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Thread: Cochlear Implant Surgery

  1. #31
    Member m.marra's Avatar
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Congrats Alex.

  2. #32
    Senior Member moose135's Avatar
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    It's great to hear things are going so well for you Alex!

  3. #33
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Thanks All!

    I had my first class this week since coming back after being turned on, and it was a Computer Class. NOT a good way to start!

    I heard every click, clack, beeping, chimes, dings, from people typing, and computers making noises, I was conscious every time someone clicked with their mouse. It was making my eyes blurr almost!

    Now 24 computers were all on at once in the class. I think the teacher might have noticed my facial expressions wincing to every noise produced cause we ended up leaving so early I think I shouted an all-yu-ya! :lol:

    I am thankful for hearing don't get me wrong but jesus, I really don't know how you people can do this LOL

    Alex
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  4. #34
    Senior Member emshighway's Avatar
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Quote Originally Posted by Alex T
    Thanks All!

    I had my first class this week since coming back after being turned on, and it was a Computer Class. NOT a good way to start!

    I heard every click, clack, beeping, chimes, dings, from people typing, and computers making noises, I was conscious every time someone clicked with their mouse. It was making my eyes blurr almost!

    Now 24 computers were all on at once in the class. I think the teacher might have noticed my facial expressions wincing to every noise produced cause we ended up leaving so early I think I shouted an all-yu-ya! :lol:

    I am thankful for hearing don't get me wrong but jesus, I really don't know how you people can do this LOL

    Alex
    You will learn to ignore these background noises. Also you will need to learn this when you get married. :shock:
    "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.' "
    Ronald Reagan

  5. #35
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    I have given Alex a new name as he now well knows, hehe Alex is now the BIONIC TRUDE!

  6. #36
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Hey All—

    It has been one full week since my activation date and in other words, since I have been “turned on”. I am AMAZED at the progress I have made and my brain too since that day I began to hear the world for the first time naturally.

    So far I have NO regrets whatsoever doing this surgery. Before, I was truly frightened and scared, wondering what the outcome would be. I heard many good things about it, but it was always the what if. What if I was that one in a million it didn’t work for? What if all that year I spent was a waste…

    It wasn’t. The ability to hear things, so quiet and so loud, just blows my mind. You have it all so easy, and I don’t mean it in a mean/bad way. You wake up and bam, the world comes to your ears. Not me. I wake up, and I put the device on. Let it tune up and then the world hits me, but I don’t know what I hear. I have occasion of confusion, wondering, sometimes and frustration even. But, when I discover a sound, for the very, first time, the biggest smile comes across my face. It makes me happy I wake up every single day, it is Christmas for me every day, and every sound I discover is a new present for me to open.

    I get overjoyed when I hear a pencil tap against the counter, you don’t. Boring you think. I jump for joy; I run to my room and write in my daily notebook “heard a pencil tap against the counter”. Another highlight of my day was hearing my cat meow for the first time too. Sounds that are SO simply to you folks, yet I have to work so hard for, suddenly become a bit easier for me with time.

    Hearing my parents voice and brother and sister too, while it is a bit blurry still, it is their voice. To hear it in its natural state, so pure, and calm even, is amazing. It made me wonder how I could go almost 22 years without hearing it. I have a LONG way to go, but it is nothing short of amazing in just the week since activation of things I can do/hear.

    Before the surgery, I was severely to profoundly deaf. I heard practically nothing without my hearing aids. Now the world beckons to me, instead of me beckoning to the world. I can hear the turn signal now. I know some of you all got a laugh out of that. The night I heard raccoons randomly, that was fun to discover too! Hearing music is sooooo different and also amazing too. Some songs I like more, some songs I didn’t so much and some I still struggle to sound out.

    Sounds I am looking forward to are birds chirping sometimes, or the first snowfall. I am curious to see what it will be like to hear total, and utter silence, as the snow blankets everything on the ground and all you hear is a random bird chirping and the crunch of the snow as you walk among the white grounds.

    I have soooo much work to do for the next 3-4 months but I cannot wait. With the continued support of my friends and family, keeping tabs on me and seeing what’s new, sharing the excitement of something I hear.

    Some changes, my voice has become clearer, I am enunciating words more, and speaking softer, my volume has gone down a bit. I am picking up sounds at a lot lower Decibel compared to pre-surgery. I have heard my gas stove make a noise, microwave beep when it is done. My laundry finishing and giving a sound letting me know it is done. I have become more dependant on my ears now instead of my eyes. Letting my ears slowly do the work for once instead of my eyes. Many changes have happened and all for good.

