Awesome CI Moments!

shel90 said:
I hate all of u..u are making CIs sound so GREAT and making me tempted to get one..so STOP! Just kidding...I am happy for all of you and that u are having your great CI moments. :)
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:giggle: By the way, CIs *are* great!! :rockon:
 
Hear Again said:
:giggle: By the way, CIs *are* great!! :rockon:
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I just wish there was a 100% guarantee with them and that they didnt involve surgery. I am deathly afraid of surgery cuz I went under the knife once and the pain meds didnt work. I do not need to describe the hell I went thru..I wouldnt wish that on my worst enemy.
 
Shel - I have had worse pain from ear infections and toothaches than I experienced from my CI surgery. After the surgery and while healing I experienced a bit of discomfort and a bit of dizziness - that's it - NO PAIN. I know several others here who have reported the same experience - since there aren't any pain receptors on the skull, or inside the inner ear, the only real pain that one might experience is from the initial incision behind the ear.
 
shel90 said:
I just wish there was a 100% guarantee with them and that they didnt involve surgery. I am deathly afraid of surgery cuz I went under the knife once and the pain meds didnt work. I do not need to describe the hell I went thru..I wouldnt wish that on my worst enemy.
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I understand your fears and concerns. It is a risk you have to weigh and decide if it is worth it to you. If not, don't sweat it and enjoy your life. They are not for everybody. If you do decide, do it on your terms period as you are the one that has to live with it. Do factor in certain issues that have impact on your decision like your family and so on.

I can remember my wife telling me that I have to do this...it would be the best thing I have ever done. I just looked at her and said "I'm the one who has to go through it not you!". All in all, she was correct but I had to think over it.
 
deafmama78 said:
Hear Again: I am the same, I watch TV and I'm able to follow along, despite the captions still being on. I may miss a word here or there but for simple shows like Hannah Montana, The Suite of Zack and Cody, That's So Raven [what my girls likes to watch] I normally don't watch but when I sat down and watched for a few minutes, Hannah Montana was the 1st one, I noticed how I understood Miley & Lilly talking so I continued to watch it and now use that show as a way to practice!! It's great!

That's gotta be hard not having sight to have cues to follow but you seem to be doing awesome! I am happy for you that your CI seems to be doing a great job for you.

I'm gonna PM you, is that okay?
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deafmama,

Sure...feel free to send me a PM anytime! :)

Watching TV is a wonderful means of listening practice. Another good way to practice is by listening to talk radio. When my first CI was activated, I always kept a radio or TV playing in the background. One evening while listening to a talk radio program I was delighted to find out that I could understand 50% of what a caller said and I could also identify the topic being discussed. It was completely unexpected which made it all the more exciting! :)

There have been times where being blind has made learning how to hear with my (first) CI a challenge -- such as when unfamiliar voices were indistinguishable. During this time I told people about my CI and asked them to speak slower. Most of the time this allowed me to understand, but every now and then there were certain voices (of a particular pitch range) that I couldn't understand no matter how many times a person slowed down or repeated themselves.

After I became bilateral, I also had trouble with hearing from a distance. My CI audi said this was due to the fact that I wasn't used to having the same amount of hearing in both ears even though I wore bilateral HAs for over 20 years. (My left ear has always been worse than my right.) It wasn't until 6 months post activation of my second CI that my brain finally began accept binaural sound.

I should add that when my first CI was activated, I wrote a journal about my listening experiences from day to day and deliberately created environmental sounds (such as opening and closing a door) just so I could make a note of how they sounded.

Since I couldn't have someone with me 24/7, there were times where I couldn't identify environmental sounds. This was especially problematic for me when I traveled outdoors. I also became overwhelmed at times by the degree of environmental sounds that I could hear because sometimes it just seemed like too much. However, every time I felt this way, I reminded myself of how lucky I was to be able to hear again. :)
 
Hear Again: That's interesting. :)

Had we lived near each other, I would be happy to have been around you as often as I could and helped tell you what you're hearing. You seem like a wonderful person to know and I hope we develop a friendship on here. :)

I already PM'd you :)
 
neecy said:
Shel - I have had worse pain from ear infections and toothaches than I experienced from my CI surgery. After the surgery and while healing I experienced a bit of discomfort and a bit of dizziness - that's it - NO PAIN. I know several others here who have reported the same experience - since there aren't any pain receptors on the skull, or inside the inner ear, the only real pain that one might experience is from the initial incision behind the ear.
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Oh, it is the aftermath that I am not afraid of..it is the pain meds not working during surgery like it happened to me when i had surgery on my arm. Oh...the drs made an error thinking I had pain meds in me when I didnt when he "cut" me open. I was SCREAMING bloody murder ..LOL! Yes, I was awake cuz it was not under local anthesia (excuse my bad spelling today) and they couldnt proceed with the surgery cuz I was wailing and screaming my head off.
 
Im so jealous and happy for you mama!How are you doing with background noise and the CI?By the way leave captions on. My son really did well in school and they thought it was due to seeing the words along with the picture on TV.How well are you hearing and understanding without HA?
 
shel90 said:
That's awesome..can she identify the different notes on the guitar? Just curious. I cant even though I can identify a when a guitar is playing on the radio..just cant recognize the notes. Maybe Lotte can?
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Well, she identified the guitar..... We'll work on notes next year I think.
She rarely sings in tune... but it's coming...

Last week, in the car, she heared a woman sing who sang a long, high note.
Lotte repeated it. Perfect pitch!
But these are just little moments....

