Third month (January 2017)
Telephone calls are the big news this month when I talked on the phone for the first time in years.
My mother sent a text message to me on January 12th. Because by this time I sat with the audio cable installed in the CIs and listened to an audio book on the phone, I decided to try to answer the text message by calling. I had by this time a while where I seemed hearing was good, so I would see if I probably could hear what she said on the phone too. The conversation went quite smoothly, for the pleasant surprise to both of us.
I tried shortly thereafter a phone talk with my father, but here only with the phone held up to the left CI. It actually went just as fine, and the only difference besides that I only have the sound in one ear, is actually just that I need to be focused on the mobile’s speaker is held to the CI microphone so the sound level is constant.
At a later stage – I do not remember exactly when, I sat again and listened to an audio book, when my father called me. As I trained right ear alone, I did not have left CI plugged in – it was on the table. I answered the call despite the fact I had not tried with the right ear alone, as I thus got a good opportunity to test it with a known voice. I could hear a little of what he said, but it was not any good. I heard with some trouble no more than half of what he said, while I by the rest of it sat with the thought “I wonder what he’s talking about?”. Exactly this reminded me a lot about the last times we talked on the phone when I had hearing aid and dwindling hearing, where repeated repetitions and clear voice did not make understanding much better. A frustrating situation then, but now I hope more training with the right ear to remedy the problem, since it works well with left CI.
But it’s really nice to be able to talk on the phone again, which I have not been able to do for years. Exactly my father was the last I with difficulty were able to talk to before I had to give it up completely for a couple of years ago. Talking on the phone is one thing that makes everyday life easier compared to having to write many long text messages, emails, etc.

Eleventh week
Again we were joined by a trainee to follow the auditory training, which this time was a guy named Nicolai. He listened with along the way.
Volume was 2.6 on the left ear, and 3.6 on the right ear.
All exercises throughout this training were made with only the right CI on.
We trained all ment sounds with fine results. Only “uuu” were teased and mistaken for “mmm”, “iii” and “aaa”. We continued with outdoor sounds that I heard and identified 14 out of 15 correct. We trained reading of two words with different numbers of syllables, with one repeated. I am to tell whether it is short or long word that are repeated. I have no trouble hearing the difference in the number of syllables. I also hear about half of the words as they are spoken without having a text to follow.
Then we played with the app “120 ord” (120 words) which is a multiplayer game. I started playing alone and then against Mathilde and Nicolai. Fun but a little hard to hear the short words quickly, when we played the game as multiplayer against each other.

Additionally, I have home trained with audio book as previously, heard music every day, playing with apps on my phone, but also had telephone conversations with different people.

Twelfth week
Here is a week where I have not had taken so many notes. But besides auditory training, I trained with audio book, both with and without text support. Here Mathilde also reminded me of the importance of training the audio book with text support too. It is because I admittedly can hear a lot just by listening, but the words I do not hear will never be learned, if I do not look in the text too. Well, I can see the logic of this, and must remind myself to train both onwards.
Still I also listen to music every day, both because I enjoy it, but also because it simply IS good sound training.
I am also starting slowly to get the feel for directionality of sounds better than before. It is also, however slightly along with the fact that the sound is more metallic on the right ear. Thereby, I hear the sound more metallic when it comes from the right than from the left side of me.

Thirteenth week
Auditory training
Volume is now 2.9 on the left ear and 4.2 on the right ear. Again we train with only the right CI on.
We repeat the exercise from last week with different number of syllables and one word repeated, where I need to tell if it is the short or long word that are repeated. This time I have all 15 words correct, and hear even many of the words without lip reading, and without being able to see the text.
It is also worth noting that the good results are also due to the exercises carried out under ideal listening conditions where we sit right across from each other in a quiet room.
We make distinction exercises with “g” and “k” words and short words of g, v and d are trained without problems.

Fourteenth week
I participated the CI-themed evening on CI and tinnitus in SCR Communication in Roskilde, which is the same place I go to auditory training. The evening was all about tinnitus from a psychological and physical therapeutic perspective. So, it was about having tinnitus associated with CI and what you can do about it. It is very different when people have tinnitus and how they experience it. Some have it before surgery, and some have it after, and then there are people like me who had violent music tinnitus in the month between surgery and the CI connection. Today I have only a little tinnitus in the left ear, which I almost only noticeable when the CI is off.
Finally, there was a short workshop with a representative of the respective CI firms – in my case Cochlear, where we was told a little about the latest products and accessories. There was also the opportunity to ask questions about your CI.
It was also the day before I had to go to re-adjustment at the hearing clinic in Odense. It will be interesting to see how big the change is then, and if I get some other audio programs or will continue to increase the volume.

I have not been practicing so much with the right CI alone and in general, this week. This is probably because it generally goes well with auditory development, so the motivation has been decreasing, especially when I have to train alone.
However, I have, as always, trained with music listening. Here I also have a sense of perceiving more and more of what is sung. Certainly bits and pieces, but still sang I could not decipher before.
So generally, I can tell that thanks to the continuous training, I experience constant progress. But at the same time I gradually at a stage where I sometimes do not feel progress so much. One can say that there is not so much day-to-day changes, like I feel that I should be looking for the new sound experiences. It should not be understood negatively, but is more a sign that my new CI-hearing works, and that I have largely gotten used to how the outside world sounds to me today.