De-noising,Good lipreading results,enjoying Music with my ipod!

I attended yet another appointment at my CI centre - for my 6 month review since I've been activated - we did the usual tests - hearing field test, lipreading the strange man ( i say that because his face is strange ha ha he lip speaks and shows hardly any emotions!) and Roberta my audiologist discovered that i wasn't doing as well as i did last time - so quickly changed my processor for me.  Its just one of those things i suppose - they are such clever devices that sometimes they become sensitive to any moisture or knocks - i have been using a dry box regularly so we knew it wasn't a moisture problem.  Sadly BOGOF goes of to repair again! waaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

After tests we decided that my mapping was fairly stable - and that i didn't need as much alterations as i have had done prior - i was feeling much more comfortable with what I was hearing - but still struggling with the crackle. Roberta decided then to try and do some de-noising on my programme to see if it would make a difference. I like denoising because it does support any background noises - it dulls it down a bit - so i do not feel so uncomfortable. In fact I've noticed that with CI and on my programme i can have high and low thresholds so that the noise would be much more bearable. This is definitely an advantage over the hearing aids - I remember as a child i never liked doors slamming, whistling! loud motorbikes, fireworks anything that was sudden and sharp ! Where as with CI it was much more bearable.



This is a before and after denoiseing example - for a signal noise

 Another thing to note also is that it can take 6 - 8 weeks for  our brains to adjust so Roberta didn't want to confuse my poor head and ears even more than need be so we didnt do a big mapping this time -we were hoping that this might assist with my crackle a bit - it has slightly got better and i think its because I've learnt how to listen through this! ( one of my favourite ways is drowning it out with music when im on a bus - one of my triggers!)

After doing my lipreading test - we looked back on my file and I was amazed with the results! I was now lipreading and getting 62% of the conversation. Amazing stuff eh? I was delighted with the results and firmly believe that all the kindle listening, i pod music listening had really supported me with my listening therapy!

I haven't attempted to try the phone yet - as i didn't feel quite ready - but when I told Roberta she informed me then that i would need to probably be getting recognising speech at 70% before i begin at phone listening - a stage that I was almost at and something to aim for! I think I was stunned actually because I never thought I improve from the 27 percent which i had with wearing my hearing aids!

A week later I was booked in for my 6 month hearing therapy review and I quickly emailed Roberta - to see if she could squeeze me in on the same day prior to that appointment - I was beginning to hear a echo in the tail end of speech. This does sometimes happen when you are adjusting to new programming. In my case my brain had adjusted to the tweaks that Roberta made prior and it just needed a bit more adjustment to place me at a comfortable pacee I think . It was quite an interesting session because the speech went from an echo to a wisp to completely dull . its amazing what can be done but modifying a frequency and also having the knowledge of a audiologist who understands sound is an added bonus as well. i really am in awe of there expertise and knowledge it takes a certain amount of dedication and time to help people like us and particularly when i feel like I'm moaning all the time - but like Roberta always says to me - it isn't too much trouble and its important that they get it right for me - after all I have to live with it. I totally wants to hug her at times as its nice they care so much. I feel very lucky to have such dedicated people to help me. ( ps roberta if you are reading heres a big hug from me to you!! and to all the rest of the team aswell )

Some other good news is that i brought a second hand i pod touch ( 3rd gen) of a close pal- talk abt amazing - I've been enjoying listening to music again - did get on with my shuffle but i couldn't see what the name of the songs were so this is why i upgraded ha ha ! Its lovely to hear and recognise some parts of old songs i know.. its also nice to move from nursery rhymes now and listen to abit of pop and rock! Trouble is its incredibly addictive as I've been downloading all my Cd's onto the ipod that i used to listen to - so every so often my husband catches me dancing away ! Its still not perfect can be a bit blurry and skittish at times but the more i listen the better it gets !
                    

OH MUSIC HOW IVE MISSED YOU!!!