What is mappings?

I recently went on my 9 month review. It had been so fast few months and I cannot believe I have been hearing properly for 9 and a bit months. Unfortunately my CUNY test had dropped a bit to 79%, I did have bit of difficulty in lipreading recently hence drop in my CUNY test so I had major 2 and half hours of tuning, Sadly it's still not quite right so would have to call on Monday for another tune up. BUT.... the good news I had 3 of my 4 turned off electrodes switched back on. I had them turned off last October due to strange non auditory stimulation sensations on my temple. By one, Sarah, my audiologist, turned them back on and increased the volume until it matched my other electrode's levels and it was fine until she turned the Number 14 electrode on it was very low and immediately I could feel it again so she turned it back off, I may never have it back on again as we think it will always cause the sensations.
My mum who came along for her very first sit in at my mapping session since my first assessment back in January 2008!!! She had eventual morning of understanding the technical side of how the implant works. I think she found it a bit mind numbing but enjoyed her morning learning something new. She asked for copy of my Map....

If anyone wonders what mapping is, as I have a computer chip on my ear and it's so small that we cannot programme it so I have to be wired up to the bog standard laptop using half of my processor and cable to the lap top. Why lap top, because as an implantee with electronic device on my ear the lap top need to be powered by battery so I won't get electric shocks from wall plug!!

Each time I get tune up, my internal implant get checked out then the mappings starts....

this is my current map...


It's very technical to explain, I'll try my best..

The numbers 22 to 5 is my electrode numbers, the 4-1 is hidden behind the scrolls on right hand side. 22 is low frequency 1 is high frequency.

Red bars is my threshold (T)
Green bars is the quietest sound I can hear (C)
Blue bars (there's 3) above or in line with red bars are the levels that NRT (Nerve Response Test), it was tested while I was under GA at hospital during my CI operation almost year ago and I had it tested again recently so they can see where my nerve is responding and what level I could tolerate. This is commonly used in little kids as they cannot tell the audiologist what they are hearing or if it's too loud for them, the Blue bars tells the audiologist that it's far enough, sometimes after we were switched on and hearing alot more than ever the nerves works alot more harder the blue bars often goes up as the sounds gets quieter.

On left side states what implant (freedom), map number (#68), Strategy is ACE, Rate 900 hz, this is speed of current that sound travels from outside through the electrode to the nerve.

DR is Dynamic range
LF is low Frequency (not sure how that works) Sarah said they only test people 250 (Low Frequency) to 4000 Hz (High frequency) as it is within the speech range so there is no point for them to test either sides of 250/4000hz.

http://www.listen-up.org/ci/mapping.htm here's link to bit more details, you may need cup of tea and few biscuits as it is a bit long.

Monsters vs Aliens

Last night I went to cinema with a friend. It was the first time I went since I was implanted nearly a year ago. We watched Monsters vs Aliens 3D, It's cartoon. Because of 3D there is no subtitles. Of course I was a bit cautious about not being able to understand it let alone enjoy it....

Guess what... I was able to understand some of what they were saying without the need of subtitles and I really enjoyed it tremdously.