Hey all! I shared my pre-surgery questions and info, and also my post-surgery experience. The gusher appears to be holding well. My surgeon gave a 4 week hard restriction on exercise and just walking and lifting no more than 10lbs (5 days left, bring it on!), which has been tough as an extremely active person.
Before I share my experiences so far, I was to preface it with sharing that I have -II (also known as Mondini dysplasia). I wanted to share that as I struggled to find many experiences from an IP-II implant perspective, so want to put mine out there. I did extensive research and it seems that those with IP-II can and often do have good outcomes, though it can take longer than other -borgs.
So, Day 0, activation day! Whew. That was rough, in a very exhausting way. So many beeps. Beep after beep for each of the 22 electrodes to find my C-threshold and T-level. After this was done (about a good 45mins or so), she turned on my Nexus Nuclear 8 and tested it out. I was finding the sound… very uncomfortable. No matter what program/volume. My audi then tried a program they have that she informed me most people on average adjust to this by the end of their mapping appointments. It sounded much more comfortable, so we set it to that and will adjust from there! Honestly I got a little overwhelmed twice because it is a lot. I wasn’t hearing words but I was ‘hearing’, and it was emotional even if it was buzzing and beeps!
All day on activation day everything sounds like buzzing, static, and beeps. Nothing made sense. But I put it down to being extremely exhausted, having had constant beeps. I am now on Day 4, and I’ve been keeping track on more ‘distinguishable sounds’ I’m here. So far I’ve identified:
- My own breathing
- Colleague shaking a mixer bottle (heard the metal ball inside too)
- Metal/glass on countertops when making my coffee
- Toaster oven timer clicking (took me a minute to figure it out, I thought it was the gas stove clicking but I wasn’t even using it!)
- Birds chirping
- Different birds chirping
- Cicadas (I think anyway, it’s incessant early in the morning and at night!)
- Dog toy squeaking
- My trucks turn indicator
- Warning beep in my truck I’d left a door open
- My dogs paws/nails on paved trail at dog park
- My dog panting heavily after running
- Dog collar jingling when my dogs shake their head
- Clicking of keyboard in office
- Recognised music was playing in office (I know it plays overhead, but I’ve never picked it up before)
- Can pick up the beat of songs I know very well
- Prosody of speech
Very random, assortment of things I know, and there’s more I’ve probably not noted but sometimes I’m unable to. But my audi told me keep notes of what I hear and notice. Also, I’ve been on program 4 since day 2, and will slowly begin upping the volume. The volume of the program and the volume within each program was confusing until my audi explained it, and it made sense.
Speech is not recognizable yet. But I can tell people are speaking as I do pick it up, and I can sometimes notice when someone different is talking. I’m picking up on syllables and prosody much more and nothing is clear yet. But hopefully that’ll come with time. From my research, can take a little while with IP-II patients to decode speech correctly. So we will see!
My listening training (audi strongly encouraged a good mix of active, intentional listening and also passive listening):
- Minimum 4hrs per day with just CI on
- Hearoes app (don’t like CoPilot to be honest)
- Streaming known panel shows
- Passive podcast listening
- Passive nature and natural sounds listening
Big post I know, but I wanted to share all my progress so far, and if anyone has been in a similar boat or has any words of encouragement it would be greatly welcomed. It’s tiring, I’m hopeful yet sometimes I’m not, and I really would love to just have conversations one day without lipreading and tiring myself out focusing so much. That’s my hope!
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Texas Hill Country
Melbourne