The first month has passed since I got sound with my two Cochlear Implant (CI) processors. And besides, they look like this when they sit on my head:
It has been an exciting time with a lot of improvement, which I will describe.
It has been great that I am almost able to hear the difference from day to day. Of course there is still a long way with more challenges ahead, but also with a hearing that is continuously improving. But in general, the progress has lived up to my expectations until now.
I refer, of course, on how things have gone, in relation to the expectations and hopes I had in advance – and not least in relation to how other CI users have described their first time.
In the beginning, I really felt that all sound sounded strange in relation to the hearing aid. The challenge is not only to hear the sounds, but being able to interpret and understand them.
If you imagine that on a place in the hearing snail that normally records a 2000 hertz sound, suddenly hear a sound at 1000 hertz, it can almost be experienced as if one heard a beeping sound on 2000 hertz. Therefore the brain has to learn that the beeping sound actually is a completely different sound. When I got my CI processors connected, I experienced virtually only high-frequency beeps, but already during the first week I experienced that some sounds began to sound right – or more right.
But still I came amazingly fast to the point where I could hear and interpret speak as well as I did with the hearing aid in the last time.
So thereby I could already there say that I do not regret the decision to get the CI surgery. Also this of course does that I have to be careful not to expect a too quick result – it’s a big mouthful to have to learn to hear sounds right, and also in a different way.
It can be a little hard to see how to achieve the goal when, for example music initially sounds like a decent game high frequency hiss, where you really just feel the rhythm and hear some stifled song.
However, from the beginning I have been prepared that it would sound different than before. Therefore it has been easy to accept – accept that for example music sounds quite different and in wrong way compared to what I’ve been used to.
But it can be hard to put things into words, while it has been difficult to find the energy to get these blog posts written. It has been difficult to find the energy to sit down and write when I came home from work and I felt bombed in the head by the new sound. I think you have to try it to understand how much a new, unfamiliar and also higher sound tiring – it’s huge! And then there is also the hearing training, and other things in life you also have to do. So many days I did not have more energy than to throw myself on the couch, frankly.
This is also the reason that it unfortunately has taken me a long time to get these blog entries about the first time finished.
Generally the whole first month I had a feeling that I only partly heard sounds – sounds in the high frequency part of the spectrum. While all deep sounds wholly or partly were missing, which for example was clear when at one point I tried to listen to music on living room stereo again; The subwoofer was pounding, but I heard nothing of it!
It is also, however slightly connected with an eye-opening experience I had when I found out that the CI processors have a program that dampens sound. This was opposite to what I had read about others’ experiences in the beginning. I thought you started sound training without attenuation, to learn the sounds. I haven’t been informed of this when I received the processors at the connection day.
I discovered it one evening, after about one week with the new CI-processors, where I switched on the cooker hood in the kitchen. Shortly after I noted that it was just as the sound was gone. Then I tested it by turning it off and on again. Now it was quite obvious that the sound was clearly audible in 1-2 seconds and then disappeared. So the processors dampens noise – hmm, I was not completely satisfied with this, because it is harder to hear and learn some loud and/or constant sounds.
As the weeks passed by and I gradually got CI volume turned up, this attenuation became more obvious and annoying.
It must be remembered that from childhood I had the old analogue hearing aids that did not have these kinds of audio programs. So this feature is something I have and have had considerable difficulty in getting used to, after I started using digital hearing aids; I think it sounds wrong when the device dampens, almost like when the battery is running low. And the sound also changes constantly, so I think it is inconsistent to listen to.
I agreed with myself that the problem to be addressed in the upcoming readjustment. Read more about it in the post about the readjustment.
The following are a summary of each week, which is based on the auditory training lessons I went to 2 times a week at this time.
First week (after receiving the CI processors)
After I got CI processors Thursday, November 3rd, I was on my own during the weekend and got a little used to the new sound.
But Monday, November 7th, I attended the first hearing training with Mathilde by SCR Communication in Roskilde.
1st auditory training:
Here we started with a conversation about my CI-progress until now – which I have described in previous blog posts:
- The surgery went fine. I communicated by lip reading with subsequent ease.
