Four months in

This will be a short one because I am on-call all weekend from tomorrow (weep weep). I have been for a retuning today though and that's always a good time to blog about my ever-improving hearing.

My audiologist today was Jen, whom I haven't seen since my switch-on so it was nice to see her again, especially given the massive changes in between now and 4 months ago! 

She started off by doing some ESRT (electrical stapedial reflex threshold) testing on me. I never really learned much audiology in medical school and the intricacies of this were mostly beyond me. However, in a nutshell: the acoustic reflex in normal hearing people lifts the stapedius off the eardrum when a loud noise is heard, to protect your hearing. You can also stimulate it electrically (hence the catchy name for ESRT). This is a useful objective method for deciding how much stimulus to put into an implant, and it makes sense to use it as an upper limit, or comfort threshold, for the stimulus going in - I imagine it mimics natural physiology. After Jen had done this and adjusted my programming, none of the loudest beeps were uncomfortable (unlike last time).  

We did the pure tone audiometry again and this time I have finally made it into the "ideal range" on my audiogram! This is between 20-30dB, just outside normal hearing. They don't aim for "normal hearing" (i.e. above 20dB) because apparently the all-important speech sounds start to get compressed at that point as the frequencies get too saturated. 

I then did the BKB test again... The moment of truth - how much would I have objectively improved?! When being assessed back in December, I got 6% with my left ear, 24% with my right, and 42% using both ears. Obviously this time we were just testing how well the implant was working, so we only used my implanted ear. I struggled more than I thought I would without the hearing aid, but I still got 62%!!! From 6% to 62% is INSANE. INSANE improvement. AAAAAAAH!!!!!

As Jen pointed out, if I had both the CI and my hearing aid, and was listening to someone whose voice I know really well, the score would be much higher. I do feel as though my "real-world" performance is actually better than 62%, though I don't go around trying to put a number on it - I can just tell it is drastically improved. 

I have also met up with my CI buddy Jeanette today and our stalwart friend Mavis; we had a really interesting conversation about our different experiences and how the CIs have changed our lives. I find it fascinating and inspiring how well Jeanette is using the phone - I still haven't plucked up the courage to call many people other than David! We also have slightly different experiences of music - while I feel I get the best of both worlds from my CI and hearing aid (which still gives me an acoustic, smooth sound), Jeanette has found that bilateral CIs make the sound very clear but not as smooth yet. We are hatching a plan to go to the Sage for a classy musical evening out - I am very excited about this, as the Sage has hitherto merely been a pretty building on the Quayside for me.

I will write another update when I have seen Sandra in the next couple of weeks - and I may need to have another little angry junior doctor vent before that. But for now I had better dislodge the corgi from the sofa and get to bed - beauty sleep is required!