First appointment

Hey that is awesome! :D
 
I just remembered I had a CI moment yesterday as well! I think I heard my speech therapist coming up the steps to my apartment today, cause I thought I heard something and went to open the door to see if she is there, and she was coming up the steps! (I live on the 2nd floor and the steps are cement held up/framed with metal - they are outside). I was like, wow...! :D
 
Lucia, I like your signature and looks awesome, also it's fun to see.
 
Today, on the way back home from the doctor's office (turned out to be only 4 blocks away) I had another CI moment. I could not hear cars at all before for some reason but now I am hearing them loud and clear! And at one point, I heard a noise that did not sound like a car, I turned around to look, and there was a semi-truck coming from half a block away. Wow! And those new car sounds are very overwhelming! I even heard a car with a muffler that desperately needed to be replaced, and I also heard a pick-up truck that had loud music blaring. I guess I am starting to hear at the frequency that I could not hear before. I wonder what frequency cars are at. :D
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
Today, on the way back home from the doctor's office (turned out to be only 4 blocks away) I had another CI moment. I could not hear cars at all before for some reason but now I am hearing them loud and clear! And at one point, I heard a noise that did not sound like a car, I turned around to look, and there was a semi-truck coming from half a block away. Wow! And those new car sounds are very overwhelming! I even heard a car with a muffler that desperately needed to be replaced, and I also heard a pick-up truck that had loud music blaring. I guess I am starting to hear at the frequency that I could not hear before. I wonder what frequency cars are at. :D
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Yea, they can be. Took me a couple of months...even maybe a year or so to get used to them.
 
i remembered when i got ci and did the mapping and tests... abt a hr after we left the dr office i heard semi truck and it hurt my ears... i remember how i cried so much abt it that she had to turn around and went back to office and had them remap my ci. afterwards it was so much better. now that i think about it.. i dont think pain of hearing semi truck lasted that long. i think i was more of startled and scared that caused me to cry lol. (i was only 9) i think its good that ur taking sounds little by little. not to take it all in.
 
I should mention that I was at the doctor's because I hurt my back last Friday, nothing to do with a mapping. :)
 
Lucia,

Sorry you hurt your back, ouch! I hope you are feeling better. I have an herbal wrap that I can heat in the microwave. It helps when I overdo it in dance class. There is also Thermacare which is also pretty good.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
Today, on the way back home from the doctor's office (turned out to be only 4 blocks away) I had another CI moment. I could not hear cars at all before for some reason but now I am hearing them loud and clear! And at one point, I heard a noise that did not sound like a car, I turned around to look, and there was a semi-truck coming from half a block away. Wow! And those new car sounds are very overwhelming! I even heard a car with a muffler that desperately needed to be replaced, and I also heard a pick-up truck that had loud music blaring. I guess I am starting to hear at the frequency that I could not hear before. I wonder what frequency cars are at. :D
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It shows that you are getting somewhere and your brain is responding to the mappings. It took me two weeks to hear cars from activation and when I heard them I was wow! how could I have missed that!
 
My 5th mapping appointment is on March 8th at 1:30 pm. I plan on asking her how many electrodes are turned on and what speed my maps are at, since I keep forgetting to ask her those questions. Are there any other questions I should be asking her that I haven't thought of already? Thanks in advance!
 
I went to my mapping today. My audiologist says that all my electrodes are on and the map speed is at 900.

And I took a hearing test in the booth. Compare this test's result to the previous one...

Previous results:

Hertz:----250-----500-----1000-----2000-----3000-----4000
decibel:--35d-----35d------35d------30d------35d------40d

Average 34db

Today's results:

Hertz:----250-----500-----1000-----2000-----3000-----4000
decibel:--25d-----20d------25d------30d------20d------35d

Average 24 db

This is a big improvement. :D
 
I had a strange moment today. On the way to the doctor's, my ride had to pick someone else up at a dialysis center, and while I was waiting in the van, I heard a steady, constant beeping. I tried to figure where the beeping came from. The van was turned off, so I knew it wasn't something inside the van. I looked around me and I saw a sign on the door to the dialysis center that said "Microwave In Use" (this is outside) and I suspect that they don't mean the little microwave you cook your foods in. I think that the "microwave" was causing my CI to beep beep beep. Interesting. The beep beep beep disappeared as soon as we got out of the parking lot.
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
I have my first appointment on Sept 5th to see about getting CIs. What should I expect, and are there questions that I should be asking?

