It's been nearly a week and a half now since I've been activated. The 2nd day mapping smoothed out the disjointed frequencies and lessened the "under water" effect. It turned out that Hi Res S was the strategy I was preferring out of the first set of 3 programs, so that one was held over while both Hi Res P programs were dumped. Dawna also turned off the highest electrode, since it seemed to sound better to me with it off. So now I have Hi Res S on one of these progam slots and as far as I know...CIS and MPS on the other two slots.
Regardless of the program I use, I have been nothing but ecstatic over the environmental sounds I am getting. Everything is pretty much as it should be, with the exception being the sounds of motors. Cars driving by sound like squealing and the vacuum cleaner is about the same. Though the last day or so I've noticed that seems to have gone away. Other than that, I have had so many "it's back!" moments that I can't keep track. Yes, I've had to ask people what it was I was hearing from time to time, but for the most part the sounds have been familiar or like long lost friends suddenly showing up at my door.
I haven't heard real crickets yet, but I don't think we have them in the house nor do we want them in the house. However, my Sidekick phone does have a cricket ringtone which is basically a real recording of a real cricket. I set it as the tone for the alarm clock to wake me up while I took a nap on my break at work. It sounds exactly as I remember!
I do hear birds, but I hadn't consciously heard real ones until just yesterday. Some sparrows were playing in the neighbors front yard. I did listen to recordings online of birds, so I knew I had no problem hearing them. Frankly, I'm sure I've been hearing them..but wasn't totally sure it was birds.
There really has been no end to what I hear with the implant. The clock ticking in my bathroom is obvious now. I can hear my stomach rumbling. I can hear the key in the door lock at the bottom of the stairs. Environmentally, I'm pretty much a hearing person in that sense...and I'll be able to hear more. This is just the beginning. But I can honestly say I have everything I had before with my hearing aid and then some. The comparison now is to the hearing I had before I lost it rather than to the hearing with my hearing aid. fad
Speech discrimination is the real hurdle. I've tried doing some listening exercises as well as trying to ignore the captions while watching TV. I've had some success..words jump out here and there more so than they did previously. I believe I really need more mapping before I try to subject myself to that. The words need to be coming through more clearly to facilitate pure listening. As it is, I'm straining a bit too much. The consonants are there, but the whole of the words need to be smoothed out to come together with greater clarity. So I'm not really stressing out on this frontier just yet. I'm hoping the next mapping will give me sharper discrimination to work with.
As it stands though, I do have some to work with. The listening exercises at Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab involve playing an audio file with all kinds of verbal exchanges. Then there is a multiple choice quiz to do that asks you about what you just listened to. When I read the quiz while listening to the audio file, I generally have no problem getting all of the questions correct. However, I do this by using the bits and pieces I do hear. Which is a start. The goal would be to understand every word that is said without reading the audio file script..which is not happening just yet. Also, I have been doing the "Easy" category. I'm not even two weeks in though...so if I was blazing through these, I'd be up for THE star performer award and win it without competition.
Revisiting the three unidentified programs, when it comes to speech, they all provide a different experience. Music reveals their limitations even more-so. They all have something I like about each one and negatives that I could do without. So I can't say I have a clear favorite for all situations.
Slot 1 provides voices with their own quality and equal representation of the frequency spectrum with the greatest ease. The depth is not so good, so the more that is going on, the less of a winner it is. Music, does not sound good with that program. Nor would listening in noise work very well.
Slot 2 is a bit heavy on the bass, unequal in the frequency spectrum. Male and female voices sound almost similar at first, resulting in not offering up their natural voice as readily as Slot 1. The frequency spectrum doesn't seem to be as equally represented, which results in this program falling into 3rd place for speech discrimination. But as I sit here now, it is that program that seems to provide the best Music-experience. It seems to have the depth necessary to handle it. If I had equal frequency representation on this program, I'd prefer it. I also experience less pitch distortion with this program.
