Activation happened!

Today my cochlear implant was activated.  It was an amazing experience!  I can't believe how much I understood of what my audiologist said (from behind a black screen).  It must have been at least 75%; Lee says 95%. 

I have two streams of sounds coming in.  One, from the CI side, has the tinny Darth Vader sound everyone else describes and is sometimes offensively scratchy, but not often.  The sounds from the other side (with or without the old hearing aid in place there) sound pretty much like sounds have always sounded to me, when I could hear them.  If this is just the beginning and things get better from here, it is indeed a miracle!  I am feeling very lucky!

My assignment for the next week is to learn about all this new equipment, use my CI and processor whenever I am awake and my hearing aid only occasionally, and listen, listen, listen as I go on with my life.  I do not have a specific listening assignment, but I plan to begin listening to a book on my Kindle whenever I have the time.

The initial turn-on process included an electronic, computer-guided trip on each of ten of the 26 electrodes in an attempt to identify the point at which my auditory nerve picked up the sound.   Then we mapped how loud it was still comfortable for me and tried to make the volume consistent across the 10 electrodes.  It is amazing what this equipment is capable of discerning.

For those of you still along for the ride, thanks for keeping me company and helping to celebrate this day.