Friday, 9.00am arrives and I find myself again taking the lift to the Greenlane audiology department on the 4th floor. Gayle and Ellen are their usual happy selves and refuse my apologies for returning so soon. I fight back tears as we walk the short corridor to a hearing suite and connect my processor to Ellen computer and once more begin a new MAP.
Ellen suggests we check the ‘T’ levels again for all 14 active electrodes. Gayle writes the new settings and references to the previous. Then they randomly check again to confirm before advising me that the lower tone electrodes, #22, 20, 20, 16 and 11 have dropped in sensitivity by almost 30 points while electrodes 10 – 2 have increased by more than 10 points. This means there is a further increase to the dynamic range which will mean a greater current draw from the batteries. Ellen saves the MAP # 25 to my processor as P1 and makes two further sub-MAP’s as P2 and P3. She mentions Jeremy’s suggestion to consider testing a bi-polar MAP with a stimulation rate of perhaps just 250Hz. To date all my MAP’s have been mono-polar using an interface of the Nucleus Contour Advance’s independent earth electrode and the 22 channels provided each of the electrodes on the main implant loom. This trial will be at a later date.
I’m back with a more meaningful world of sound and a feeling of confidence is returning once more. I meet Carmen at the lift and we make a hasty retreat from Auckland and the crazy traffic prior to the coming long weekend.
At home and feeling like the week has been long we receive a few encouraging txt’s from Robyn who assures my I’m neither an ‘orphan’ nor alone in these distraction’s. I tell Carmen of the battle Robyn had during the first month following Switch ON before settling to a sensible progression to better ‘hearing’ through her second implant once more. These battles are OK and while the disappointment are sometimes many, so too are the excitements of recognizing, learning and associating new sounds. Happiness, peace, awareness and communication are valuable commodities. A concurrent meaning of commodity in my US thesaurus refers to an article of trade; no price however is redeemable for such value.
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Ellen suggests we check the ‘T’ levels again for all 14 active electrodes. Gayle writes the new settings and references to the previous. Then they randomly check again to confirm before advising me that the lower tone electrodes, #22, 20, 20, 16 and 11 have dropped in sensitivity by almost 30 points while electrodes 10 – 2 have increased by more than 10 points. This means there is a further increase to the dynamic range which will mean a greater current draw from the batteries. Ellen saves the MAP # 25 to my processor as P1 and makes two further sub-MAP’s as P2 and P3. She mentions Jeremy’s suggestion to consider testing a bi-polar MAP with a stimulation rate of perhaps just 250Hz. To date all my MAP’s have been mono-polar using an interface of the Nucleus Contour Advance’s independent earth electrode and the 22 channels provided each of the electrodes on the main implant loom. This trial will be at a later date.
I’m back with a more meaningful world of sound and a feeling of confidence is returning once more. I meet Carmen at the lift and we make a hasty retreat from Auckland and the crazy traffic prior to the coming long weekend.
At home and feeling like the week has been long we receive a few encouraging txt’s from Robyn who assures my I’m neither an ‘orphan’ nor alone in these distraction’s. I tell Carmen of the battle Robyn had during the first month following Switch ON before settling to a sensible progression to better ‘hearing’ through her second implant once more. These battles are OK and while the disappointment are sometimes many, so too are the excitements of recognizing, learning and associating new sounds. Happiness, peace, awareness and communication are valuable commodities. A concurrent meaning of commodity in my US thesaurus refers to an article of trade; no price however is redeemable for such value.