The Hearing Experiment

I promised an update and explanation of my ‘experiment’. It turns out to be rather anticlimactic. No mental anguish or hearing struggles to report. However, I once again proved to myself that I CAN learn new tricks!

At my recent mapping, I learned that there were 4 electrodes off in my older left side C1 cochlear implant. I do remember when two of those were turned off at my request because of poor sound quality out of that channel. There is no memory of the other two being turned off or of my being made aware of the fact that they were off. My audiologist explained how an electrode will automatically be turned off by the mapping software if the impedance is higher than normal and this is what was happening when I was mapped with SAS, a strategy that I have been using on the left side for the last ten years.

Interestingly enough, when mapped with MPS, those two electrodes stayed on. I had tried MPS a few years into my CI experience and did not feel I could make the switch from SAS to MPS. Lately however, I had been wondering if I should try again. My audiologist agreed that it would be worth a try and encouraged me to make the attempt. Doing so would give my 2 more electrodes and might result in better hearing with my left ear in the long run.

She suggested that I switch over on Friday after work. I tested the waters a bit prior to Friday and I didn’t like what I heard very much. By the time Friday came along, I was having second thoughts. It was a busy weekend ahead so I would be out and about, not just hanging around the house. I would have to risk not being able to hear at some events. Generally, I'm not willing to take any unnecessary risks when it comes to hearing. However, I was also feeling a need to do this. I finally decided I just had to go cold turkey and switch it over. So I took a deep breath and made the switch. Thirty minutes later, it wasn’t sounding too bad.

I went to my afternoon dentist appointment and was shocked at how loud the office was. Sitting in the dental chair, I realized this was my first visit since being bilateral. I could hear people in the other rooms and when she started cleaning my teeth, I could hear her scraping them! Wow, I had no idea that all these sounds were there. Saturday, I attended a bridal shower and then we went for dinner and a movie. By Sunday night I was feeling pretty good about MPS! It still sounded a bit strange, but was improving steadily.

Having the Harmony on my right ear made the difference. It gave me an ear to depend on while the other side adjusted to the new strategy. It’s now a 9 days after the switch and I know I will not be going back to SAS. I’ve switched back a few times to see what it sounded like and it sounds very harsh. A year ago, I would have said I was going to be using SAS forever! It will be interesting to see how that ear tests when I go back in August, but it sure feels like I am hearing even better now than I was two weeks ago.

Getting out of the comfort zone can be a good thing sometimes!

What I love about being bilateral and a 100% score

The following are some things I love about being bilateral:

• Sounds are louder, richer and fuller with both my implants on. With only one CI on, sound seems one dimensional and sort of flat. I hear better with one implant than the other but sound quality is best with both. Imagine watching a movie and then watching the same movie in 3D.


• When riding in the car, I hear equally well whether I am in the passenger seat or driver's seat. I can hear and understand people sitting in the back seat regardless of which front seat I am in. Prior to being bilateral, I always heard best as a passenger and even then had great difficulty understanding those sitting in the back.


• In large meeting rooms at work, I can hear people from both sides of the room. Prior to being bilateral, I would try to sit in the middle of a group but in large rooms I could still only hear those on my implanted side. If I tried to sit with my implanted side to all of them, then I was too far away to hear well. Now, I can place myself in the middle and I hear from both sides.


• At parties or in larger groups of people, I can hear the person standing next to me regardless of which side the person is standing on. I feel like I am relearning to focus on one ear at a time depending on which side has the sounds I want to hear. It's much easier to follow conversations in noisy situations.
  
• I've been able to attend company and department meetings without needing my FM since receiving my second implant. In church, I hear more of the prayer requests from people sitting around me and across the aisle.

You might wonder if it's difficult having two different strategies on the CI's. It was a bit odd at first, but maybe it would have sounded odd even with the same strategy since my right ear had not heard for close to ten years. During those ten years, I used the Advanced Bionics S-Series, then Platinum PSP /C1 cochlear implan on my left ear and no hearing aid on the right. After receiving the Harmony/90K in August, I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly my brain adapted to what it was hearing. Hungry for sound, it quickly started merging the two different signals to increase my overall understanding of sounds and speech.

Today I had my 6 month mapping for the Harmony/90K on my right ear and my annual mapping for the PSP/C1 on my left ear. Both ears scores were up. The results of my HINT sentence tests in quiet were awesome! Here they are:

Right Ear(Implanted with 90K/Harmony Aug 2008) Sentences 99%
Left Ear (Implanted with C1/PSP Dec 1998) Sentences 93%

Both together 100%!!!!!

So, does this mean I'm hearing perfectly, normally and everything?? No, of course it doesn't. But it does mean that I'm hearing the best I have in a long, long time!

My next post... Switching from SAS to MPS after ten years of CI listening. Can I do it? And why should I try?