    This surgery has given me a reason to continue to live, and a reason to wake up. More than ever it shows me not to take ANYTHING for granted, live with what you got, accept and embrace it, if you can help yourself in anyway, do so. It has shown me the tremendous support from friends and family, and it has bridged friendships that I already had and made them stronger, and it has even created newer friendships that I didn’t think possible too. It didn’t give me the gift of being able to hear, it gave me the gift of life, and an improved one at that too. In the presence of thanksgiving coming next week, I think this is the biggest gift I can be thankful for, the gift of being able to hear, and sharing it with my friends and family.

    Alex
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  7. #37
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Alex-

    It's awesome to hear things are going so well, so quickly for you! Reading your updates does give me pause (as I hope it does for the other members here) and pretty well commands me to realize that the few nagging health issues I deal with on a day to day basis are really NOTHING by comparison to what you lived with and without for most of your life... Makes me stop and realize how fortunate I am to have had good hearing for so long, and how incredibly fortunate you are to have benefited from modern medical science and technology, and gained the use of such an acute sensory tool.

    Please keep sharing your experiences! It's in some ways almost like watching a toddler exploring the house after learning to walk, and seeing the wonderment on their face at discovering something new. Soak it all up, revel in it and by all means- please post your experiences up for us to enjoy with you!

    Congrats again, man!

    -Brian
    "Never ask an Irishman if he wants another drink... He'll only ask "Why wouldn't I?" in return..." -Lewis Black

  8. #38
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    sorry to be the one who has to say this but when it snows, it kills all sound by absorbing it.... outside has almost no sound and it is kindof like your deaf.

    (I had no other way of saying it...sorry)
    The three most common expressions in aviation are, "Why is it doing that?", "Where are we?" and "Oh Crap".

  9. #39
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Quote Originally Posted by Derf
    sorry to be the one who has to say this but when it snows, it kills all sound by absorbing it.... outside has almost no sound and it is kindof like your deaf.

    (I had no other way of saying it...sorry)
    hahaha I know! THATS the sound I am looking forward to.

    That type of silence when the sound is all absorbed into the snow. I heard it with my hearing aids, and wanna see what it is like with the implant.

    Alex
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  10. #40
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Howdy All!

    I hope everyone had a fantastic thanksgiving holiday and it was safe and fun and memorable for everyone involved!

    I have now had my two-week activation test.

    First off, I am amazed at the progress I have been doing, as is my audiologist. I am picking up more and more sounds every day. Some of them come to me out of the blue, and some of them I have to listen and focus for carefully.

    One example is at work I suddenly heard the buzzer go off in the back door. However I knew it had been going off since I got activated but questioned why that day I heard it. My audiologist explained that I was always hearing things through the implant since activation. The reason I suddenly “hear” it out of the blue, is because the sound finally clicked for my brain, and it lets out an “AH HAH!” moment and that same moment is when I “hear” it and go ohh ok so that was the buzzer!

    Every day she explained I am hearing sounds, I just sometimes don’t realize it because my brain hasn’t had time to figure out the sound or recognize it yet. This made sense and reminded me how patient I have to be.

    I had my first haircut experience after the activation, and it was damn near traumatizing! I was absolutely nervous and my poor barber who does my hair had to be equally nervous. My main concern was the magnet and the magnet that was inside my head INDEED attracted the buzzer he uses to buzz my hair with. It wasn’t strong enough to completely attach itself but I could feel the pull being slight. I was sweating and I still have no feeling in my ear or behind it so I thought if he cuts me or something I am so screwed. I felt like being in the movie, “Edward Scissorhand”. However after talking to the audiologist she suggested to not use the buzzer anymore just in that area, not so much that the magnet is a concern but if he accidentally slips and nicks my skin, that can cause an infection and we just cannot have an infection right around my incision. So next haircut it is advised to use scissors around the incision and may use the buzzer for anything else around my head.

    Now to move on to the two-week testing. I got a new program that I LUVED so much better than my previous ones. Everything actually came together and it actually sounded like sounds. I could actually make out a lot of the sounds produced. Paper being crinkled actually sounded like a crackling/crinkling sensation instead of just a pounding noise. Things were becoming more clear and being sounded out. This was pleasing and making me actually WANT to hear more as well.

