First they put it on and plugged me in to a computer. They tested it to make sure it was working correctly. As I sat nervously waiting to find out what this would sound like, the assistant audiologist informed me that it was all working just fine. Then my audiologist came in and ran a few tests to the tune of an oncoming headache worth of beeps and clicks. Next, she had me indicate how comfortable a series of beeps were at various frequencies. Once that was done, she programmed 4 different sets of volume into my implant. Finally, she unplugged me from the computer, had me take off my left hearing aid, put in a battery and turned me loose!
I could hear her voice and that of my husband! At first there was almost nothing but static. It sounds like white noise static for those of us old enough to remember such a thing. The voices (including my own) sounded like I was listening to a lousy audio tape recording of them- but they were distinguishable. Between the sound I was receiving and a lot of lip-riding, I was good to go!
I was advised not to wear my left hearing aid at all unless absolutely necessary so that I could get used to using the cochlear implant and deriving meaningful sound from it. She was very impressed that I was able to distinguish and understand voices fairly clearly at the very beginning. She even tested me with a screen in front of her face so I could not lip read the words she gave me to repeat.
Next was my appointment with the surgeon/doctor to follow up on my surgery. As I've mentioned before, my doctor/surgeon is a great guy! He is very knowledgeable and skilled. He checked out my ear and spoke with me about the few nights of bleeding I had in my ear canal which I had contacted the center about earlier. Apparently I have a hole in my eardrum. While he hasn't had a patient with this issue before- its not unheard of. Due to my tympanic membrane (eardrum) being weak from many years of repeated tubes being put in them and having burst at least once as an adult back in 2008 it was very thin. He put a patch on it to help it heal over and discussed this with me. It was painful, to say the least, and the glue he put in to hold the paper patch in place made me shudder with ickiness, but we hope that it will heal up on its own. I am to keep the ear dry for now and check in at a later time. If the hole does not heal up on its own for some reason, there are a few different ways we can fix it. We'll deal with that if necessary down the road. And so I must go buy those icky wax earplugs again that I so detested as a child. My hair always ends up with wax in it. Such a professional look! *laugh*
As the day went on, I developed a nasty headache for which I had to take my migraine medication to prevent a serious migraine developing. It did the trick and between that and the ibuprofen, I got rid of the headache within the hour. YAY! Lunch also helped.
I have discovered the minor downside to having a surgeon who leaves my head of hair untouched for this operation- I have so much hair that they had to put a stronger magnet in... twice, to get the headpiece to stick to my head! Oh, well. I'm not gonna cry over it THAT'S for sure! It may, however make it difficult to put my hair up. Also, having no feeling in the tip of my ear means I need a mirror to get my processor hung on my ear correctly. The doctor says that this will remedy itself and feeling will eventually return to my earlobe.
I love the T-mic on the processor. If you're unfamiliar with the technology, you can go to advanced bionics.com and look at the Naida CI. It's a little mic that hangs down in front of my ear canal and catches sound as the ear would- naturally. I think it's a brilliant idea! Why has no one ever thought of this before?!
So now I've had my implant on for 3 hours and it's adapting nicely! (or maybe I am?) I'm still getting lots of static- background noises tend to just be static right now. Everything sounds a bit fish-bowl-y at the moment, but I'm sure I'll adjust. I can hear my keyboard clicking, and oh my the AC unit outside my window is OBNOXIOUS!! All-in-all, though the programming in the processor seems to be working well and recognizing sounds as background sounds and giving them less priority in amplifying them. The car ride home was trying my patience and the music from the radio was mostly just music, no lyrics but then how do I know if it even had lyrics? *laugh* I usually listen to music on my iPod through my car stereo on my morning commute. I'll let you know how that goes tomorrow.
I am looking forward to next week when I will go back in and have programs put in for my roger system and all the fun bits! Did I mention how many bits and pieces there are?! OH MY GOSH! They sent me home with a box full of stuff so big that it barely fit into the backpack they gave me to carry it all in! And just so you know... there's a ton of stuff inside that box, too. I'll get into each piece and part in later posts as I use it.
Side Rant: Ok and seriously, how many pockets does a backpack need?! I'll admit that I haven't bought a backpack in MANY years, but holy moly! No wonder it takes the school deputy 20 minutes to search a backpack these days. They add pockets and hide-holes for everything, and yet continually tell us how bad these things are for our kids' backs. I don't get it. End Rant.
Any how, So I have a charger that will charge up to 4 batteries at a time, 3 batteries (2 pictured, one on my head), an electronic drying box and stuff that goes in it (thats those yellow thingies), a case for my extra processor, 2 extra head pieces with a pretty ruby red cover, an extra cord, and as I ordered a set of waterproof exterior pieces, those as well. They can be used out of water if necessary, but the waterproof box for the processor is something I will have to purchase separately- and at a steep price. Also as part of my package, I got a roger receiver and roger pen. I'll get into what all these pieces are for and how they work later because basically, I can't use any of it yet. This week is "learn to hear on the thing" week.
I have learned that it's difficult to put the headpiece on with my hair up in a ponytail- I assume this is because a) I have no idea where the magnet in my head is, and b) I have a ton of hair. I'll let you know how my skill in this area goes as well. It only took me about 2 months to figure out how to put a contact in the only eye I could see out of (ergo, without a mirror to help me aim). Once I figured it out, it was like riding a bike- you never forget how. Hopefully it will take me less time to master the processor/headpiece putting-on-ing!
(And bonus: I learned how to edit photos on my Mac... hahaha!)
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