My head is full of noise and I can’t sleep so I will add this post befor retiring for bed.
When I began writing my blog back in the middle of March I wrote of my desire to hear again the rise of a trout. This was some what tinged with regret. Well that wish is really one step closer to reality. During the past week I have made a conscious effort to ‘listen’ to my new bi-aural sounds. My second implant continues to be superb. I especially love experiencing the pure ‘sounds’ of electrodes 1-4 during MAPping. My theoretical hearing range of these electrodes is within the parameters of ‘normal’ even if the implants dynamic range for them is close to 120 points and is far from the 40 points of ‘normal’. So far this only seems to affect battery life, so really not my problem to be concerned about.
Although very new, my new implant has much better definition than my first and will continue to get better as I preserver with the practice exercises that Gayle gives me to increase my speech perception. You say the word straight and I ‘hear’ two distinct ‘sounds’. I clearly perceive the ‘st’ with my new (left) implant and recognise the ‘aight’ with both implants. To make it even more interesting the ‘aight’ is distinctly different in pitch in each implant. However it would appear that my brain is combining information from both aural sources and producing a new experience for words of this nature! I’ve been told that ‘St’ sounds are at the highest level of our speech perception, 6000-8000 mhz, so in theory I assume this will be a similar range at a trout rise is heard by a normal hearing person. However I think I will need to be realistic in my expectations as I am currently only able to receive and process these ‘sounds’ from my new implant. What ever eventuates this is astounding for me.
We travel to Auckland again for more MAPping appointments at the University Campus over the next two days. I will also have a review with my surgeon, Robert Gunn. He is interested in any trout ‘hearing’ prowess I may experience as I vaguely remember his suggestion that he would provide the implants and when I could ‘hear’ I might take him fishing! We have dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in New Market which is highly recommended.
We leave our hotel and call into my office to catch up with colleagues with whom I have had little contact during the past seven months. My employer has been very supportive during the last 15 months of this journey to profound deafness and back again. However we both concur that beyond a moral compassion a business and commercial decision is now imperative. To this end my tenure with the company has ceased. It is with regret that I leave the association of close colleagues who have become as friends during the past 5 years.
The need for a new commercial direction for our company was underlined recently when my next inline manager gave less than 24 hours notice of his resignation. This person was held in high regard by all staff including me. It is therefore hard to understand how a person with approximately 26 years in the military and who has risen to the highest non-commissioned officer position could leave without displaying the least moral obligation. He is now toting an automatic weapon as he fill a ‘management’ position for an oil rig in Afghanistan. I guess his position here just lacked excitement. So ends another chapter in this journey as I gratefully experience the new beginnings of another in the world of sound.
Carmen and I arrive at the University, again relieved by the absence of the parking sentinels.
We are again warmly greeted by Gayle and Ellen and I find my place once more beside the familiar screen of my implant MAP. An impedance test shows my left implant has settled very nicely with no significance to a week ago. My ‘C’ levels are tested and a few slight adjustments are made to electrodes 1-4. Next my ‘T’ levels, the point of first hearing are tested with further minor adjustments to electrodes 1-4. Finally my first implant is checked and a few adjustments are made. The most significant being a reduction in volume to my right implant which is achieved by a corresponding reduction in available current to each electrode. This is a good step and rewards my MAP with a further hour of battery life, now 19 hours.
Tomorrow I will spend time with Gayle on hearing and listening exercise and strategies before my appointment with my surgeon, Robert Gunn. I now have a lot of work to do before my next visit on the 7th of August when I will have another MAP and will have a visit with Dr Grant Searchfield whose experience is unparalleled in the research and treatment of tinnitus.
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When I began writing my blog back in the middle of March I wrote of my desire to hear again the rise of a trout. This was some what tinged with regret. Well that wish is really one step closer to reality. During the past week I have made a conscious effort to ‘listen’ to my new bi-aural sounds. My second implant continues to be superb. I especially love experiencing the pure ‘sounds’ of electrodes 1-4 during MAPping. My theoretical hearing range of these electrodes is within the parameters of ‘normal’ even if the implants dynamic range for them is close to 120 points and is far from the 40 points of ‘normal’. So far this only seems to affect battery life, so really not my problem to be concerned about.
Although very new, my new implant has much better definition than my first and will continue to get better as I preserver with the practice exercises that Gayle gives me to increase my speech perception. You say the word straight and I ‘hear’ two distinct ‘sounds’. I clearly perceive the ‘st’ with my new (left) implant and recognise the ‘aight’ with both implants. To make it even more interesting the ‘aight’ is distinctly different in pitch in each implant. However it would appear that my brain is combining information from both aural sources and producing a new experience for words of this nature! I’ve been told that ‘St’ sounds are at the highest level of our speech perception, 6000-8000 mhz, so in theory I assume this will be a similar range at a trout rise is heard by a normal hearing person. However I think I will need to be realistic in my expectations as I am currently only able to receive and process these ‘sounds’ from my new implant. What ever eventuates this is astounding for me.
We travel to Auckland again for more MAPping appointments at the University Campus over the next two days. I will also have a review with my surgeon, Robert Gunn. He is interested in any trout ‘hearing’ prowess I may experience as I vaguely remember his suggestion that he would provide the implants and when I could ‘hear’ I might take him fishing! We have dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in New Market which is highly recommended.
We leave our hotel and call into my office to catch up with colleagues with whom I have had little contact during the past seven months. My employer has been very supportive during the last 15 months of this journey to profound deafness and back again. However we both concur that beyond a moral compassion a business and commercial decision is now imperative. To this end my tenure with the company has ceased. It is with regret that I leave the association of close colleagues who have become as friends during the past 5 years.
The need for a new commercial direction for our company was underlined recently when my next inline manager gave less than 24 hours notice of his resignation. This person was held in high regard by all staff including me. It is therefore hard to understand how a person with approximately 26 years in the military and who has risen to the highest non-commissioned officer position could leave without displaying the least moral obligation. He is now toting an automatic weapon as he fill a ‘management’ position for an oil rig in Afghanistan. I guess his position here just lacked excitement. So ends another chapter in this journey as I gratefully experience the new beginnings of another in the world of sound.
Carmen and I arrive at the University, again relieved by the absence of the parking sentinels.
We are again warmly greeted by Gayle and Ellen and I find my place once more beside the familiar screen of my implant MAP. An impedance test shows my left implant has settled very nicely with no significance to a week ago. My ‘C’ levels are tested and a few slight adjustments are made to electrodes 1-4. Next my ‘T’ levels, the point of first hearing are tested with further minor adjustments to electrodes 1-4. Finally my first implant is checked and a few adjustments are made. The most significant being a reduction in volume to my right implant which is achieved by a corresponding reduction in available current to each electrode. This is a good step and rewards my MAP with a further hour of battery life, now 19 hours.
Tomorrow I will spend time with Gayle on hearing and listening exercise and strategies before my appointment with my surgeon, Robert Gunn. I now have a lot of work to do before my next visit on the 7th of August when I will have another MAP and will have a visit with Dr Grant Searchfield whose experience is unparalleled in the research and treatment of tinnitus.