    Voices sound like voices, I can distinctly tell between a male and a female voice too and detect a bit of pitch and tone too. With this program I went to the testing booth and took the two-week test. I will be tested on a 2, 4, 6, 8 week and so forth until I think 12 or 16 I am not sure just yet. It depends on the progress I am making.
    Now if you remember my last test, we were going by decibel produced. The LOWER the number/decibel, the better my hearing becomes. We wanted a goal of 30 on my last test and only one of them I was able to hit 30 on. I was averaging between 40 and 50 on the previous test. Not bad, but we definitely want to go lower if we can. I tested again on week two, and finally half my DB’s were AT THIRTY or BELOW! This was really good news. Two of them were at 30, and the other two were at 26 and 24 while the others were still in the mid 40 range. We want a 30 average because this is the speech threshold that normal hearing people are usually at for speech. Having a 30 across the board raises my chances of being able to not only hear speech but UNDERSTAND it as well. So both her and I were pleased to see I was making a bigger jump and progress too. I went from 110 DB before surgery without hearing aids, and dropped all the way to between lower 40, mid 30 and high 20’s in just TWO WEEKS. Quite impressive for me even.

    My next test was the word test. What this basically was is I look at 4 words in a group. A word will be spoken out loud to me in the sound booth. I have to circle the word out of that group that I think I heard. Now many folks thought this was cheating because I got to look at the words while hearing it, but keep in mind, I cannot hear/understand word, and with this implant I don’t know what they are supposed to sound like. I am hearing it for the first time. The test results showed I got 11 words right out of 20 words, this means I was able to understand 11 words without lip reading or reading a caption or something. While yes, I was looking at a group of words, since I had never heard it before I had absolutely no idea which word it would be until it was actually spoken. She wants a goal of 80% correct in due time. Since averagely people who understand 80% typically is able to get most of the conversation and whatnot.

    She says I am now classified as someone with a mild hearing loss with the implant, versus profoundly to severely deaf as I was labeled before the surgery was done. I like the SOUND of that label more! Ha-Ha!

    Keep in mind, I did not get my hearing back. The hearing I was born with is gone forever and was damaged. The surgery gave me NEW hearing that my brain and myself are working with now. Hence why the word "implant" I was implanted with new hearing, much like a new organ or whatever. Since I was not born with this type of hearing, that is why nothing suddenly starts working for me immediately, and that it takes time to figure out the new hearing that is inside my ear/head now. Hope this clears up any confusion!

    Anyhow that is the update for now. Thanks for those who continue to read and keep updated! I appreciate it!

    Alex
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  11. #41
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    My one month activation is coming next week, I have to go through a series of testing ALL day, plus side is I'm being paid for one of the testings! Woo Hoo!

    I hope to have a more condensed update by end of next week. I am swamped with finals and end of semester projects now.

    On plus side, even though I missed 3 weeks of class and such, I managed to get a 100% on my final for one of the classes and pulled a B and scored the highest in the class! Not to shabby for a guy who missed 3 weeks for surgery and whatnot!

    Anyhow keep an eye on update by end of next week. Again I usually have more updates via my FB Status on Facebook if you all want to add me and keep track on there. Just send quick message when you add me letting me know your screen name from nycaviation.com so I can add you, thanks!

    Alex
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  12. #42
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Quote Originally Posted by Alex T
    Hey All~!

    Activation has been complete—for now! Anxiety was building up to 2pm today. I went in for the CT Scan and everything went fine.



    This is the first time I heard a sound through the activation.


    Staying focused during the testing trying to pick up sounds.


    Finished! :)

    I go back tomorrow for more testing and will be doing so for the next 6-8 weeks once a week appointments. Very excited!

    Alex

    Alex! So happy to hear that everything is working for you, this is like a whole new world for you & thanking for keeping your ears clean when you posted the photos!!!!
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    run out of other people’s money.
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  13. #43
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Hello Folks-

    There really is not much to update you guys on to be quite honest however there have been progress and improvements so I will touch on those two things.

    I haven’t been hearing NEW sound so to speak, I heard them all already. Now the trick is to try to hear it again so that I can figure out what the sound is and make a memory of it in my brain. It has been working, and I have been re-hearing sounds again and instantly recognizing them. Which is pretty sweet to be able to do now. I recognize sounds like the water running; turn signal (OBVIOUSLY), as well as any cell phones ringing, the buzzer at work going off, and babies crying!!!