Damn, I'm anxious! :hyper:

No anti-CI bullshit, please.
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Woah Lucia.. I thought you allready had your CI's:confused:
 
It's really pouring out right now and I am listening to the rolls of thunders. I couldn't really hear the thunder before my new map, now I can hear it. When the storm started I was like "what's that sound?" and saw my cats look at the window so I go look and it's the thunder. It sounds awesome. :D
 
LuciaDisturbed said:
It's really pouring out right now and I am listening to the rolls of thunders. I couldn't really hear the thunder before my new map, now I can hear it. When the storm started I was like "what's that sound?" and saw my cats look at the window so I go look and it's the thunder. It sounds awesome. :D
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I've always loved listening to thunder during thunderstorms but I've always had healthy respect for lightening ever since a tree a few feet away from me got struck by lightening and fell...
 
I just had a new map last Thursday on the 13th. Things have been sooooo much better since the mapping. Before the mapping, I wasn't tolerating sounds very well, everything was a tad too loud, even at the lowest sensitivity and at the lowest volume, at the softest map. And my old audiologist just left the clinic, she is no longer working with CIs anymore, she will only be doing hearing aids, so she has a new job now. I was sad to see her go, she was the only audie at my clinic who signed. But I have a new audiologist now and I really like her. I was gonna transfer to a different CI clinic to one closer to my home if I didn't like my new audiologist, but I actually like her, she is extremely nice! And she did a wonderful job with my mapping! And unfortunately there isn't a CI clinic closer to my home anyway, all of them are in or near the Medical Drive area, way on the other side of town! So I am glad I like my new audiologist! I will stick with her. :)

Things I've noticed since my new map:

I can tolerate sounds 1000x times better!!! I am not getting so irritated with different noises anymore. And I am not overwhelmed by the AC unit that is in my bedroom every time I walk into the room. Before the map, every time I walked into my bedroom my brain would be overwhelmed with the AC unit noise....ugh!

And before my new map, when I first put on my CI on my head after I wake up fully, it would be VERY loud for about 20 seconds and then return to normal. I hated that!!! It got to the point where I was dreading putting my CI on just because of that, and I was even taking CI-free days cause of that. Now, after the map, it isn't quite so loud when I first put it on after waking up, so I don't dread putting it on anymore, it is only a little loud when I put it on but very tolerable. I wear my CI a lot more now, and I don't feel like taking it off when I am tired, I can wear it until I am ready to go to sleep now!

And since the map, music sounds sooooooo much better! Also, before I saw my new audiologist I was having so much trouble hearing music via cord to TV or CD player over traffic or the ceiling fan and floor fan. I complained to the audie and asked if there is any way that I can block out all the noises and hear only the music. Turned out, all I had to do was plug in my TV cord or the CD player cord in, set it to EA, and turn the sensitivity all the way down to 0. I did that, and I finally was able to enjoy my music now!!! Now I have been listening to a lot of music now. :)

Right now I don't care too much about speech. Medicare and Medicaid will not pay for any more speech therapy for this year, but that is ok. I was getting a little tired of all the work, and I wanted a break anyway. I feel I am not ready to try to understand speech anyway. Maybe in a year or two, I will be ready. Right now all I care about is environmental noise and music. :)

But I will say that my lipreading has improved...I have been going to physical therapy and I am able to understand about 30% with my CI off (PT is in water) with visual cues and stuff.

I think that is all I can think of that has improved since my new mapping. I really love this new map! :)
 
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