversation! I missed the odd word here and there, and I definitely had to concentrate harder, but it was the best conversation I’ve had with them in ages – no pen and paper required!

Had lunch in a busy food court and, by using the ‘Noise’ program to drop the background sound, I understood every word Jase said. Could also hear some children chatting at a nearby table, though I couldn’t understand what they were saying.

Went into a music store and was able to hear the background song playing – couldn’t recognise it. I guessed ‘Queen’ – turned out to be ‘Meatloaf’. But I could hear the drumbeat, some guitar sounds and a male voice.

Could understand some talkback radio on the way home, though I had to concentrate very hard!

I have spoken to four different people on the phone today. The first was Jase. I used the landline in the bedroom to call his mobile in the study. I heard every word he said! I then called my sister’s mobile, but, unfortunately, dialled the wrong number. (To be expected, given I haven’t dialled that number in over a year!) But after some moments of confusion, I clearly heard the person on the other end tell me they were very sorry but thought I had the wrong number. Wow! I tried again and this time my sister picked up. I managed OK but was a bit distracted by the R2-D2 sounds coming through on the right CI. (The left CI was set to telecoil, and was the one I was using for the phone.) I tried turning off the right processor, but it didn’t help much. Later on, my brother called. I set both processors to telecoil, using the remote – we spoke for about five minutes and I think I only missed two or three words!

Turned the captions off the TV earlier, just to test it out. Listened to a news story, wrote down what I heard, then played it back with the captions on. I had caught about 90% of the story. Took some serious concentration though!

Lots more auditory training in store for the coming days. The next mapping session is one week from today.  

I have to stress that I am one of the lucky ones and based on my audiologist’s reaction, this is not the average outcome at switch-on. I’ve had 27 years of normal hearing and the auditory nerve hasn’t been dormant for very long – I think this makes a world of difference. Plus I’m hearing bilaterally, with two Nucleus 5s, and each ear is as strong as the other. (This amazes me – I really thought the left ear would be weaker.)

Though speech is good, environmental sounds are completely off at the moment – I am going to have to work hard at identifying what I’m hearing. My own voice is completely wrong – sounds like I’ve ingested a balloon’s worth of helium. Then there’s the R2-D2 beeps that echo all the words I hear. But if it never gets any better, I will not mind in the slightest. This is already a greater outcome than I could ever have hoped for!  

And if R2-D2’s visit does start to annoy me, then I’m going to remind myself to be thankful that it isn’t Chewbacca. ;-)