It's now almost been a month since my new implant was activated. I'm getting used to the sound, but am still disappointed things haven't 'normalised' for me as yet. I'm trying to compare everything with my old implant, and what happened 15 years ago, and despite everyone telling me that this technology is totally different and that I shouldn't be comparing, it's very hard not to.
The soumd I'm just not getting used to is a constant twang in everyones voices. Either everyone talks with a twang and I never heard it before, or the implant comes from Midwest America!
I noticed over last weekend I wasn't hearing as well. I have to keep putting the volume up via another program I have, that is six steps louder. I rang my audiologist on Tuesday afternoon and debated with her whether I should get tweaked this week, or wait until Monday when I have my one month appointment. She slotted me in for Thursday morning, but in the end I decided to wait until Monday. Of course I'm now regretting it as things have now started to sound harsh - but too late - Monday it will be.
I can still use the phone okay - as this implant has an amazing t-coil switch. Amazing as for the last 15 years, I've never had a t-coil switch that really worked on my implant, so used to use the phone without it. I can hear most people on the phone, provided the conversation is 'simple', but if it gets too complicated, or too many instructions thrown at me, I get frazzled and finish the call. The truth is, I still hate the phone, even though I can hear on it - I'm simply not comfortable with it. I even hate answering it when it rings, and I tend not to ring people unless I absolutely have to. I suppose as I get used to this implant, phone use will become easier, and I may even begin to like it. We shall see!
I have got some figures of my previous tests on the old CI22 though, that are quite interesting.
May 2000 I got 94% with HINT in quiet and 60% CNC Words (Hint is open set sentences without lipreading, and CNC words are single words without lipreading) This May 2000 test would have been with the Spectra Body Worn implant.
September 2003 with the brand new BTE 3G for N22 I got 98% HINT in quiet, 70% HINT in background noise (pyschobabble) and 68% for CNC words. So the 3G was a better performer.
In June 2007, when the N22 stopped working properly, I got 41% HINT sentences in Quiet. 12% CNC words, and later 33% in HINT sentences in quiet. So a real drop in performance.
And now at one weeek post switch on April 2008 with the new Freedom implant, I did 90% HINT in quiet. 58% Hint in background noise, and 29% CNC words.
So I'm almost up to where I was in May 2000 after only the first week.
It will be very interesting what this Monday will bring. I live in hope it'll be normal!
Hang in. It sounds like you're doing GREAT! Your poor ears have been through a lot this past year and it's not surprising it may take awhile to get used to the new model.
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Kim
It really does sound like you need a new mapping. When thing begin to sound unbelievably awful for me, that is when I started the hour long trek over the Delaware river to get tweaked. Your numbers are phenomenal though!
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