Today marks 6 months and 18 days since surgery, and 5 months and 18 days since activation. The last entry I wrote about the Cochlear Implant was back in June.
Not much has really changed since June. I’ve been steadily improving, slowly but surely. Things still continue to sound better over time. I can even enjoy music a little bit now, I have noticed as of the last couple of weeks that I am hearing more of the music.
About 3 or 4 weeks ago, though, I showed up for a audio therapy appointment and Tami started me on the phone right off the bat. It didn’t work out very well and had me frustrated, so the rest of the entire appointment went very badly. I seemed to be missing out on everything.
At first we thought it was just because I got frustrated right off the bat, but over the next couple of weeks I noticed I was asking people to repeat themselves more than normal and having more trouble understanding speech. I still don’t know if it was just my brain playing tricks on me or if there was something messed up with my implant or my hearing nerve. But during the last week or so I haven’t noticed it as much, so it’s either gotten better or I got used to it. But I still didn’t think I could hear as well as I had been.
I saw Dr. Wolfe today for another mapping, and we brought that up. He put me in the booth and I did not do as well as I did last time, I don’t think. But he said I still did pretty well. He said that maybe with a new map, things would improve, that maybe that’s all I really needed. So we went into the mapping room and he did all the usual stuff he does at mappings, put me on a new map and put 2 other maps on the processor, each one a little louder. He wanted me to try to work up to the loudest map by the end of 3 months, when I see him again. He also discussed trying to tweak the hearing aid to work with my implant and to not trigger meniere’s attacks, so that my auditory nerve in that ear won’t atrophy. He went ahead and tried, but he couldn’t do much with it.
My biggest news since my last entry is that I am considering implanting my left ear! (The one with the hearing aid). I have already seen Dr. Baker about it and he put the letter of determination through to the insurance company. Now it’s just a matter of waiting to see what the insurance company’s response is. I hope they say yes, but it’s ok if they don’t because my grandparents have offered to pay for the second implant if the insurance won’t.
It would still be best if the insurance company decided to pay for most of it, though, because my grandparents are not the richest people in the world, so it would help save quite a bit of money for them. I am thinking about possibly not getting the implant if insurance doesn’t cover it, because I hate for them to spend that much of their money on me. They’ve done enough. I’m not going to worry about it right now though. I will make decisions upon recieving news from the insurance company.
I discussed a secodary implant a while back with Dr. Wolfe. I had told him that I would be needing a new hearing aid soon, because the one I have is about to break down for good. He brought up the idea of considering a second implant, because if the insurance covered it, it would actually end up being cheaper than a new hearing aid. He also said that he is pretty sure I would do very well with 2 implants, that I would end up being able to understand quite a bit of speech. I don’t doubt that a second implant would help a lot!
With just my hearing aid, I got 35% of words. With just the implant, I got 65% of words. With hearing aid and implant together, I got 85% of words. Dr. Wolfe said he’s pretty sure that with a second implant, with the two of them together, I could get 100% of words or close to it.
The way I see it, I don’t really have much to lose, especially now that music is starting to sound better. I’ll miss hearing “naturally”, but if wearing the hearing aid triggers meniere’s attacks and makes me feel sicker, and I’m not wearing it because of that, what’s the point? My hearing nerve in that ear will just atrophy if I don’t use it. And it’s done too well to let it atrophy. Besides, everything just sounds muffled now with the hearing aid. So I decided to go ahead and implant that ear because I will get a lot more out of it than I would otherwise. I even canceled my classes in college for this semester, knowing that I won’t be able to get the surgery and do classes at the same time.
I’m excited, but trying not to let myself get too excited about the whole thing because it always comes back and bites me in the ass when I get excited about anything.
