My rehabilitation now have come so far that during this half-year period I have not experienced such rapid advances as in the beginning. Therefore, in this post, I will gather my experiences from the 6 months that have passed since the last post.
The whole period, and actually also a little before, I have had a feeling of hearing well but still struggling to understand what people say in certain situations. This is because I’ve heard almost as much on my right ear as on my left ear.
Over months, as previously described, I gradually turned more up to the right than the left CI to make them more even in volume. So when we reached about the end of April / beginning of May, I now saw that the volume had become even.
For example, if I snap one’s fingers at each ear, the sound level is now around equal in both sides.
However, I still notice a clear difference in the sound quality of the two ears. That’s what I daily experience as some metallic sound, which still makes it harder to understand speech with the right ear. By comparison, the tones I hear in the left ear are much more natural, just like the sound I hear everyday is.
At the same time, the right ear discernment is not at the level of left ear yet, which was apparent at the hearing training in mid-February, where we practiced Speech Tracking. The text was a section of Tove Ditlevsen’s “Barndommens gade” (Childhood Street), which was read over 4 rounds:
- Both ears with mouth reading. Result: 77.5 words / min
- Both ears without mouth reading. Result: 65.5 words / min
- Right ear with mouth reading. Result: 70 words / min
- Right ear without mouth reading. Result: 30.5 words / min
The latter test clearly shows that I can hear a lot with the right ear, but that there is still no super good sound. At this time it is still difficult to understand speech with the right ear alone, without any text support or mouth reading.
Discernment has improved a bit since then, but it is still harder to understand what people sitting to the right of me say. It simply shows that I still need to train with the right ear!
Hearing training at home with iPad
In mid-February at the hearing training, I was handed over a lend iPad with various hearing related apps that can be used for self-training. Occasionally, it was difficult to do as much daily exercise as I should have done with right CI alone. I think that’s because the hearing development is generally good, so that I less often think of it in everyday life. But lending the iPad helped to motivate, because it’s easy to sit down with it, and it has many different apps for hearing training.
Use of phone
As told in previous blog posts, I am now able to talk on the phone again. So when I was to re-adjustment at Odense University Hospital on February 8th, we also talked about having a so-called Phone Clip, which can be used when talking on cell phones. The audiologist would do the order and it arrived at home by mail a few days later.
The Phone Clip is good to use, since the wireless connection to the CI’s give me sound in both ears by phone calls. It can also be used as hands-free equipment in the car as it has Bluetooth connection to the cell phone. Similarly, the Phone Clip can also be used to listen to media files on the cell phone.
The phone calls themselves have gone unproblematic, since I now clearly hear and understand what people are saying to me. It has been particularly nice to be able to call unknown people and without problems talking to them. Earlier this has always been a little difficult with the hearing aid, where I was dependent on good connection and sound to the one called. When I was having trouble with hearing, I had to completely give up that kind of conversation and have someone else call on behalf of me.
But now, at the time of writing, I can only remember 2 cases where I had difficulty hearing what they were saying. In both cases, the phone on the other end was bad – and that may happen to everyone.
Music and TV
Already at the beginning of the period I began to experience that the television volume was loud. In fact, I have now turned a little down, so it has a volume level that a normally hearing person will probably also find suitable.
I’m training with, and of course still listening to music. Here I quietly feel a development over time that the sound in the right ear becomes more normal, even it really is something that takes time. In the end of this period – i.e. in July, the sound in the right ear still has some metallic sound, but it is no longer something that spoils the music experience. When I hear music in stereo via the audio cable, I experience the music as I remember it from earlier with the hearing aid. However, there is the clear difference that I hear more details and now I can also hear more of the lyrics – also for songs I do not know in advance.
Other sound experiences
On the 24th of February I walked through an empty room at work, and randomly noticed the sound of the zipper on the shirt that rattled/clinked when I walked. It’s such a low noise that I could not hear it earlier with the hearing aid – It should at least be close to my ear.
Another example of the volume and what I am able to hear today was when I was visiting my aunt and uncle at the end of March; we came to talk about this with the zipper, and thereby, touched on the classic saying “it’s so quiet that you can hear a pin drop to the ground”.
Immediately we had to test it, so my aunt found a pin. First, we let it fall on a parquet floor approximately from hip height. The sound was very clear as the tree obviously amplifies the sound. Then we tried the same on a tile floor. Here the sound was weak, but I could just hear it when I dropped the needle myself and then knew when the sound came.
Again it’s an example of a sound so weak that I could not hear it before, using a hearing aid.
Conversely, a little earlier, on February 2nd, I had a single experience of something that still sounded completely wrong. This evening I looked at Facebook, and among other things, I watched a movie clip with a modified Audi RS6 that was richly revved in neutral. It just sounded completely wrong compared to how V8 engines sounded previously, using the hearing aid.
