Etalton,
Sorry you are having trouble with your new MAPs. I'm sure it is frustrating with traveling so far and getting little in return as far as improved hearing ability. With voices not sounding so high pitch, you still adjusting to the new inputs. My first CI took major changes at week 3 when everything shifted at once. My second CI is taking a lot longer to make the adjustment. This coming Friday will be 8 weeks post activation but is getting better every day. Looks like you received your CI about a month before I got my Bilateral CI.
I also apologize for this being so long, maybe it will help you or give someone else on the site a different approach.
Have you checked with your audi to see if there is another office closer to where you live? Maybe a University. Have you checked with the I would think any audi with the program and hardware should be able to help you. Of course, it might be odd to ask for this option and maybe the costs would be different for the appointment but if there is some place closer who could work with you, it might be easier.
I don't want to make recommendations but during the programming session, did they have you compare each of the loud frequencies to make sure they were really close to the same volume? Up until this past session for me, I use to compare 3 at a time and make adjustments from there but this past Friday, we used 5 at a time and I would only make up or down adjustments to the last 2 to make sure I had them set right. This was a so much easier for me to make sure I had them right. We also had to make a few adjustments by "tilting" the C levels to make voices sound better and did a pretty good job this time. This also took some of the frequencies/voices and brought them down from the higher pitch "chipmunk" level. Not drastic, just a little closer to what my first CI hears and what I remember my natural hearing was like. What was more interesting is hearing each electrode at max C level was somewhat different at 80% max C level. At 80%, my hearing sounds like an out of tune piano where at 100%, it sounds pretty good. This may also be why voices sometime don't quite sound right at normal volume.
I am surprised that you mention your appointment is 30 minutes. For me, we really don't get started that quickly because we are going over what I can hear and what I have trouble hearing. We also talk about what changes I want to make and I try to explain what I am trying to learn from making the changes. My appointments are generally late in the day, prefer the last appointment so if I run long which almost always happens, I'm not bumping another patient. My audi has said she likes this because I push her with the program and "play" with it, use features that don't get changed with many patients to see if I notice any improvement. We try things just to see how it changes what I can hear. I've wondered if bringing a radio would be helpful and think I will during my next appointment since that offers more sound than just our voices.
This past Friday, I also took a chance and tried a 900 speed that I knew I didn't like with my first CI. I was really thinking it was going to be a stretch to even use it. Surprisingly, I am really amaised in how comfortable it is to use and how much I can hear with it. I also had a 2400 speed programmed and it too is easy and comfortable to use. I can't for the life of me figure out why I am having a hard time adapting to the 1800 which I use exclusively in my other ear and have used in this ear since I was activated. It's good but not great.
As far as new MAPs, I ALWAYS keep my best and most used program from before and keep it as a back up just in case I can't seam to adjust to the new ones. I may change it from Autosensitivity to manual controls but I keep it.
I can really say that having my second implant has really opened my eyes to the extreme variations each person can have. This also is helping me understand why so many people may respond so differently to activation and how they progress with their CI.
For me, the CI works great and from what I read on the board, it is helping many users. It does take time to get adjusted to and by no means is it perfect which we all understand but in my opinion, it beats the alternative. If things are not progressing as you would like, it may be time to talk with your audiologist to see if they want to schedule a longer appointment or take a few steps backwards and try a different approach. Again, I always keep my previous best MAP just in case.
Steve