- Dizziness is fading away, and I almost no longer feel it. In the beginning fast movements made me a bit tumultuous, but it’s gone now.
- Told about my experiences with tinnitus, where I heard minor music bits repeated endlessly, which the doctor said was my music memory. I also told him that I at this time experienced a weak overlaying tone, when the new CI-processors are not connected. It is mostly present on the left ear (previous hearing ear). CI processors have luckily downplayed the powerful “music tinnitus” much, so there is only a bit when I have not used the CI processors in a long time.
- Told also about connecting day the week before. Read about this in the blog post “First day with the new CI-sound”.
I also told about the progressive programs loaded into my CI processors, which is operated with the supplied remote. That it is progressive to say that it is programs meant so that I can regularly turn up the volume, as the head gets used to the sound.
As processors and remote control are designed for 4 programs, it works in the way that there are 4 levels, each with 10 volume steps. So I can increase the volume 40 steps before the first re-adjustment of CI-processors on December 7th. This day I am at program 2.4 – that is level 2, volume 4.
There is only one volume, because the two processors are interconnected so volume is adjusted together on the right and left. It will be changed later, so that they can be adjusted individually.
I also told her that I hoped to get some more volume on the right ear at the next readjustment because I already at this early stage felt that the better left ear took over because it was set to louder volume than the right. It was obvious when I had both CI’s turned on for a while, and then turned the left off. Then it was as if I was totally deaf in my right ear for some time. Unlike if I only turned the right CI on after a sound break. As mentioned in previous blog posts, then it is possible to hear a little and distinguish individual sounds in this ear.
Then we trained if I could distinguish the difference between the basic sounds, the so-called ment sound “aa”, “uu”, “ii”, “ss”, “sj” and “mm” with both CI’s on. I distinguish finely between “uu”, “ii” and “ss” sounds.
2nd auditory training:
I am at volume 2.5. We turned up to 3.1 during the training session, but then went back to volume 2.8.
We talked about goals for usage of the CI: Mathilde showed me a sheet of paper with a large arrow and various scenarios set along the arrow, as potential final goals, with levels approaching normal hearing as highest level. I immediately pointed at the highest goal at the arrowhead. I am determined to go all the way to (approximately) normal hearing in both ears. It will probably take a long time, especially with the former deaf right ear.
Again Mathilde repeats that it is not for sure that I get this far. However, I have plenty of go-on against, and I will not downgrade my goals until I experience that the development stagnates.
My attitude is that I haven’t got CI on the right ear just to get a partial or half bad hearing in relation to the left ear, although it might take a long time to train.
This is also because, as I have already experienced, that I do not want to risk the left ear takes over and I thus actually will not be really hearing on the right ear. Then it will in my view be a little wasted with CI. So there need to be worked really hard on training of the right ear!
We talked about that I need a stereo audio cable to train with both the various apps and music on PC and my smartphone. Mathilde will arrange order of the audio cable to me.
Hereafter we trained the ment sounds with the right and left CI, separately. It became clear that I hear fairly well on the left ear, but right ear is lagging behind.
With left ear I distinguish with ease between “ss”, “ii” and “uu” but I can not distinguish them with the right ear at all.
Then we make another exercise with the right ear, which I unfortunately misunderstand a little. But again it is clear that I do not have a real hearing in the right ear yet.
I think it was here we decided to focus on training with both CI’s simultaneously, up to the first re-adjustment. Then our hope was that I will get much louder sound in my right ear. Then we will return to concentrate on training of the right ear because I already understand speech relatively well on the left ear – especially considering that I have had only CI-hearing in a week’s time!
We continued the training of both ears at the same time, with indoor everyday sounds. The exercise is done by 3-4 pictures put in front of me, and then I shall point out the picture that matches the sound I hear. I heard them without serious problems.
Of course, one must remember that at this point we trained sounds with relatively big difference. Later in the process the severity will be increased, with sounds that are closer to each other.
In addition, I also made home training during the week:
I along with my parents trained daily with the “Hør hvad jeg CI’er 1” (Hear what I say) booklet, which contains, among other aforementioned ment sounds. But also several short sentences and texts with increasing difficulty.
It is done by them reading a sentence that I should be able to repeat.