It was a bit curious, as I otherwise experienced engine sounds as sounding normal again – at least what I could hear before the CI’s closed down constant sound.
Later, in April, I saw another clip with some V8 engine. I remembered the above experience and listened a little more closely to the sound this time. The engine sound still had a different sound – or maybe a little more treble than I remember from earlier. However, I was able to hear the V8’s characteristic sound. But it’s a different sound to get used to.
In fact, this is very good in line with the fact that a CI gets a clearer treble. Honestly I think I could not hear so much treble with the hearing aid anyway – at least not the last few years.
Apropos engine sound, I have in previous blog posts touched the topic of noise reduction in the CI’s. The attentive reader will remember that at first re-adjustment I was told that the volume was so low at the CI’s that the attenuation represented a relatively high percentage of this volume. Thus, the experienced attenuation should be less pronounced as I increased the CI volume.
Now 3-4 months later, when I was at a much higher volume, I had to give the audiologist justice in this statement. For example, I could easily hear the engine in my car, but it still was relatively attenuated compared to what I experienced before, when using the hearing aid.
However, it was still not good to listen to music directly, i.e. without audio cable. So at this point I still looked forward to some more program options – maybe even after the next re-adjustment on May 10th?
As these lines were written in the beginning of May, it might also be possible, as I could sense that I gradually approached a final level of volume, simply because some sounds began to be loud so that the head could not handle anymore. But, also because I could hear many quite tiny sounds.
Third re-adjustment at Odense University Hospital
On Wednesday, May 10th 2017, it was time to re-adjust my CI’s. Therefore I drove to the hearing clinic at Odense University Hospital in Odense again.
This day only re-adjustment was on the program.
This time the audiologist to set up my CI processors, again was a new person, named Ellen. Ellen and I started with a brief talk about my current situation, and thus what we should change this day.
As with the last re-adjustments, we started with my right CI. Meanwhile left CI was switched off.
We went straight to re-adjust the different tones to the same sound level. Ellen played the 22 tones, divided into groups of 5 tones. This time it did not require much effort, as there were only a few tones to be adjusted – again indicating that the new hearing is being trained and therefore stabilizes.
We later made the same adjustment on the left ear. Again, it went very quick, as I only needed some tones adjusted once.
Instead of the progressive programs, I this time got “real” audio programs in the CI’s. Shortly before this day, I randomly read on Facebook about someone who had got a “Scan” program that attenuated slightly less than the standard “Scan” program. Exactly the standard “Scan” program is what I’ve had since I got the CI’s in November. Since I have always thought this program attenuated noise quite aggressively, I asked for such a less attenuated “Scan” program.
However, since the default “Scan” program is good for conversation in certain noisy situations, we retained this.
I was also added the long-wanted “Music” program, so I now have 3 programs for different listening situations.
Thus I was done for this time and could drive home.
The result of this day was thus a fine tuning without any real increase in volume. But even though I do not increase in volume, I’m still on the right track and instead can concentrate on improving sound quality, especially on the right ear.
Afterwards, of course, I have tried the new music program, but I am unfortunately not satisfied; It turns out that this program also attenuates the sound – in fact, I can not hear any difference between the two new programs, i.e. music program and the less attenuated “Scan” program. The result is that I lose some of the dynamics of the music, which sounds flat and boring. I’ll have to fix that before the next re-adjustment, not until six months later. Otherwise, this program will not be used!
I will be heading to Odense University Hospital on August 22nd to fix this issue.
Until then, I have to keep listening to music with the audio cable connected to cell phone, PC, etc. Here the sound is not attenuated in the same way, so that the music sounds correct.
Waterproof Aqua+ equipment
In recent months I have also been on the water for sailing and have therefore tried the waterproof Aqua+ equipment.
So far, it has been a positive acquaintance since it has not influenced the CI at all, that I have had my head under water. However, I have not tried to swim properly with it, so it has only been short-lived dives and heavy water spray.
On the other hand, I experienced some funny behaviour with the standard “Scan” program combined with the Aqua+ equipment; Because, when inside the silicone sleeve that is part of Aqua+, the CI obviously have some difficulties by regulating the sound to the surroundings. It sometimes made the sound nice and loud, while the CI occasionally turned unmistakably down the sound so I could barely hear what people were saying.
With the new, slightly less attenuating “Scan” program, this trend is luckily much less – and no longer something that bothers.
But since the sound is a bit attenuated compared to normal when the CI is into the silicone sleeve, and I at the same time only have Aqua+ for one CI, it’s clear that I do not hear as much on the water as otherwise. In fact, it reminds me a little about recent years of hearing aid. However, that means less because I primarily sail a one person dinghy, as long I have a device that works all the time…