(I still have to put that in the blog. It was my wife who told me this, but she rarely writes it up!)
 
When I first started listening to audio books, I couldn't follow Cat in the Hat at all. The only book I could follow was Good Night, Moon. Recently I was listening to Scuffy the Tugboat and The Fox in the Socks, neither of which are short simple reads. I lost a page there and I wondered where I was and I thought I'd be lost but then I figured out which page I was supposed to find. I couldn't do that with the Cat In The Hat at all when I heard it for the first time. I'm going to try to listen to The Cat In The Hat again this afternoon and see if I can follow it a lot better this time around.
 
deafskeptic said:
Congratations and I know those CI moments must mean a lot to you!

Here's my most recent CI moment, I ordered food from a drive in and I was nervous as the speaker was impossible for me to understand with my HA. I'm suprised at how much easier it it is to understand them now with the CI. I've never ordered food via the speaker before and I'm 40 years old! I've always used the p&p methold in the past.
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SO COOL. :) While I did at one time orde through the speakers, for the 10-15 yrs pre CI I usually chose not to, and the last 5 I wouldn't order through the speakers unless my oldest girls were with me to do the hearing. Now I go through with no problems. So cool.

One of the things that really amazes me is hearing the sirens from the firetrucks/police cars from 10 stories up. :) Oh and yesterday after noon a light rain started when I was taking my daily walk, took me awhile to figure out that all the noise was the rain hitting the corn. Never knew it was that noisy. :)
 
deafmama78 said:
set2: Yep, I'm still wearing my HA in the unimplanted ear. At this point I must have both on or it feels like I can't hear [when in reality I can. but I seem to hear 10x better when both is on, make sense?]
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To me yes it makes sense. :) I used the HA for a bout 3 months in the un implanted ear, to me the HA told the other side what the noise was. :)

Congrats! and it just continues to get better. You could start trying the phone by calling the number for the time or weather if using the phone is on your list of things to do :) , since all you do is listen it might be good practice.
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shel90 said:
That's awesome..can she identify the different notes on the guitar? Just curious. I cant even though I can identify a when a guitar is playing on the radio..just cant recognize the notes. Maybe Lotte can?
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Well I'm not Lotte but I can hear the different notes played by any instrument. I do of course have an audio memory, but what I hear with the CI is so much better then the HA when it comes to music. I will note that it probably took me about 10 months before it really started to sound good. :)
 
jag: Yep, when I was first activated, my HA told me what I was actually hearing because everything sounded sooo odd from the CI. lol. Now I can hear solely on CI but I prefer having both on for now. I'm sure that will change in the months/years to come and maybe I'll go bilateral! Who knows!

Yes, the phone is on my list of things to practice!!! I don't intend on using it much but want to be able to communicate with my family when I'm not home since my daughters are young & can't really talk to me on AIM just yet. I mean my 6 yr old is starting to be able to but takes forever to type. lol. And she'll be lost as to using the relay even without having to use GA/SK like the old day. She'd just be confused as to why someone else's voice is her mommy she's talking to. When she's a bit older, then we'll work on that. :)
 
Yay Mama sounds like everything is really going great for you, I am so happy for you. How are you doing with background noise? Are you able to understand words with just your CI?You have made remarkable progress,Keep up the good work.
 
Wow, you seem to have come a long way in a short amount of time. Do things still sound tinny or are the sounds starting to normalize?

Good luck with your second mapping today, you have one today right? lol.. I'm bad with dates :)
 
Deafmama,

I do have difficulty using the telephone with the mic. If I switch the processor to Telecoil, no problem and can hear really well. One of my later visits, I had the T-coil and microphone mixing turned to a ratio of 2 to 1 I think meaning, the T-coil output is twice as loud as the Mic but I can now hear myself when I talk. Maybe another way to say it is the processor still transmits sound from the Mic but at 50% volume. Huge difference and very appreciative when this was changed.

There are times that I forget to turn the T-coil off when in the car and the only way I know it is still on is that I hear all the electrical activity in the car. Mostly, the Generator electrical whine from charging the battery.

Anyway, you may want to try the T-coil on the phone if you have it available.

Sounds like the CI is working awesome for you. Seams like you are having similar progress with learning how to hear with it as I did.

For me, my tinnitus in my bad ear has really really flared up since getting sick this past weekend while I was in Peru IN at the races. Drove very well even though I was feeling rotten, 2nd place and won some tires for doing so. Leaving out for Milwaukee WI Tomorrow AM for another two day national event. Hopefully we will do as well.

Side note, I met up with one of the other drivers who has a CI and exchanged stories. I have decided to drive with my CI on so I can hear the car and other noises. She normally takes hers off since her Helmet knocks it off when she pulls the helmet on. I guess it all comes down to what you like.

Steve
 
contradica: Sounds are pretty much normal. There are still some things that sounds a bit off and makes me giggles when I hear 'em cause it's funny. :)

I did go for my 2nd MAP today and the Audi was just so impressed. She kept repeating "Wow, you're doing incredible!" "You're doing wonderfully well!" She is just as amazed as she was the 1st time. :) I got 3 prgm and now have volume settings. yay.

After like 45 mins, she sent me on my way telling me I have one 'homework' for the month. I need to get my husband & others to read to me from the paper, books, magazines, etc and get me to repeat after them what they just said or listen to audio tapes w/ books to read along with it. I told her that my husband has many, so she's happy with that. And I told her about this forum & about English as a 2nd language website also being another way to practice. Along with watching TV and listening to it along with reading the captions. She said all of that are great & to please do that as much as possible. :)
 
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