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.

Activation rescheduled

My activation is tentatively rescheduled for next Friday and I'm off to see my internist to try to get help getting rid of whatever I have.

Today's activation cancelled

I woke up with 101.5 degree temperature this morning after feeling hot overnight and getting up very frequently.  So my appointment for today has been canceled.  It will be rescheduled. 

Now I have to figure out how to get rid of whatever I have.  I do not feel terrific.

Just waiting

Fewer pains, fewer Tylenol caplets, fewer naps, but otherwise not much new to report.  Until Friday, it's just a waiting game.

One week till activation

One week from now I hope to be hearing something through my CI.  I have no idea what!  I keep thinking about an email that was sent to a member of a group I belong to, from a good friend of hers.  She basically said, "I can't wait till you're activated!  You're going to hate it!!"

I'm trying to keep that comment in mind so I will not be disappointed when I finally hear something.  I'd love to understand language, of course, but if it is just loud noise and I need to work to make sense out of it, that will be okay as long as my expectations are not set too high.  I just hope it works somehow!

My cold is almost entirely gone now and I don't sense much of a difference in my ability to carry on one-on-one conversations since before my CI.  I dealt with a "genius" at an Apple Store yesterday who was working to fix a problem on my computer and I only had to ask my husband for a translation twice during that interaction.  Today a friend was here helping me learn to use my new Kindle so I'll be able to practice listening and I figured out everything she was saying to me, one way or another.  That's about the way things went before my implant.  So if I am not one of the lucky implantees, and I don't get any benefit from the implant, I will not be much worse off than I was before I tried this.

But I plan to go for the gold--with practice, perseverance, and patience, as advised.  I hope to be able to document lots of CI moments, occasions when I am amazed by something I can hear again, but I am trying to recognize and accept that that may take a long time.

Moving toward normal

I'm back to driving and carefully donning regular glasses (with two arms).  I also walked 2 1/4 miles yesterday with normal, not excessive, sleep last night.  I did get up once in the middle of the night to take Tylenol, however, so I am still dealing with the after-effects of the surgery.  The pain still comes and goes, jumping around to different spots. 

Today marks 16 days after surgery.

First new year's resolution

Trying to get back into some kind of exercise regimen, I walked two miles yesterday...and then slept twelve hours last night after a brief afternoon nap.  It seems I have a way to go!