It is supposed that one starts read along the text, and later simply lip read simultaneously. But it soon became too easy, so we trained the booklet with readings, without lip reading.
We also jumped quickly into difficulty, and already did the entire booklet. Only “i”, “aa” and “sj” sounds teased me, such as the Danish words Øjvind (a name) and sjal (shawl).
With lip reading, I experience this week to hear and understand talk roughly as with the hearing aid before surgery. There’s just a different sound and some beeps, but they are diminishing.
I hear more and more environmental sounds, but the CI’s dampens constant sounds/noise. E.g. car engine and the music on living room facility, to the extent that it is not audible.
Second week
Home training continued on a daily basis over the weekend, but the “Hør hvad jeg CI’er 1” (Hear what I say) booklet has been too easy as I eventually remember it by heart. So we read instead from some children’s books – still without lip reading!
3rd auditory training:
First I got a few pieces of paper with various practical information about Cochlear Nucleus 6 processor, which comes from Odense University Hospital, but as I was not handed at the connection day in Odense.
We started training today with reading from the “Hør hvad jeg CI’er 1” (Hear what I say) booklet, without lip reading. It is a text in the harder end of the booklet. Mathilde were impressed by that I hear almost everything from this text.
We continued with indoor sounds, where I shall point out images corresponding to the sound. I hear them all.
Finally I was given a new booklet 2 in the “Hør hvad jeg CI’er” (Hear what I say) series for home training.
In the days after the auditory training I received by mail, the stereo audio cable with mini-jack connector, so I now can do listening training with sound from the smartphone or PC.
There were no instructions with the cable, but by searching the web I found out that, from where the cable is divided into two, the short wire is for the left ear and the long wire is for the right ear. This should be general for headphones where right/left is not specified with letters.
I tried immediately to listen to music with it. Listening training with music I already know of is good training, so I would like to start as soon as possible.
Among others, I tried some of my favourite tracks with King Diamond / Mercyful Fate, but there were too many its details in the music that made it very hard to distinguish – it was like a very muddy sound. But after trying a few different other tracks, I found out that Metallica’s “Kill ‘Em All” album was a good place to start; James Hetfield sounded as though he had a sore throat! Thin, hoarse voice and the music sounded generally wrong. But I was clearly able to recognize and follow the music and singing. At the same time it was a whole new experience to hear in stereo! – I did not hear the music properly on the right ear yet, but heard yet clear when there were riffs played by the right ear. How cool!
4th auditory training:
Volume is now at 3.1. During the hearing the training we turned up the volume till 3.5 today.
Again we trained with the “Hør hvad jeg CI’er 2” (Hear what I say) booklet. We continued with an exercise in which two words are spoken without lip reading, and finally one of these were repeated. I must repeat the last word correctly and thereby hear the difference.
We also trained ment sounds and for this exercise we turned up to volume 4.1. I distinguished all of them, except that “sj” is heard as “s”.
We continued with indoor sounds, where I shall point out images corresponding to the sound. I heard them all and distinguish finely between them. But I had a funny experience of the sound of a piano and a guitar, both of which sounded like a xylophone! We found some xylophone videos from YouTube to hear the difference, but it also sounds the same way.
Mathilde then introduced me to the old sailor song “Den er fin med kompasset” (That’s fine with the compass) which can be found on Youtube. It is easy to listen to, so I can train understanding of what the man sings.
Eventually I was given the audiobook “The Bicycle” so I can train in listening to voices. It was about the easiest audiobook they had – with a low readability index, so that I could keep up with it.
My parents and I continued home training with the “Hør hvad jeg CI’er 2” (Hear what I say) booklet, reminiscent of the first issue – it’s just other texts. We trained at the most difficult level, which is listening to an unknown text, without being able to read lips. It’s almost too easy already. Only the last texts with long sentences were difficult. We supplemented by children’s books, as mentioned.
Third week
5th auditory training:
We trained today a few exercises I can not remember. The notes say that it was a picture with questions: Pyramid with children. But I am doing the exercises with ease.
We practiced also song agreement with “Den er fin med kompasset” (That’s fine with the compass).