Slot 3 is heavy on the treble. It seems to provide the greatest clarity when listening to speech exercises, but it also introduces the "chipmunk" element into the tone. There was also a hissy overtone to voices that I have since seemed to tune out from extended use. In a way, it's the opposite of Slot 2. There seems to be more depth than Slot 1, but there is plenty of warbly pitch distortion. Then any possible depth is killed by the fact the gain is all over the place! Loud and competing sounds are suppressed in volume. So let's say I'm watching a TV program. If there is background music going on while someone is speaking...I'll hear just their voice, then when they stop speaking...the background music gradually fades in and then cuts out when they start speaking again. Using this program while riding in the car is near hellish as the sound of the car, the road noise, and the wind battle with my own voice or the car stereo. It all just falls apart. At home, I tried listening to the PC speakers with music playing at a normal level. When I cupped my hand around head piece in the same manner one would cup their hand behind their ear to bring more sound in....the volume DIVED! It was ridiculously screwy. At the same time, I haven't totally ruled this one out on the premise that all of those problems can be fixed if necessary. Gain issues exist with all three, but Slot 3 is the most dramatic and problematic.
So now, I'm really looking forward to the Mapping this coming Wednesday. I hope to smooth a lot of the problems I've mentioned out. I'm also very curious which slot is which program. I had thought Slot 3 was the Hi Res S since it had that sharpness in the speech that it had on the first day...but it really has proved to be lacking as a whole. I'm secretly hoping that Slot 2 is the Hi Res and that turning the last electrode back on while increasing the amount of stimulation it gives me will provide equal frequency representation as well as ease of speech discrimination.
I'm still amazed at what I can hear with my implant. I remember talking with my otologist in Lower Manhattan a few years ago regarding how they work. He told me that hearing speech with it is like hearing an alien language. Frankly...he was full of shit. In retrospect, he was talking to me as someone he expected to have no idea what true speech sounded like anymore. Environmental and speech sounds all sound as they should. It's just that they are back. My brain must turn back on the speech-listening component so that I can hear talk radio and simply process the information as opposed to following the words. That is where the hurdle is. After compensating with lip reading for so long, even though my mind put the missing consonants in for all of these years, I have to let go and just let it come in. Listening should not be a chore as it has been for 25 years. I am confident that this is going to happen. I'm not even two weeks in and the benefits are so readily apparent. It's all been so worth it!
I saw my problems now I see the light
we got a loving thing
we got to feed it right
there ain't no danger we can go to far
we start believing now
that we can be who we are
Grease is the word
Grease - Frankie Valli
Regardless of the program I use, I have been nothing but ecstatic over the environmental sounds I am getting. Everything is pretty much as it should be, with the exception being the sounds of motors. Cars driving by sound like squealing and the vacuum cleaner is about the same. Though the last day or so I've noticed that seems to have gone away. Other than that, I have had so many "it's back!" moments that I can't keep track. Yes, I've had to ask people what it was I was hearing from time to time, but for the most part the sounds have been familiar or like long lost friends suddenly showing up at my door.
I haven't heard real crickets yet, but I don't think we have them in the house nor do we want them in the house. However, my Sidekick phone does have a cricket ringtone which is basically a real recording of a real cricket. I set it as the tone for the alarm clock to wake me up while I took a nap on my break at work. It sounds exactly as I remember!
I do hear birds, but I hadn't consciously heard real ones until just yesterday. Some sparrows were playing in the neighbors front yard. I did listen to recordings online of birds, so I knew I had no problem hearing them. Frankly, I'm sure I've been hearing them..but wasn't totally sure it was birds.
There really has been no end to what I hear with the implant. The clock ticking in my bathroom is obvious now. I can hear my stomach rumbling. I can hear the key in the door lock at the bottom of the stairs. Environmentally, I'm pretty much a hearing person in that sense...and I'll be able to hear more. This is just the beginning. But I can honestly say I have everything I had before with my hearing aid and then some. The comparison now is to the hearing I had before I lost it rather than to the hearing with my hearing aid. fad
Speech discrimination is the real hurdle. I've tried doing some listening exercises as well as trying to ignore the captions while watching TV. I've had some success..words jump out here and there more so than they did previously. I believe I really need more mapping before I try to subject myself to that. The words need to be coming through more clearly to facilitate pure listening. As it is, I'm straining a bit too much. The consonants are there, but the whole of the words need to be smoothed out to come together with greater clarity. So I'm not really stressing out on this frontier just yet. I'm hoping the next mapping will give me sharper discrimination to work with.
