Memories brought back

As I have started to read Audio books. My friend, Laura, recommended me to read Roald Dahl books.
The last time I read them were about 20 years ago, I was just a 11 year old school girl!!! It had brought memories back, I remember I was engrossed in those books, I loved Roald Dahl amazing imagation and his creative stories.
Laura and I went out to Waterstones and bought Fantastic Mr Fox Audio CD and book, along with it I also bought Danny the champion of the world book as Laura got the CD already. These CD's are unadbridged which means word to word without music and narration which made it easier and less confusing. Recently I downloaded both CD's onto Itunes which were downloaded on to my Ipod. I try and spend least 30 mins a day listening and reading.

Next Stop

.. Winchester, was my first Train announcement on a very noisy and full train yesterday... I had to check with ransom besumed stranger if I heard it right!

The new map isn't too bad but there is few issues with it as I nearly stepped into path of an ambulance, it came out round the corner from no where at full speed and I did my green man code, I guess the listen part didn't work! Thanks to my friend who suddenly realised that I couldn't hear it and grabbed me. I did hear it on my old map so on the 12Th June I am going back for yet another mapping session to see if I could get those sounds back.

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.

Uh Oh, lesson learnt.

I have been really good in the past 8 and half months since my activation day to carry my spare batteries. Mum used to nag me all my life to carry spare battery for my hearing aids but I always never bothered, why... For one I never really heard much through HA's and sometimes don't notice if they are flat and when they are flat I just take them out and leave in my pockets! 2nd thing... they last long time. One battery per Hearing aid used to last me 2 weeks at most so I didn't think i need to carry them all the time so I never paid attention to my mum's nagging.

The Cochlear Implant had changed my life because I took the sounds for granted and I love wearing it. THREE batteries for one implant lasts me 4 days. It gets shorter as my mappings/hearing improves over time.

I have been so busy lately and today is my first day to myself in weeks! Yesterday I was called into work as bit of emergency as we are expecting heavy rains the next 2 days so we needed to get the outside jobs done. While working I heard beep beep.... yep my Cochlear implant battery is going... ok I have half an hour before it goes completely flat... wrong it went FLAT in 5 mins, I think I missed the half hour warning as we were outside and it's windy. I ran to the office... can't find a packet of batteries, so went to the car, yay 2 packets... oh no they both are full of flat batteries. How stupid of me. I faced few hours of complete silence and whitewash noise in my other ear which is bearing a Hearing aid, no birds, no wind, no voices, no dog tags, just completely jumbled up sounds that made no sense at all.

Over few weeks my friends, collegues had noticed that they didn't need to tap my shoulder or shout to get my attention. Yesterday my collegue realised that my Hearing aid (in my other ear) isn't doing any justice and had to tap my shoulder. I felt despair! I was almost in tears and realised that my CI is very important part of my life and I must kick myself into gear and replace all the batteries in the car, my bag and leave couple of packets at work.

This made me realise that prospect of going Bilateral (cochlear implants for both ears), I would love to have 2, I think I would be perfect candiate for it BUT according to NICE guidelines which was renewed recently stating that I can't have another one unless I am under 19, visually impaired or phsyically disabled. Other soulution to this is to fund myself... I don't think so as each implant/device costs £40,000 roughly and there's after care for the rest of my life which could be around £3000 per year.

Oh well lets hope there is something better for my unimplanted ear soon.

Right off to collect old batteries and replacing them with spanking new packet plus an extra packet!

New CI moments...

For few weeks something was nagging me... I realised i couldn't hear my dog tags or the cultery noises in the sink.... things were sounding just so muffled, like it had lost it's clairty. So I emailed to Sarah my Audi who said i could see her the next day. It had been a record of 3 months since my last mapping!

Had hearing test, on the audiogram it had showed that my high freqency hearing had gone down on a long steep ski slope!! Sarah reckons that my brain had got used to it alot and it just went quieter quickly than usual. I am so glad I noticed it and I felt that i wasn't wasting anyone's time.

We had long tweaking, tuning and 3 hearing tests I am back to where I was but bit better clairty than before.... psst i could go on to 20db across the board but Sarah feels I am not ready for quiet sounds!! so she tweaked my CI back to 30/35db across the board. My dog tags is back. The cultery noise is back to my annoyance! Added some music software on to my programs for me to try out when listening through my Ipod.

My godness..... I could pick out Elton John "candle in the wind" ABBA "Mamma Mia" out of 15 songs straightaway without even looking!!! I was in awe, I couldn't believe it.

I was discussing with my collegue at work and then he made phone call to our boss, I OVER HEARD what they were talking about without lipreading... all this I knew what he was talking about since we already talked about it.

I like this mapping!

My 9 month review is on the 27th May and mum is coming home for it... it will be her first involvement to my mapping session and hearing tests since I was implanted.

Happy Mother's day, Mum

Hi Mum, Hope you are having great day and dad is spoiling you for us (my brother and I) I am sorry I couldn't be there with you but I am there in spirit. I appreciate your help over the years and I love you (and dad) very much. Hope you are coming back in UK for a visit soon.

Since it's Mother's Day today in UK, I attempted to call my mum, sadly the phone weren't loud enough so I had to text her instead.

Few days ago I was annoyed by response of the sensory centre who helps deaf/HOH people to test out phones. My cochlear implant recommended me and a friend also a CI user to the sensory centre. We arrived there expecting to try at least one phone but left without trying ONE phone. The lady said we need phone training...eh! and they are sorting this out with my CI centre, why would my CI centre tell us to go there without "phone training" also this is very first we had heard of and the CI centre never mentioned this. So we have to wait until at least April for our appointment. I so wanted to get the phone that I can use/hear well/clarity is clear enough so I could call my mum on her Mother's day as I know this would make her day. Oh well... Never mind, there's next year, mum.

On good note I am picking up alot of new sounds....

I can hear my mobile phone ringing in the next room!!!

I have the pleasure of hearing my beloved dog Boris tags jangling while we are out walking. This gave me chance to keep walking knowing his whereabouts up to about 30 feet without looking, if the jangling stops, I would check for him. Pre Implant I was always looking around and keeping eye on Boris, I was frightened for his safety.

Yesterday, We were playing ball. I threw a ball over towards to the pavement, Boris ran so fast and stopped on the pavement.. I could hear him skidding on the pavement... owwwiieee!! that must be painful, I checked his paws... tough little bugger was fine!

I can tell the difference between different bird singing.. Magpies, Jays, Crow, but having difficulty identifying black bird, blue tit their singing is very high and sound similar. I walk around the park hearing all those singing at ease, no struggling to listen.

So far I had same mapping since before I went to Austria more than 2 months ago, it does need tiny tweaking but I think I would settle for this mappings until Mid May when I go for my 9 month tune up, But I don't think I need much of tune up.

Mum's cherry tree had bloomed, daffodils had come out and it had been really beautiful and sunny all week. Hope this would continue next week as I am off to Centre Parc for long weekend.