After waiting a month after my surgery I finally got my processor and headpiece sixteen days ago. It took that long for the incision to heal and the swelling to subside. It had been a frustrating month. Prior to the surgery I could hear with two ears. After surgery I only had one ear. It appears now that the surgery killed all remaining hair cells in my cochlea.
I checked in to the Kaiser Permanente center in Denver at 9:30 on February 2 for my activation and was met by my CI audiologist Sara. Beth accompanied me to observe and take pictures. The first thing Sara did was to open my processor kit supplied by Advanced Bionics, the manufactor of my implant as well as my processor. The kit looks like a small suitcase. In it are several accessories that interface with the processor and batteries.
After checking out the hardware Sara placed the processor on the back of my ear (it looks like a behind the ear hearing aid). We were pleased to find the electrodes in the cochlea fired off as expected and the processor worked just fine. A couple of exceptions were electrodes five and eight. Sara noted these electrodes are not functioning as expected. When I listen to the frequencies emitted by these electrodes I can’t tell that there is anything wrong. I will discuss this with Sara on my next mapping.
To make a long story short, Sara set each electrode to a comfortable volume and programmed the processor with 2 programs for me to try. That was all that happened at activation. She told me to practice with listening exercises and come back in a week for my first map.
A map is essentially adjusting the volume of the electrodes and finding a program that is suited for me. That first week after activation was frustrating for me. I couldn’t discriminate between many of the words during the listening exercises. “Whip” sounded like “roof”. “Mop” sounded like “op”. I couldn’t differentiate between “sold” and “my”. You get the idea.
Now after my first map I have a new program, more detailed instructions and several new listening exercises. One of my Facebook “friends” who is an electrical engineer and worked in the hearing aid business alerted me to the website www.citheory.com. A tool at that site assists the CI wearer to identify which electrodes are set too soft or too loud. With that information I can tell my Audi which electrodes need adjusting. It turned out electrodes ten through sixteen were set too soft and Sara adjusted as necessary at my first mapping.
I am now doing my listening exercises daily and listening to the audio book “The Da Vinci Code” while reading along (saw the movie but had not read the book). Beth is helping by doing some listening exercises that requires her to read a word or sentence without my lip reading and for me to identify what she just said. Progress is slow, but my Audi and surgeon remind me it has only been two weeks since activation.
I have gone to a crowded restaurant a couple of times and experienced the high frequency sounds my left ear has not heard for many years. My brain will take some time to adjust. More later.
Sara Checking out the Processor
My Processor and Headpiece. Note that the Processor is connected to Sara's laptop.
Sara's Laptop Application to Adjust my Processor Software
Chart I used to let Sara know if sound is too soft or loud
Yes, we are both still here. That little bit of blood on the pillowcase. Actually, there were two stictches directly behind the ear that were a little too far apart, and with the skin pulling, the incision just wasn’t holding together, and was bleeding out, just enough good red blood to make a nice 1/2″ wide clot on the incision. Blood on the pillow, the sheets, etc. To get it off, saline or H2O2 (hydrogen peroxide) works well; saturate the clot using a Qtip and in a minute or two it will flake off. Learning moment: H2O2 is very unstable, which is why it comes in 1 pint solid brown bottles with an aluminum seal. Once you open it, it immediately starts to degrade. By the time it has been open for a week at the most, you could probably drink it (it turns into water), but please don’t. If you want to know if it is still potent put a drop on some blood, old or new, and if it bubbles, it is working. What it does is break down the hemoglobin and float it away from whatever it was attached to: skin, fabric, etc. It is only 39 cents a bottle, so make sure you have fresh. It will break down any protein, including nice new fresh skin. So it is good to clean away gunk, and kill bacteria, but if overused will also eat the new skin. We used 50% H2O2 for wound cleaning.
I washed the wound with a Qtip, and put antibiotic ointment on. The bruising went down to Byron’s collarbone, but was gone in about 10 days. The incision healed very nicely, the hair grew back, and we just had to wait for activation.
Activation was good and disappointing. Byron was able to hear the sounds right away, and got the advanced program. The disappointment was that he has to learn to hear all over again. It is like learning to write with your opposite hand. Even though “You” know all the letters and how to join them together, and what they mean, the opposite side of your brain does not know this, and your muscles do not. Try writing with the other hand. I think this is what the learning to hear thing is about. The brain literally does not know what it is hearing, just that there is stimulation. I believe that with practice, eventually Byron’s brain will get tired of not understanding and stop fighting it and voila: speech recognition. When we practice, we have to make sure he is not lip reading, and I have to have a way to signal him if he gets it wrong. Mostly a lot of work.