Cochlear Implant-Part 4

WOOHOO!! I can hear!!! Robin took me to the House Ear Institute today to get my speech processor mapped & hooked up.

Here I am by the 30' ear holding my suitcase of supplies that go with the CI kit. It includes TV/Hi-Fi cords, an extra speech processor, a drying machine, battery re-charger, etc.

Here I am giving hand signals of how many beeps I am hearing at each of the 22 electrodes. My doctor, Dawna Mills explained that though I have 24 electrodes in my implant, only 22 are programmed and the other 2 are grounds.

Dawna is looking at the screen of her computer which is hooked up to my speech processor & implant. The whole process only took about 90 minutes! Since my left ear is still so sore from the surgery, she hung the contraption on my right ear and brought the cord & magnet around the back of my head to the magnet IN my head. She said I could start reprogramming my brain, then switch it over when it doesn't hurt as much.

When I took out my right hearing aid, she then started talking to me with only the implant working. At first there was lots of static, and her voice sounded like Donald Duck. She held a paper in front of her face so I couldn't lipread and said numbers & colors. I had to repeat each one. She was very excited that I was able to get 90% of them correct. :-)
Robin & I went to Phillipe's for lunch. I kept my hearing aid in for that and part of the way home.Then I took out my hearing aid and was able to carry on a conversation (& lipread) all the way home!! Yahoo! People still sound like Donald Duck or someone talking while holding their nose.

In the short video below I am concentrating & telling the doctor when each sound becomes painful. That will be the maximum volume for that sound. Tonight she wants me to try all 4 programs and write down what I liked about each one. Then tomorrow she will fine tune them. She gave me a DVD that I need to use 2-3 hours a day to retrain by brain. I guess this will be my "job" for the month of August. :-)
I am so excited & hopeful! PTL!
Thanks, too for all of your prayers, concern & help during this transition.