I have been bilateral for six months. With two CI's, I am learning to discern what feels "balanced" in terms of hearing out of both ears. One of the hardest concepts I have had to learn is the fact that sound is a spectrum. When you go for a mapping session, there are many variables that can contribute to a mapping that feels "off." It can be allergies, a cold.
In my case, having worn hearing aids for many years, I thought I had a good grasp of what a good mapping session would be. With each mapping session, I was pushing the volume of each electrode higher, signaling to the audiologist that the sound was "comfortable."
I had my last mapping session in May. During the next three months, I started feeling like I was being bombarded by sound. Sounds weren't loud, just incredibly noisy. It was too much of a good thing. Voices sounded distorted. Sounds were unusually sharp and sounds like typing on a keyboard and my office mate chewing and snapping gum all day were unpleasant to hear. I could hear my office mate from the opposite side of the wall which separates our office.
I still struggled with imbalance issues (not uncommon for six months post surgery), vestibular migraines (without the headache), and it was getting old, feeling slightly drunk all the time. My ears felt like they were constantly at war with each other. I knew I take medications that can contribute to dizziness. I resigned myself to the fact that I would forever be a klutz.
My audiologist is currently on maternity leave. When I returned to the Cochlear Clinic on Wednesday for my six month mapping, I told the substitute audiologist that the mappings were really off, and told her everything that was going on with me.
She re-mapped the processors electrode by electrode. The first clue that I was being overstimulated by sound was that my face beneath my right eye started twitching. I was totally unaware this was happening. The audiologist saw that, and with each electrode, she clapped her hands loudly to see if I would twitch, and then adjust the mapping thresholds accordingly. The twitching sounds painful. I can assure you that it wasn't painful at all.
The audiologist "tweaked" the mappings, asking each time if the sound was too soft, too loud, or just right. For the first time, voices sounded natural and I felt "balanced" in hearing out of both ears.
Yesterday I got up to get ready for work. I noticed I was not woozy, dizzy, or experiencing imbalance issues. I tilted my head back, to see if I was dizzy. Nothing. I felt very steady and not at all off balance. Today, the same thing. I could not hear my office mate chew and snap gum from the wall which separates us, much to my relief.
The difference in the mapping is just HUGE. I had no idea or clue that I was possibly being overstimulated by sound. Again, cochlear implants do not amplify sound. That is not the objective. You want to hear high, middle, and low frequencies, and not necessarily loud, either.
I am just absolutely stunned that one mapping session produced such drastic results. I feel as if I am hearing "normally," and I do not feel unbalanced, nor are sounds constantly noisy.
I am hearing where the audiologists want me to be on the audiogram. My speech discrimination score was 25%. Given the fact that in April and August of 2010, I scored a big fat zero in speech discrimination, this is definitely progress. Now that the mappings are where we want them to be, I think the speech discrimination will improve.
Lessons Learned. Hearing with two cochlear implants is still a blessing!
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