We trained with several apps on an iPad, with sound through my audio cable: “Touch the Sound”, “Young Genius” with music and finally ”Se bogstavlyde” (See letter sounds) which was too difficult at this time.
I got an app overview with me so I could investigate at home, whether some of those we have trained with, are available to my Android smartphone.
Since I received the new audio cable, I have home trained with music. Among other things by listening to “Den er fin med kompasset” (That’s fine with the compass) on Youtube.
But I also still train with my parents. They are both retired, so they happily have time available and we can meet almost every day to train.
6th auditory training:
I am now on volume 3.8.
Again we trained an exercise that I do not remember. But it was done without problems.
Again we trained with “Den er fin med kompasset” (That’s fine with the compass). This time focusing on passages that is hard to understand.
I was handed the text of a new piece of music sung by the same man and also found on Youtube: “Katinka, Katinka.” I could then keep on training with this.
We also trained with a new app called “120 words”, which dealt with finding/hearing words or conversely hear the word and spell it.
At home I have trained with audiobook “The Bicycle”. I heard it on the computer’s speaker, that is, without audio cable. I could hear it all just by listening. That is, without text support, and with both CI’s on, which I though was a little impressive as laptop speakers are not known to be the best.
Fourth week
Volume is now at 4.3. I can at this level begin to hear the words with right CI alone. The sound is far away, but I can share common courtesies and similar small phrases, for example with colleagues, supported by lip reading and where I know what we’re talking about.
I had just such an experience, a day at work when I said goodbye to a colleague at the end of the day, and only after he had gone, I remembered that only the right CI was turned on. Great to hear what he said, only with the right ear – Think that until a short time ago I was 100% deaf in this ear!
7th auditory training:
For training today, we made several small exercises which were done without problems. However, we also made a so-called prosody exercise that was too severe. If I remember right, it was an exercise in which the same phrase should first be said as a question, and then as an observation. That is to say phrases that in writing can be ended with ? and ! characters respectively. Impossible to hear the difference! At least in Danish such phrases are formulated differently, so I do not think this exercise made sense. Mathilde gave me right, it was hard to tell the difference when we “turned the exercise” so I read a few sentences for her.
Afterwards Mathilde introduced me to the app MusiCity which seems like a smart app for home use, at the level I am at now.
But unfortunately, it turns out later when I came home, that the app is not available for Android. Since I do not have any of Apple’s iHullo, it is unfortunately not possible to use MusiCity.
Mathilde introduces me to Musical Atmospheres. We listen and distinguish among others between guitar and male/female voice. It is a webpage on the web that can be used to listening training with music. The page is made by Advanced Bionics, which makes one of the competing CI’s, which I deselected – but that doesn’t matter here because the page can be used by all.
I have home trained with the audiobook “The Bicycle”, still pure listening and without text support. It has almost become easy.
Listened to the song “Katinka, Katinka,” which went well. I can understand parts of the song without seeing the text, but can also find back to the right place in the text when I lose the thread.
I have listened quite a bit to my own music; “Kill ’em All” has been running quite a bit on repeat. That may sound monotonous, but it’s actually good listening exercise to listen to the same thing over and over again until the sounds “fall into place” in the head, and sounds right again.
But I have also tried with some other tracks, such as Green Day’s “Dookie” which is also more or less audible at this time. I have found out that the music is best heard on the phone with the audio cable.
I also did listening training to music with Musical Atmospheres, which was also good training.
Fifth week
8th auditory training:
It’s the day before I will be heading to re-adjustment of the CI’s in Odense, so here we concentrate on making a few tests. I’m doing tests with excellent results when I hear the most parts.
We also did a “Speech Tracking” test to be done with lip reading, corresponding to a normal conversation situation. The test is done by a text in a specific number of words that are spoken while taking time. Underway I must repeat the text correctly sentence by sentence. When the text is read, time is stopped, and it is now possible to calculate how many words you understand per minute. In this test I scored 66.6 words/minute, which is above the category “Very few difficulties (to understand the words)”. Normal hearing persons will in this test be able to score 80-120 words/minute.
This was my experiences in the first month of the new CI sound. Progress has fortunately been really good, which as also mentioned in the introduction, gives a belief in a good end result.