First follow-up in Vancouver

I had my first follow-up today. It was pretty interesting. We were able to find a way to compensate for the facial nerve stimulation in 2 of the electrodes that were causing it by keeping the intensity down, but upping the gain to compensate. Seems to be working.

They gave me 4 different offshoots of the main program (the one of the three I preferred) for different situations. For example - Dr Pijl took me outside the hospital onto Burrard ave - a NOISY place, and with "program 1a" running it was almost too loud. He then activated Program 1c and in 20 seconds the entire background noise/traffic totally disappeared and all I could hear was his voice. I just totally rocked!!

I had asked him what the DB threshold for my CI was and after we did the programming and re-map (took about an hour and a half) he did an audiometry test to see what was happening.

Pre-ci my hearing loss was 120 - 130 db.

I am now hearing (with the CI) 20 db. Anything over 20 db is termed a "hearing loss"....I'm hearing at NORMAL HEARING LEVELS!!!!!!!!!

I'm completely blown away. So is he. He said he's never seen anybody so far be able to sense sounds that soft. I'm just still in a bit of a daze - each day things just get better and better. Its ONLY been one month, but I've held a conversation with my Mom in the kitchen and me in the living room without a problem!

Its far beyond my wildest dreams. I have to pinch myself to see if its "really real".

And they say it will just keep getting better. Right now Mom's the only one I can really fully understand, but I'm picking up words here and there. I had the radio on the other day and I was able to pick up a lot of two and three-syllable words with ease. I'm LOVING music and relearning all my old favorite songs.

I'll add more soon - right now I'm just kinda overwhelmed again...Its like winning the lottery twice in a row!