The second mapping -Gosh i need to learn patience!!!

I had my second mapping today and saw Helen who did my activation - was good to see her again, I explained things have been tough - id had a few stressful days as my best mate Emma got married i was bridesmaid! which was the greatest honor I could ask for - especially when i asked her if she wanted me to take my CI of for photos her reply made me melt
'don't you dare its part of you!'- i didn't have to do much for it as shes an organisation freak but it was the listening to everything that put me down in the dumps a bit - i think maybe my expectations were a bit to high to begin with?

Crackling?

The sounds i have been hearing were great I've heard more than I'd ever done before but a continuous crackling when any noise was present was driving me mad- it was making my listening experience so tough at times.

Helen did some further investigation and made some alterations via my mapping programme but it didn't seem to make much difference. Once again neurelec representative was contacted and he made some good recommendations- between them both they changed various things like microphone sensitivity etc. In the end we decided to change my processor and i discovered that it was indeed much better than the prior one!

We did the famous lipreading test as well which brought me good news: I  managed to understand 41% of what was being said, when i looking back at my records Helen said i was prior to the implant only getting 27% so an amazing improvement!


De-noising
After my mapping session Helen decided to try me out with a de-noising programme - because she felt that maybe i was sensitive to the background sounds and asked me to change the settings to de-noise further if i needed to - i found this quite interesting as with hearing aids you could never do that - the background noise used to be a pest especially when you wanted to hear in a noisy situation. She did say it probably will be like this but it may help my listening much more comfortable - rather than annoy me enough to want to take it off! Its important i wear it as much as i can - to give my brain a chance to adapt.

I am however set back on my listening journey as it appears my left ear in which the processor hasn't been receiving sound well, means that more work is needed which means more appointments - but i didn't mind this as each tune in I have the more improvement I see! In fact i feel sorry for the Audie's! I was born a pain still am! ha ha!



Patience
Once again she reassured me that  I've only been listening via the implant for a month and that i needed to give it more time, for those who have had hearing before it was easier for them to adapt, although I've had some hearing I've always been deaf so it is indeed going to be quite hard for me at the very beginning. I realised that perhaps i needed to be a bit more patient with it all. I think back over the past weeks and I suppose what made made me sad was at the wedding reception i was listening  to the 'time warp' and found that hard i could hear the beat - but words were disorted. Helen explained to me that it would be hard for my brain to hear that at this stage as so many different noises were clashing together. SO PATIENCE IS THE KEY HERE !!!

I also bumped into an old pal of mine Emma at the centre- her brother went to school with me, it made my day seeing her- was good to catch up with her and she too was going through all the assessments for a CI - i noticed quite a few of my deaf peers in my age group were indeed considering it.

IF i look back i know its been a tough few weeks for me - but through this all i don't regret it - id never heard the clock ticking that annoys me now!, keys rattling, cars passing by( drives me mad most of the time!) twinkle twinkle little star is getting clearer each day and so is my husbands voice! The train journey was also much more comfortable than last time- a big phew! So I've achieved quite alot for my first month
'Good things come to those who wait!'

Oh by the way i have a new nickname for my CI 'BOGOF' ; which means you buy one and get one free! - and I've been given a nickname as well by Helen and the rep - 'Lisa the blog!!' kind of like it actually ha ha!

Going to miss my PURPLE processor but they promised to send it too me in the post once its been repaired : Get well'Bogof'! I also received a parcel in the post the other day - some battery's - WOW these guys  think of everything - I cant begin to tell you how much time you save me! I get  through 2 battery's every two days - i guess it goes to show how powerful the processors are! 

This is a huge advantage as they never did that with my hearing aids ! So that saves me a fortune in travel costs and time, to all the staff @  SOCIEC ( SOUTH OF ENGLAND CI CENTRE) SPECIAL THANK YOUS - your faith and encouragement it keeps me going xxx