As Good As It Gets?

Not even close.

Earlier today I said goodbye to forced uni-lateral hearing. It was a tough goodbye, really. "Hey, I hate your guts, Don't you ever come see me again...EVER. No.....really, I'll call you. It's not me...it's you."

The single best thing about my 2nd hookup today is that this time I KNOW where this is going, and that's a good thing. In my last post I mentioned some "1st day" sounds and thoughts from my right ear hookup back in January. But not even my 4 month recollection could prepare me again for these 1st initial sounds. Instantly I remember things sounding just like what I'm hearing for the first time today, and THAT puts it in perspective how amazing of a process this has been. But today, starting over on the left....things don't sound so great:

Imagine every sound you hear having a triangle reverberating "effect" on it.

That annoying little "ding-a-ring-a-ding-ping"....ON EVERYTHING! That's what I've got.

I'm spending as much time as possible listening with only my new CI today, because that helps speed the process. Attempted conversation is practically a joke..."I hope you don't mind if I stare...your mouth is moving, but why are you whispering? You're not? Oh.........Why am I yelling? I'M NOT YELLING, I CAN BARELY HEAR MYSELF! AND WOULD SOMEONE PLEASE STOP RINGING THAT DANG TRIANGLE!!!"

I can hear every click of the keyboard and mouse (probably the closest thing to a realistic sound today). I didn't know these things made sound before CI's.

Every time I take a deep breath, it sounds like soft ocean waves crashing in the distance. I couldn't hear myself breathe before CI's.

I mentioned before that sounds become much more normal and realistic once you "see" what you're hearing, and this still holds true, however it's nothing close to the "realistic" way I remember the sounds...not yet anyway. But there's something in my brain that clicks a little and starts to understand what it is I'm hearing once I see it.

After a 3 year hiatus, I got a slight taste of just how much I've been missing today. Again, I've only been wearing my right CI for 4 months, but going into the appointment today I felt I could hear extremely well and things sounded very realistic to me. So they hook up my left CI, I wear it for 15 minutes getting nothing but strange metal-clanging-God's-gift-to-Triangle-beating in my head....then I take it off and WHHAOOAOAooaaa. Who turned out the lights? The volume seemed to nearly cut in 1/2 when I went back to only my right CI; the same one I thought was so GREAT just minutes earlier. 

You CAN NOT underestimate the significance of hearing out of both ears. Cover up an eye and play dodgeball. Stick a hand in your pocket and weave a basket. There is SO MUCH information that comes to your brain from bi-lateral hearing, even when it's of the poorest sound quality. And this time I have the benefit of knowing how much it will progress in a short time. Quite frankly, I'm stoked. 6 months ago I could never have dreamed of hearing some of the things I do this very moment.

I've got much more to share on this journey. Thanks for reading. This is not as good as it gets.

The Hookup

It's been nearly 4 months since I began hearing these strange sounds that gradually became more and more familiar. Here's how that 1st day went:

I had my right ear hookup on January 12th, 2011. I chose the Nucleus 5 from Cochlear, a company out of Austrailia.

 

I went with this partly because it is the newest and smallest processor out at this point. I went with black to make it look like a modern "bluetooth" type device. Little did I know this is what people would actually think...ALL the time! Since when does bluetooth use a magnetic, circular port SMACK on the back of your noggin'? Anyway...they accomplished the smaller package by putting most of the controls on the remote (shown). I really enjoy all of the options the remote gives me, however it has come to my attention most people think I'm rudely texting away at the dinner table. HA! Deal with it :) It's the price you pay for my conversation.

Back to January: I remember the tests they did to find my upper and lower thresholds that 1st day, just a series of beeps that sounded like they were bouncing around a dark, empty cavern; that would be my head (ba-dom, ping). Then suddenly I heard the strangest compilation of soundwaves my brain had ever received triggers from at that point. I didn't know what to make of these metal clanging, feedback-ish sounds until I turned and saw that my audiologist was moving her mouth.

"Whoa! Really? You've got to be kidding me!" If I didn't blurt them out loud, those were some of my 1st thoughts. I'd love to paint a birds-chirping-heaven-opening picture here, but these 1st sounds I heard weren't exactly encouraging. I'd done enough research going in to know that, one, it WILL NOT sound great right away, and two, it WILL take time. Still nothing can quite prepare you, having gone through surgery and knowing that this IS IT forever, for those 1st sounds. I couldn't stop thinking that this weird, jumbled noise was all I would ever have. Trust me. It gets much better.

I learned an interesting trick of sorts that day though. For me, sounds became more real and familiar once I SAW what I was hearing. The 1st instance of this I mentioned above, and as the days went on I continued to see the pattern. With running water, doors creaking, keyboard typing and so on. It was an incredible thing to experience. My brain was telling me, "that sounds crazy! what the heck is that?!" Then I see my adorable cats running across the room and realize that their collar bells have re-entered my frequency range for the 1st time in over 10 years. And almost instantly my brain clicks and the sound suddenly DOES sound very much like what I remember it sounding like.



It was at this point I really wished I had a cow grazing in the back yard with a cowbell around it's neck. Rex will have to do.

That sums up my 1st day, and things have truly improved to the point of blowing my mind, literally, in 4 short months since. My Left hookup is in two days so I get to do it all over again...thinking I'll wear my sombrero. Things are starting to get very interesting as I get set to re-enter the world of bi-lateral hearing. I've got much more to say, you'll just have to keep reading.

Welcome to MyCI Journey

The basics:

I'm Andy. Drummer, Guitarist, EET, Former Hockey Stud, Sand and Water Hazard Dweller among others. I was born with normal hearing in both ears and grew up living a normal life. Little did I know this would all change drastically.

In the summer of '94 at age 11 I found my hearing deteriorating rapidly, first in my Left ear then in my Right. I had developed a condition called Otosclerosis. At age 12 I underwent an operation in both ears called a Stapedectomy in attempt to correct the condition. My surgeon had performed nearly 1000 of these before me and has since performed thousands all successfully; I was the anomaly. He attributed this to a hardened bone structure that refused to be drilled and shaped correctly. Many years later he made a connection between the bone condition and grayish/blue color of my sclera suggesting that I may have a mild case of Osteogenesis Imperfecta, but that is a story for another day.

So at 12 I started wearing hearing aids in both ears which provided a significant improvement right away. Fast forward 13 years and I began to notice my right ear getting worse and worse, even with the most powerful BTE Aid on the market. In November 2008 I gave up my right side and relied solely on my left BTE, which was still doing very well. The two years that followed saw a gradual and devastating "goodbye" to what I thought was the end of my hearing experience.

I'm writing this blog first and foremost to reach anyone who is a potential candidate for CIs but I also hope I can bring insight to anyone looking for more information. In the last 6 months I went from passing notes with my friends and making hand signals with my family to attending business meetings with clients individually and re-learning my love for guitar.

I have had my Right CI active for only 4 months and I go this Thursday to hook up the Left. After a long descent resulting in bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss, things are moving in a way I never thought they could, and it will only get better from here. CIs gave me hope when I had none. If you want to know more, feel free to follow my journey.