    I haven’t heard the birds chirping, not really that anxious to either. One of the big things for me is, I had 20 years of being on the hearing aid. I heard those sounds on the hearing aids, but they were at a different tone/sound then what I am used to with the implant. So I cannot compare what I heard on the hearing aid and the implant. They are two different things.

    As most know I just had my one-month anniversary. Looking back the world has changed for me. It is amazing what I am picking up, and also how FAR I am picking up sounds too. I am still not able to understand neither speech 100% nor any at all quite honestly. I pick up some words, but it is only through testing that are done at the sound booth in STL at Barnes-Jewish. I get frustrated but I have to remind myself it literally has only been one month since I have been activated. I have months to go through.

    My one month test showed that, I got 1 word out of 100 right…I scored 11 words correctly out of a sentence test, where there were 20 sentences. My Decibel is lower in the mid 20’s and low 30’s with just one at 38. I finally got all of them below 40, so this is good. These scores might seem bad or think “that is all?” Well keep in mind, my scores were basically ZERO before the surgery, I heard and understood NOTHING before the surgery with my ears. So ya, to even get ONE word right is awesome for me, as well as words out of sentences too. So while frustrating it isn’t more…it’s better than nothing.

    It has been a very challenging semester between the surgeries, numerous doctor appointments; I think it has been my toughest semester so far because of all this. However as I always have in mind, I work hard to make it right, so I can win the fight, right or wrong, I know in the end it was meant to be and whatever happens happens.
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  14. #44
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    Re: Cochlear Implant Surgery

    Hey All—

    Well, where to begin now…my last testing was December 15th, and a lot has happened since then. I have had better improvements; I took my first flight with the implant, which was quite an adventure in itself. First I will start with the testing last Tuesday.

    I was very disappointed with the results due to the program used was not what my audiologist wanted me to use. So when I came back she gave me a new program based on how I responded to different tones. That was very hard for me because I never heard tones and pitches before the surgery so I had to tell how high or low the sound was. With nothing to compare it to it was very hard for me.

    She did some quick testing with me to see how I would do with this new program. It seemed much louder and clear too. I further proved this when she ran about 10 sentences, and I got 3 of them right word for word. This was awesome for one-month anniversary. I was so giddy and excited to actually UNDERSTAND an entire sentence without any help but my own ear! It truly was awesome.

    The sentences I did not get correct, I was still close in that I picked up some words that were alike or inside the sentence too. This really put me in a good mood and it was what I wanted to hear—literally!

    So for the rest of the week I did work and finals/classes keeping busy. So I didn’t have any new things to discover. I am constantly hearing sounds and such as usual, and trying to match and identify them as I hear it again. I am always picking up ringing and ring tones from cell phones now and it is getting quite annoying almost ha-ha.

    I am still amazed at what I can pick up and how far I am picking up the sounds too. I hear the laundry go off a lot and now I can hear it and recognize it, it is second nature to me too. It is hard trying to discover new sounds because my routine is so basic, I need to reach out and go find other sounds to play with it.

    Now comes to my first flight on the implant! I was very startled to discover how quiet the engine seemed when we took off. I was thinking, odd, the engine was much louder to me with the hearing aid and even when I took my hearing aid off! It seemed like it barely made a loud noise, but I knew it was on! I was able to hear all the announcements made, however I still couldn’t understand most of it.

    I heard all the dings, chimes and whatnot. Another thing I was pleased to discover was that I was able to pick up the Flight Attendant’s conversation, her actual voice, and THREE rows away over the sound of the engine and other noise. I realize that most of you guys can do that anyway but again keep in mind; this could not be done for me on the hearing aid.

    I had a very fun experience seeing what I could, I noticed I was sort of able to carry more conversations in the plane, but at night it was still hard for me. Security in Houston was ridiculous. They hassled me about the implant. One motioned for me to take it off and put it through the x-ray machine. HELL NO! If you want to pay 100,000 dollars for it! So I discussed with them that I am able to wear it and go through security. They finally let me through.

    When I was riding the shuttle bus from airport to car rental at Houston Airport I was sitting in the last row of the bus, and heard a clicking sound, and went what is that sound? My friend said it was the turn signal. OMG I did it AGAIN! However I was surprised how far away I could hear it, again, nothing new for you folks!

    This has been the updates so far the past two weeks and such and quite an adventure!

    Alex
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