Six Months Later......
Firstly, my apologies for not updating this site over the past couple of months. I have simply
have not had the desire to continue to write updates, however, in that time I have received numerous emails and so on asking to continue it. So here goes the long awaited update to the site, to allow you to see how far we have come in the six months since I received my CI.
Now, I will let a picture speak a thousand words. This image consists of the audiogram that I had taken in May 2002, which would have been my last audiogram prior to CI surgery in Feb 2003. The Red CI and Blue HA is the results of an audiogram I had taken during my latest appointment at the centre. Red CI on the left is the hearing 'response' in my right ear with the CI on. Obviously there is a huge difference between the before and after especially in the higher frequencies.
Similarly, the blue HA is the left ear with the hearing aid on. I wear a GN Resound Canta 780-D high powered aid, since June this year. So at the very least we can say that the aid does actually make some difference to my hearing and as I have said many times before, it compliments the CI in the other ear very well. Just for those who wish to know, when the aid was fitted, we specifically did not add much gain to the higher frequencies as 1/ there was not a lot of point as there is not much hearing there anyway and 2/ to reduce the risk of feedback. Hence the response in this test was quite low in the 4000 Hz point.
So from the graph above one can imagine that I am quite happy with how things are going. In short YES.
There are so many things that many people would take for granted that I can now hear.
I guess, one way for me to emphasise this is to give you a table with the before and after results in different scenarios.
| Scenario |
Before |
After |
| Everyday conversation in 'quite' places | Relied very much on lip reading and much repetition. Very physically draining and quite tired at end of day due to amount of energy expended during day listening to people | Conversation tends to flow freely and with little if any repetition. Have a lot more energy left at end of day as not straining so hard to listen. Can (unfortunately) hear wife from next room calling me to do stuff |
| Talking in noisy environs such as workplace and shopping centres | Good Luck!! | Tend to do okay if the noise is constant, although will always struggle sometimes like everyone else in really noisy places. CI handles noise a lot better than high powered Hearing aids do |
| Telephone Use -home phone | Last time I used a telephone normally was approx three years ago, with great difficulty. Relied on others to make calls as well as use relay calls through TTY | Can use telephone with a large amount of sucess, using either adapter for the Sprint bady pack or T switch for 3G. TTY in cupboard gathering dust.... Still need to build confidence in phone usage though - have abused telstra customer service with great results - ain't life grand! |
| Mobile Telephone Use | Up to 6 SMS messages a day. no voice usage | Use a CDMA mobile phone voice calls very well using T switch and or microphone. Have a hands free kit in car which I use amazingly well! |
| Music Listening | In last few years very little | Will often have a CD in Car on way home from work each day, as well as listen to music at home while on PC. |
| Music - Performance | Had to 'retire' from playing guitar over last couple of years, really hated not playing but the stress of playing was too much | Have bought 'Mary' - my name for my guitar (see
pic)
Really starting to play a lot more on own. Can handle playing on own with a few others but with full band may never happen. Just taking little steps as we go. Plenty of time yet. |
| Work/Career | Had to be content with whatever I could get - the focus was on what I could get or do and not on what I wanted to do | Am currently doing time out in my current job - it is not what I want to do but it pays the bills. Will be commencing further Uni studies in 2004 in Teaching to become initially a high school music teacher but the main goal is to become a special education teacher. |