Yesterday I returned to the Cochlear Clinic for another tweaking session. My audiologist left my left ear processors alone and just tweaked the processors for my right ear. I actually have four cochlear implant processors. One set is worn behind my ears like a behind the ear hearing aid.
Think of a behind the ear hearing aid without tubing and a earmold. There is a ear hook with a microphone for the behind the ear cochlear implant processors. That, along with the magnet headpiece is what activates the surgically implanted cochlear implant or turns it on.
The second set doesn't look like the traditional cochlear implant sound processor at all. You can wear these totally waterproof cochlear implant processors in your hair, clipped to your clothes, using a lanyard, using a headband, or armbands. You still have your magnetized headpieces and the cabling. The left processor is color coded pink, the right processor is color coded blue. You can choose colors - I just did it that way so I could tell which was which. It is convenient- it doesn't matter if you switch up right to left, the processors won't work. It was engineered that way. I just love the off the ear option, though!
On an earlier post, I mentioned that someone from my cochlear implanted community of friends said not long ago, it is a great time to be deaf because today we have so many choices! She is right.
Here's an option now available to me with the totally waterproof sound processors which I didn't have before - the choice to take a water aerobics class and to be able to totally understand the water aerobics instructor. A choice to go to a waterpark with my six nieces and nephews, and to be able to hear the excitement in their voices and screams of delight at cascading down a water slide.
I am hearing more in surround sound than I am hearing new sounds. Bird calls do not sound exactly like. A Robin's bird call is different than a Cardinal's bird call. I discovered that a co-worker has different ring tones on her office phone that alerts her to who is calling, a supervisor vs. a co-worker, or someone calling with a question, problem or comment.
My audiologist had me take my left ear processor off, leave the right ear processor on, and she covered her mouth and said words to me, airplane, hot dog, sidewalk, ice cream, and so forth, listening with my right ear. I got it 100% right. Here's the irony. I didn't wear a hearing aid in my right ear until I was in college. That ear has technically been my "better ear." I wore a hearing aid in my left ear from age two and a half until I had my left ear implanted in October, 2010. Even with a hearing aid, my right ear did better with noise comprehension than auditory verbal responses. I figured the same would be true of me with a cochlear implant in my right ear.
I am completely left side dominant. I write with my left hand and prefer my left side for just about everything. I have a sneaky suspicion that over time, my newly implanted right ear is going to be the dominant ear. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up having phone conversations one of these days using my right ear.
My next tweaking session is in May, in about five weeks. My audiologist wants to test my hearing in my right ear with the cochlear implant using the sound processor. She will also test both ears.
I still find myself ingrained with deaf behaviors. I can't help it. Last week we had a meeting at work and those folks from around the country phoned in. We had a polycom - a conference speaker phone. Well, being deaf all these years, I sat CLOSE to the polycom. HUGE mistake. With cochlear implants, you don't do that. You sit further down the table. Speech can be tricky, because LOUDNESS can distort speech for a cochlear implant user and make it nearly impossible to understand a conversation. I'm still on the learning curve here. What I should have done is flipped the switch on my processors to a quieter program and turned the volume down a bit. Lessons learned. There are some hearing folks who still think that cochlear implants amplify sound. I'll say it again. Cochlear implants bypass the damaged nerves in the middle ear and directly stimulate the cochlea, which translates the electronic impulses to the brain as sound. A cochlear implant is an engineering feat. It comes pretty close to the human ear in terms of hearing.
My surgeon was interviewed recently on National Public Radio. The interviewer asked him, due to the advancement of cochlear implants, is deafness "a choice"? My surgeon replied,
"We are already there." The sad thing, is, for many deaf people, cochlear implants are not an affordable option. I can understand that. I probably qualified for cochlear implants 12 years ago. My health insurance at the time, though, only covered 30% of the cost of cochlear implants and surgery. Today, many health insurance companies cover 80% to 85% of the cost of surgery and cochlear implants.
I do not miss single-sided deafness. I do not miss ill-fitting earmolds, feedback and I definitely do not miss hearing aids. My world is definitely noisier.
Being able to hear out of both ears, having both ears implanted with cochlear implants, totally ROCKS.
Being able to hear with two cochlear implants is such a gift.
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