13. A Few Days Later.

I’ve spent a lot of time just using the CI with no hearing aid. With background noise it is difficult but without things are not too bad. I’m beginning to feel that my own voice is less shrill especially when I speak quietly and that’s true for my wife’s voice also.  However there is a lack of consistency and at times the chipmunks are out again.  When I use my hearing aid I obviously hear sounds in both ears but there is a huge difference between the two.  Because the hearing aid produces a more natural sound, even if it is distorted to some extent my brain tends to focus on that sound.  I have to force myself to listen to the shrill, squeaky sound in my CI ear where voices are actually clearer.  I’ve tried turning down the hearing aid and that seems to help.  When I use the CI alone it can be difficult to determine where sound is coming from in part because all sounds are similar. Is it my wife or the TV? If my ability to distinguish different sounds improves then that should assist in direction finding.

I used to be an avid listener of the radio so I’ve been experimenting to see if I can return to all those wonderful programmes on Radio 4.  There’s a brilliant BBC app, which provides all the stations including Radio 4 so I’ve tuned in on my iphone. It’s early days but I was able to hear some of the content especially where there is a single speaker talking on a given theme. The comedy shows are a bit beyond me at the moment but one day, who knows.  As I write this I have music in my implant ear courtesy of my wife. I can just about hear the lyrics but disappointingly the music sounds very flat so my ability to hear pitch is still not there.

The processor rests on the top of my ear and the only physical attachment to me is the magnetic link to the internal receiver. It is very light and I am unaware of its physical presence. So I worry that it will drop off or I will catch it on some object, which will dislodge it. As the audiologist said, I should soon know it was gone by the lack of sound. However, yesterday the rechargeable battery ran out and I did not have a replacement with me. I was leaving my daughter’s house and five minutes from home so simply left the processor in place thinking it was safe there.  As I put on my coat I must have knocked the processor off my head but was totally unaware of this until my wife noticed it at my feet. I’m going to ask for the magnet to be strengthened and will have to come up with some strategies to protect this expensive piece of kit.

12. Switch on Day

Switch on day.

 I was advised that when the processor is first switched on the results can be disappointing and not to expect too much on the first day. There is a lot of sense in that advice which will be obvious later but first something which was astounding.

Sarah, the audiologist activated the external processor and then placed it on my ear locating the transmitter magnetically over the internal receiver. My hearing aid was removed. She then activated the device by sending sounds at various frequencies to adjust the volume.  It started with mid-range frequencies and went up to sounds so high I can’t recall ever having heard them before.  It was then that the processor was switched on to its’ normal mode and in my right ear, which had been dead to almost all sound, I could hear Sarah’s voice. That was astounding!  

However there was a huge mismatch between what I could see and what I could hear because if I say the very pleasant Sarah sounded like a chipmunk I would be understating the case. In an odd way I felt I could hear her better if I closed my eyes and concentrated on the sound alone.  When I spoke I sounded just like Sarah except louder and oddly my voice seemed to have a delay in it.  I was invited to take a walk outside to see what I could make of the world so off I went making a first stop at the toilet where the sound of running water was all too apparent and stunning in the high frequency detail. The nearby pelican crossing beeped out an invitation to walk loud and clear and I was now asking my wife to walk on my right where the microphone could pick up her voice better.  I couldn’t hear the car engine but all the switches happily clicked and clattered.  All this with just the cochlear implant.  But now I’m at home and realising that there will be a lot of adjusting to do. TV is not clear and small clashes and bangs are disproportionately loud. I need my hearing aid to provide the lower frequencies and get a more natural sound. I return for further adjustments in a week and in the meanwhile will use the implant as much as I can, some of the time exclusively. So, it’s not really been a disappointing day but one of great promise.  The fact that this electronic device can send signals directly to my auditory nerve, which can then be recognised as a person’s voice is truly astounding.

It’s not yet twenty-four hours since the turn on and my new hearing fascinates me. What seems to me to be happening is that the CI processor converts all sounds to a much higher frequency, which is why people sound like chipmunks. The lack of high frequency sound is a major factor in deafness so it’s understandable that the focus is on rectifying that situation.  But the new sound is far from natural, being very synthetic as if generated by a computerised voice synthesiser.  It requires a lot of concentration to mentally focus on the new sounds, partly because they also sound detached and distanced but when you do there is clarity.  I started the day using the CI only and managed to say good morning to my wife and return from the kitchen with a cup of tea.  I’ve woken to a completely artificial world of sound and it is quite unnerving. Putting in my hearing aid brings back natural sounds and its clear that I will need to use both for a while.