One of the most important pieces of advice I can give you is to go into the activation and mapping process with "high hopes and low expectation." In other words, do not go into your activation with the expectation that you will understand speech the moment your CI is turned on. Most people incorrectly assume that they should be able to understand speech right away and are severely dissappointed when they can't.
It's okay if you can't make sense of anything you hear -- or if you don't like the sound of what you're hearing! (My CI audiologist told me that I'd probably hate my CI during the first few days after my activation.) Some people report voices sounding like Donald Duck, Mickey Mouse on helium or Darth Vader. You may or not experience the same thing. I didn't. For me, voices sounded metallic and extremely high pitched.
The process of listening with a CI takes time and must be done in small baby steps. Before you can walk, you must crawl. The same is true with a CI. Before you can understand speech, your brain needs to adjust to a new way of hearing. Most likely you will hear high frequencies that you've never heard before or haven't heard in a very long time.
When your CI is activated, you will set what is known as T and C levels. T (threshold) levels are the softest sounds you can hear. C (comfort) levels are the loudest sounds you can hear without experiencing discomfort. The two of them together create what is known as a dynamic range -- the area between the softest and loudest sounds you can hear. During your initial mappings, your dynamic range will be very limited. However, with each mapping, your dynamic range increases allowing you to hear more sounds with your CI.
Back to T and C levels: These are set by listening to a series of 3 beeps. When setting the T levels, you will tell your audiologist the point at which you can barely hear a beep. This will be done for all of the electrodes in your CI. When setting C levels, you will also listen to a series of 3 beeps, but tell your audiologist when they are loud -- but not loud enough to cause discomfort. C levels are difficult for many people to set appropriately. For example, at my activation, I felt rather than heard a majority of pitches. This was due to the fact that I haven't heard these frequencies in a very long time (10 years). If this happens to you, don't be alarmed. With subsequent mappings, your brain will begin to make sense of what it is hearing and you will hear these frequencies instead of feeling them as a vibration. My CI has been activated for a little over a month and I no longer "feel" high frequencies -- I hear them.
I hope I haven't overwhelmed you with alot of information.
If you have any other questions or would like to ask me questions about my own experiences, please feel free.
By the way, what CI have you chosen? I have the Nucleus 24C with 3G BTE speech processor.
Good luck!
