I had my 3 month review of my second cochlear implant today. It’s looking good and they’ve booted me out until September next year as my maps are stable and both ears are balanced. Sounds seem more solid with my left cochlear implant compared to my right, because this is the older implant with a learning gap between them of 18 months.
My hearing was tested and I have got exactly what my audiologist wants to see for bilateral hearing, an average of -20db.
We started testing the hearing on my left ear. I sat in front of a loudspeaker with my left cochlear implant on, and concentrated on listening to the beeps, pressing the buzzer in my hand when I heard a tone. I found it difficult to concentrate as I could hear this weird noise. I was sure it was inside the room. After a few minutes, I asked my audiologist what the intrusive noise was – it turned out to be my Hearing Dog’s breathing…. just a bit too loud! So we turfed him out of the room, found a dog-sitter (!), and you can see the improved listening results at 3000 and 4000 Hz after his exit.
Left cochlear implant hearing
Right cochlear implant hearing
Both cochlear implants tested together
I had a checkup with my surgeon and he’s very happy with the surgery sites. I then went to see my speech therapist, who gave me some speech perception tests, listening to sentences from a loudspeaker, with both implants. The results are;
Lipreading with sound: 98% (4 Apr 2011), 100% (1 Dec 2011)
Left cochlear implant hearing
Right cochlear implant hearing