As it stands though, I do have some to work with. The listening exercises at Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab involve playing an audio file with all kinds of verbal exchanges. Then there is a multiple choice quiz to do that asks you about what you just listened to. When I read the quiz while listening to the audio file, I generally have no problem getting all of the questions correct. However, I do this by using the bits and pieces I do hear. Which is a start. The goal would be to understand every word that is said without reading the audio file script..which is not happening just yet. Also, I have been doing the "Easy" category. I'm not even two weeks in though...so if I was blazing through these, I'd be up for THE star performer award and win it without competition.
Revisiting the three unidentified programs, when it comes to speech, they all provide a different experience. Music reveals their limitations even more-so. They all have something I like about each one and negatives that I could do without. So I can't say I have a clear favorite for all situations.
Slot 1 provides voices with their own quality and equal representation of the frequency spectrum with the greatest ease. The depth is not so good, so the more that is going on, the less of a winner it is. Music, does not sound good with that program. Nor would listening in noise work very well.
Slot 2 is a bit heavy on the bass, unequal in the frequency spectrum. Male and female voices sound almost similar at first, resulting in not offering up their natural voice as readily as Slot 1. The frequency spectrum doesn't seem to be as equally represented, which results in this program falling into 3rd place for speech discrimination. But as I sit here now, it is that program that seems to provide the best Music-experience. It seems to have the depth necessary to handle it. If I had equal frequency representation on this program, I'd prefer it. I also experience less pitch distortion with this program.
Slot 3 is heavy on the treble. It seems to provide the greatest clarity when listening to speech exercises, but it also introduces the "chipmunk" element into the tone. There was also a hissy overtone to voices that I have since seemed to tune out from extended use. In a way, it's the opposite of Slot 2. There seems to be more depth than Slot 1, but there is plenty of warbly pitch distortion. Then any possible depth is killed by the fact the gain is all over the place! Loud and competing sounds are suppressed in volume. So let's say I'm watching a TV program. If there is background music going on while someone is speaking...I'll hear just their voice, then when they stop speaking...the background music gradually fades in and then cuts out when they start speaking again. Using this program while riding in the car is near hellish as the sound of the car, the road noise, and the wind battle with my own voice or the car stereo. It all just falls apart. At home, I tried listening to the PC speakers with music playing at a normal level. When I cupped my hand around head piece in the same manner one would cup their hand behind their ear to bring more sound in....the volume DIVED! It was ridiculously screwy. At the same time, I haven't totally ruled this one out on the premise that all of those problems can be fixed if necessary. Gain issues exist with all three, but Slot 3 is the most dramatic and problematic.
So now, I'm really looking forward to the Mapping this coming Wednesday. I hope to smooth a lot of the problems I've mentioned out. I'm also very curious which slot is which program. I had thought Slot 3 was the Hi Res S since it had that sharpness in the speech that it had on the first day...but it really has proved to be lacking as a whole. I'm secretly hoping that Slot 2 is the Hi Res and that turning the last electrode back on while increasing the amount of stimulation it gives me will provide equal frequency representation as well as ease of speech discrimination.
I'm still amazed at what I can hear with my implant. I remember talking with my otologist in Lower Manhattan a few years ago regarding how they work. He told me that hearing speech with it is like hearing an alien language. Frankly...he was full of shit. In retrospect, he was talking to me as someone he expected to have no idea what true speech sounded like anymore. Environmental and speech sounds all sound as they should. It's just that they are back. My brain must turn back on the speech-listening component so that I can hear talk radio and simply process the information as opposed to following the words. That is where the hurdle is. After compensating with lip reading for so long, even though my mind put the missing consonants in for all of these years, I have to let go and just let it come in. Listening should not be a chore as it has been for 25 years. I am confident that this is going to happen. I'm not even two weeks in and the benefits are so readily apparent. It's all been so worth it!
I saw my problems now I see the light
we got a loving thing
we got to feed it right
there ain't no danger we can go to far
we start believing now
that we can be who we are
Grease is the word
Grease - Frankie Valli
posted by David R at 3:10 PM
2 Comments:
Isn't it something else when normal hearing people, especially audiologists, try to tell you what sounds are like thru CI's or hearing aids, even though they have never used them?
I'm worried that these different programs will confuse me and I will get so frustrated.
Sounds like you're doing so well so far! Keep it up!
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