Days #2-4 after Initial Stimulation

Thursday, January 5, 2006 - Day #2

While driving in the car today, I set my iPod to Maddy’s playlist – yes, this has been what I listen to most. On it are songs by Peter, Paul & Mary, characters from Sesame Street (Elmo’s voice is even MORE annoying when it sounds like he is on helium), our beloved VeggieTales and one of her new interests introduced by Matt…Diana Krall. Who knew how much a 4 year old would like jazz?!? Arthur Boothroyd at the national Educational Audiology conference last year had a quote that has really stuck with me: “Listening is 90% context and 10% acoustic.” Not to minimize the effects of this wonderful technology, but there is so much to that statement. I think of this concept as filling in my auditory “deafspot”(like visual blindspot)…there may be things that I am not hearing, but my auditory memory is filling in the gaps. With familiar music, this is definitely the case – I do much better with music that I am familiar with. Today, however, probably more based on the lyrics and the rhythms (vs. the tune), I was able to identify a lot of Maddy’s music that I listened to.

I also tried my Direct Connect earhook today with the iPod. This is a special earhook that I use with a patch cable to connect to battery-operated devices. I am looking forward to listening to books-on-iPod while working out. It still sounds a bit like Alvin and the Chipmunks meets Pong but at least I am starting to understand more words.

Maddy has been reading for probably the past year and a half. While I’d like to take all the credit for that, Matt needs to take more since he has always insisted on multiple books to read prior to bed. Another thing that we have realized is how much she has benefited from closed-captioning on television. I now find myself in the same position of taking advantage of closed-captioning to help me with my listening skills. I found myself reading and listening, then closing my eyes and just listening, while watching TV tonight. It’s still pretty tough but it is definitely a great way to get some Aural Rehab in.


Friday, January 6, 2006 - Day #3

First good phone call this morning – while in the car on my way to meet Sherry to work out, I was able to communicate with her to discuss another location because our facility was closed.

First bad phone call – OK, I was cocky. I thought I would be able to talk with Edie (my fellow BEA CSS) while walking around this echoey, sadly empty indoor mall. Unfortunately, the acoustics were pretty bad and it didn’t go very well. Next time I’ll try using my Direct Connect earhook so I can try blocking out the environmental sounds.

I feel like I’ve been adapting to the sound rather rapidly and I am already on Program #3. It’s amazing to me that when I go back to Program #1 which I used a mere 2 days ago, that it sounds so soft! I have a call in to my audiologist to see if I can move my appointment up a week for my map adjustment.

I worked on HiRes alone for most of the morning. It was kind of passive since I was at my computer and just letting my CI get bombard by NPR. The sounds of the computer keys is starting to sound a little more natural but it still sounds like the old style keyboards – the ones that made the really loud clickety-clack and even gave you some tactile feedback as the keys jumped back at your fingers.

This afternoon, I decided I wanted to work more on music again. Last night Matt set up my Tivoli system with one speaker and subwoofer (the second speaker is still downstairs). I listened to more classical music but also to some familiar classic rock. The subwoofer is placed at my feet and I am getting dual sensory input as I hear and feel the music.

Things I just heard in my kitchen that sounded natural: the cacophony of my dishes collapsing on top of each other as I try and pull out my coffee mug, my microwave beeping to tell me my coffee is warmed up, the creaking of my hardwood floors as I walk across my kitchen, tearing open my packet of Splenda and the fizzing noise it made when it hit my hot coffee and the spoon hitting the sides of my mug as I stir in the Splenda and add creamer.



Saturday, January 7, 2006 – Day #4


I hit some of the web-based listening exercises today. My favorites are the ESL quizzes and the “Name-this-orchestral-instrument” sites. I even had company today as Maddy sat at my side and did some of the exercises with me. With the word discrimination tasks, she said, “Mommy, this is too easy!” (sigh) Show off! She really enjoyed the instrument site. I am starting to understand her a little bit more without visual cues. Her voice is pretty tough because it’s so high-pitched and she doesn’t always talk loud enough.

Listened to Alison Krauss today with both my Platinum BTE and my Auria BTE this evening…ohhhhh man! Matt brought up my other Tivoli speaker so not only am I hearing in stereo, I’m being stimulated in stereo! This is surround sound at its finest! It sounded AMAZING. While I realize that I am getting a lot of the input from my older CI, I really noticed an improvement when I put my new CI on.

Tonight we babysat my nephew, Sam who is 18 months old. When it was time for bed, he was not very happy and so while I tried to console Maddy who was sitting up in bed covering her ears and saying, “I don’t want crying babies in MY house anymore!”, Matt was trying to console Sam. Things settled down, I laid down with Maddy and Matt came over with Sam. It was pretty quiet in the room but then I asked, “Matt – is that Sam breathing?!?” I could hear him breathing from 5 feet away! Yay!

A funny quote came to mind tonight…do you remember the Hair Club for Men commercials?...”I’m not just the President, I’m also a member!”…”I don’t just talk to people about their CI experiences, I have one, too…have one…two…” Never mind.