Three weeks in

Bonsoir all! 

I have been enjoying the last 3 weeks - feels as though sound has been unfurling in my brain like a peony flower! Poetically floral gubbins aside, it has been so exciting to realise that my brain has learned sounds to the point where I can tell when the kettle is boiling, when the dog is approaching (clicketyclickclick), and when people are calling to me! I did have an alarming moment while defrosting the freezer, when the processor with its new, weaker magnet fell off my head and into a bucket of icy water. After an hour in the dehumidifier it was fine though! Phew. 

After the last post I went to the Cumberland Arms for some excellent cider - while I was sitting outside in the sunshine I heard Gaita's voice! (She was there with me, I hasten to add; I was not having an auditory hallucination.) Only for a little while - it seemed to slip away when I concentrated too hard, but she did sound like a little Italian robot for a moment. This happened more and more over the next few days, and now when women speak I do get a sense of a voice rather than just beeps/hisses - men's lower voices are still harder. (David is worried I will suddenly run off with a woman because I can hear their voice better.) 

I really struggle to explain how David's voice sounds - I've just spent 5 minutes making him talk so I can try to describe it. With my hearing aids, I've always thought it was a nice Geordie voice, not super deep or very squeaky, just a nice voice. With the implant, I can tell exactly what he's saying, but I have very little sense of his voice. I think that is because my brain still isn't bothering with the low frequencies, and it will come in time. (I keep telling myself that it's only THREE WEEKS in and the implant is already outperforming the hearing aids.)

I spent a lovely weekend hanging with the family - even though most of them sounded like chipmunks I could still follow nearly everything we were saying, and they were surprised that they didn't have to repeat anything at all. Obviously I still struggled at dinner when everyone was talking, but no more than usual. Other friends have also commented on the fact that I seem to be lipreading less but getting more of what they're saying.

I had my second retuning on Monday, in Stanley. My audiologist Ruth was pleased that I'd managed to get to programme 4, if only for a couple of days. I had tried it before earlier but found it too uncomfortable; I actually got a slight pain in my middle ear on certain sounds (like "ooh"). However I made myself go up to 4 eventually because I didn't want to miss out on any rehab potential. It was slightly uncomfortable but only for a couple of hours.

First we did a hearing test - I sat on a chair in the middle of the room and said "yes" whenever I could hear a sound from the speaker. I normally hate pure tone audiometry - my brain always decides to give me tinnitus as a reward for listening so hard. This was different but still difficult - my brain started making up lots of weird noises but none as bad as my old tinnitus, thankfully. I felt like a right lemon sitting in the middle of a room saying "yes" repeatedly. It was worth it, though, because THIS was my result: 

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Compared side-by-side with my old audiogram.....

(Noughts and crosses - right and left ears, unaided. The funny little triangles are my bone conduction response, all pointing down because I didn't respond - because my deafness is sensorineural)

.... this is frankly astounding. Obviously "ideal range" is not the same as "normal range", but Ruth says that the CI team hope that their recipients would all ultimately be hearing between 20-30dB, and I've already got to 30dB on some frequencies, in 3 weeks. ERMAHGERD. Also, the profile of the audiogram is a completely different shape - there's no more high frequency drop-off (though apparently I have a dip at the end because I am just not used to hearing such high noises.) I also have a dip in the middle where my brain is ignoring low frequencies, as we've discussed before.

Good stuff eh?? Ruth adjusted my map (the tenth one since switch on!) to reflect what I was picking up. Yet more oomph in the low frequencies, and a general volume increase. She also ran the usual checks to make sure it wasn't too loud - thank goodness she did because the first low frequency beep made me leap out of my chair. It was probably too loud because I hadn't had that much time on programme 4 before changing. That was readjusted and then off we went. As usual I have 4 programmes to move up through before my next remapping in a month. I have longer to get used to these because we're getting closer to my "stable map", or end point.

The next day, I went back down to JCUH for my second rehab appointment with Sandra. She too was v. pleased with my progress - I got all of the Ling-6 sounds this time! We did some more listening exercises, though they were a bit more challenging this time because she got me to fill in the gaps - I didn't know what was going to be said in advance. So we would start with a clue e.g. "Something is the first something" and I would listen and hear "Monday is the first working day of the week." We did several exercises like this, and then talked about how to cope when I go back to work. Apparently some people's colleagues expect their hearing to be completely fine once they have had an implant, and are surprised when they still struggle in noisy environments or still need to lipread. One patient was asked, "Why did you bother having it done if it hasn't fixed everything?" I think my colleagues are smart enough not to say anything like this to me or they risk a broken nose!

I retooned to Newcastle and excitedly told David about the new exercises. Being a cheeky git, he immediately turned this into an excuse to insult me - on our walk with Rhubarb, he walked behind me and said rude things like "You're a fat smelly monster" and "You're a fat fatty" and I had to guess what he had said, while laughing hysterically. Fortunately he was within smacking distance every time. Everyone enjoys playing these games with me; my friend Janet particularly loves it. On our walk the other day she decided to test me with animals. I turned around and waited for something simple like "pig" or "duck". She hit me with "hippopotamus", "giraffe", and, for the grand finale, "marzet", which turns out not to be an word at all. (I think she was going for "marmotte".) I managed pretty well though even with her weegie accent. Whoohoo!

David and I are about halfway through Harry Potter - I can now follow most of a paragraph with my eyes shut, and if I get lost I don't stay lost, I can quite quickly pick up where we are. 

I have been out for meals a few times and managed really well in noisy places. Last night we were at Cal's Own (for more gluten-free pizza). It was incredibly loud but I was able to follow a conversation quite easily, with a few different people. I remembered my friend Jeanette saying how much easier it was to hear in noise, how the implant seems to "lift" speech out of the hubbub. I experimented with taking the implant off and listening with just my hearing aid - speech instantly receded into a meaningless mash of noise. It came back as soon as the implant reconnected to my magnet; I felt an amazing rush of gratitude for this incredible bit of technology. I've only had it on my head for 3 weeks and I love it! (As a token of my appreciation, I will try not to drop it into any more ice buckets.) 

I want to go and have a drink outside now in the garden (yes, it is sunny on a Friday evening...) so ta-ra! 

P.S. This rhubarb polenta cake is very tasty. Make it.

P.P.S. Some people have complained there are not enough corgis on this blog, so here is Rhubarb, looking disapproving. With a peony flower.