High Frequency Sensitivity?

Hear Again

Hear Again

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Hi everyone,

Tonight while watching a movie on TV, I heard someone playing bagpipes and the sound literally cut right through me like a knife. (It was a series of long, drawn out high pitched sounds.) Do any of you still experience something similar even though you've had your CI(s) for awhile? It seems unusual that this should bother me since several frequencies were turned down, 6 high frequency electrodes on each CI were turned off and I've had my first CI for 4 years and my second for 3.
 
Have you asked for a new map? Maybe your brain is just tired of the current map. How much was speech affected after 6 high freq. electrodes were disabled? Did you hear a big difference and were you unable to hear some whistles?

I have no idea what high freq. sounds are like as I never properly heard them. My friends and even mom always proclaim how annoying those sounds are. Maybe my mom is right when she says I really am not missing much(except not hearing S and F in speech) by not hearing high pitches.
 
deafdude,

I just received new maps 2 weeks ago. I'm able to understand speech just fine -- it's the high frequencies that are bothering me. They sound like a knife cutting right through my eardrum, if that makes any sense. After 6 electrodes were turned off on each CI, the first thing I noticed was how tinny everything sounded. However, that quickly disappeared and is something I no longer notice. Now everything sounds exactly the way it should be with the exception of high frequencies grating on my nerves like nails on a chalkboard.
 
bagpipes music is not at a very high frequency but they have a buzz quality to it that can be irritating to me when I am tired. This happens even when using hearing aids before CI. There has been times that I can not stand bagpipes music at a mall and had to turn my aids off.
 
john,

I wasn't tired during the time I heard the bagpipes, so I don't know. I think it was probably the frequency or perhaps the duration of sound that hurt my ears. I'm at a total loss as to why this is happening to me. I really do hope my CI surgeon and audi can come up with an explanation.
 
Hear Again, u got that right. It is high frequency sound from the bagpipes. I think some of low tone too, but I haven't listened for a long time.
 
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Lavender,

I could have sworn that what I heard with the bagpipes was a high frequency sound because I haven't been able to hear bagpipes in over 20 years even with hearing aids and I've had a moderately-severe high frequency loss that progressed to profound from 1985-1995.
 
I've listened to several YouTube videos of people playing bagpipes (who wants to tape a funeral?!). Yes, the bagpipes really have a lot of high frequencies. There are low's, but majority high frequency.
 
Thank you Lady for saying that because I was starting to get confused as to what I was actually hearing. I know high frequencies cause me discomfort and dizziness, so it only makes sense that the sound I heard was high pitched.
 
Hear Again could it be that you are not used to hearing high frequency?

I am not a CI wearer but I do use Hearing aids. High pitch bothers me as well when I do hear it. (sending chills up my spine like scraping a chalk board does to some) Since I am severely to profoundly deaf in the high frequency range. After hearing such sounds it causes my ears to ring for hours.
 
Hear Again, this happened to me while I was watching The Day Earth Stood Still (the original version) and whenever the robot emitted a laser, the sound effect was really hard to hear. It wasn't hurtful per se, but it made me cringe. My audiologist said that sometimes certain sounds/frequencies are more sensitive than others, and her best recommedation is to somehow record it or find a way to imitate it, and bring it to the next mapping so that they can test to see if it still has the same effect after your mapping. I did this because the sound of cereal in their plastic packaging was surprisingly too loud to me, so I brought a bag of cereal, and we tested the new map with it. Now pouring cereal is not as loud to me anymore!
 
Daredevel7 said:
Hear Again, this happened to me while I was watching The Day Earth Stood Still (the original version) and whenever the robot emitted a laser, the sound effect was really hard to hear. It wasn't hurtful per se, but it made me cringe. My audiologist said that sometimes certain sounds/frequencies are more sensitive than others, and her best recommedation is to somehow record it or find a way to imitate it, and bring it to the next mapping so that they can test to see if it still has the same effect after your mapping. I did this because the sound of cereal in their plastic packaging was surprisingly too loud to me, so I brought a bag of cereal, and we tested the new map with it. Now pouring cereal is not as loud to me anymore!
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Fascinating! Seems like the CI is working a little too good!

I am amazed. How certain sounds can be amplified by the CI, beyond normal range. :shock:
 
Babyblue said:
Hear Again could it be that you are not used to hearing high frequency?
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That very well could be since the last time I was able to hear high frequencies was 1985. Even when I wore aids back then, they still hurt my ears. Come to think of it, when my CIs were activated, I felt rather than heard the high frequency beeps.
 
Daredevel7 said:
Hear Again, this happened to me while I was watching The Day Earth Stood Still (the original version) and whenever the robot emitted a laser, the sound effect was really hard to hear. It wasn't hurtful per se, but it made me cringe. My audiologist said that sometimes certain sounds/frequencies are more sensitive than others, and her best recommedation is to somehow record it or find a way to imitate it, and bring it to the next mapping so that they can test to see if it still has the same effect after your mapping. I did this because the sound of cereal in their plastic packaging was surprisingly too loud to me, so I brought a bag of cereal, and we tested the new map with it. Now pouring cereal is not as loud to me anymore!
Click to expand...

That's a good idea, Daredevel. I could find a recording of bagpipes on the Internet, record it to MP3 on my iPod and bring that along to my next appointment with the audi. Thanks for the suggestion! :D
 
Correction: My high frequency loss went from moderately-severe to NR from 1985-1995. (i.e. NR at 1000 Hz and above) Sorry, I'm not thinking clearly.
 
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