39th entry ~ July 16, 2024

I failed to mention a couple of things in my recent 'hearing update.'

One is not related to hearing at all, but is a byproduct of the surgery itself. One of the several side effects that patients can experience is the loss of the sense of taste. My first meal after my surgery was a hamburger and fries at Interurban in Norman. It tasted pretty much like what I think fried cardboard would taste like. I couldn't even tell it was a hamburger, except it looked like one.

With most food, I can at least tell by the taste what it is, though it doesn't taste nearly as good as I know it to be. Watermelon and ice-cream still taste pretty good to me. If there are donuts at church, I'll have one and can enjoy the taste. But for the most part, I've lost most of the pleasure one gets from eating. Everything is just 'blah.'

The second thing is that, as my hearing through the CI improves, I sometimes am not certain that my hearing aid is still working. For understanding speech, in particular, I still rely on the hearing aid, but sound is becoming a weird mix of 'normal' sounds through the hearing aid and the more 'digitized' sound through the CI. I wish I could fast-forward through this transition stage - but the CI sounds continue to improve, albeit very slowly.

Since I was a kid, I've always liked hearing the chorus of the cicadas in the summer. For quite a long while now, I have been unable to hear them. But this summer I'm able to hear them again. At first I didn't even realize what I was hearing.

The CI seems more sensitive to sound than the hearing aid, so sometimes I hear something through the CI, but cannot detect it in the other ear. Such was the case with a nearby cicada a few days ago. Evidently it was in a tree I walked past (another issue for me is determining where sounds are coming from - I'm clueless). I could clearly hear a 'regular' cicada in my hearing aid, which was closest to the tree. In the CI, though, I definitely heard the sound of a rattlesnake warning me that it was about to strike. Honestly, that's exactly what it sounded like.

No, I didn't look down to avoid stepping on the snake - or trying to avoid it as it struck at my leg. I knew from my hearing aid that it wasn't a snake. But that's where I am with my hearing right now.

I'm happy to have missed out on the other common side effects to this surgery - extreme nausea and vertigo are common complaints, and it's not unusual for a facial tic to develop, because the device passes very close to the facial muscles.

I wish I was better able to describe sounds I hear. I played the special music and offertory at our church this past Sunday and the sound from the piano was quite strange to my ears. In my hearing aid assisted ear, the sound was very much like a piano should be, but on the CI side, it was that tinny, robotic, digitized sound that is so difficult to describe to someone. I continue to play; the sound continues to improve.

 

38th entry ~ July 9, 2024

It’s been eight months since my cochlear implant (CI) surgery and seven months since its activation. I’ve used the words “metallic,” “robotic,” and “tinny” (among others) to describe the sound of speech through the device. I’ve come up with a new descriptor – it sounds like wire brushes on a cymbal, such as those used on a trap drum set. Percussive, certainly, but maybe a little bit sharper or crisper than the real sound of those brushes.

When I was first activated, and for the first five weeks, that is the only sound I heard – all day, every day, every waking minute! It was all at one pitch level (a very high F) and everything sounded exactly the same – just a drummer drumming on a cymbal! Every key on the piano produced that sound; the spoon stirring my coffee produced that sound; my wife made that sound when she spoke to me; my footsteps on the carpet or on the tile floor made that sound; the microwave made that sound; the water running in the sink made that sound; the neighbor’s dog made that sound; literally everything made that sound. It nearly drove me nuts!

At my first adjustment, though, I was able to hear human vocal inflection from my audiologist, the first evidence of improvement. Little by little – in teeny, tiny increments – my ability to understand speech is returning. In the quiet setting of my audiologist’s office, I am able to carry on a conversation with her, with very few problems. That setting is not ‘real world,’ and when I’m in everyday listening situations, I still don’t understand conversations well. The larger the gathering of folks, the more difficult it is for me to understand anyone in the group. That’s been the case for the past 25 or more years, as long as I have worn hearing aids. In that situation, the CI is no different than the hearing aid – background noise is transferred through the device to my brain, which interprets it as, yes, background noise.

At any rate, I had an appointment at Hearts for Hearing in OKC on July 2^nd, which included a battery of sound tests (yes, in the booth) on both ears, with and without the CI and the hearing aid. I didn’t record the numbers and I forgot to ask for a copy of the test results, so these may be inaccurate, but they reveal a bit about the progress I’ve made these past seven months. Pre-implant, my understanding of individual words was 18%; now I am up to 44%. In my ‘good’ ear (the one with the hearing aid), my pre-implant understanding was too good to qualify for an implant (I can’t remember the number she said); now it is 85% with only the hearing aid in use. My audiologist and I are both pleased with my progress. The numbers are good, even if my day-to-day experiences are still quite frustrating.

Since the last appointment, I had increased the volume on my CI to the maximum, a setting of 10. My audiologist, when resetting the device after the tests concluded, set that volume level as the default setting of 7. That way, by the time of my next appointment in December, I’ll be able to increase the volume, as needed, as my “ear” continues to improve. And it will.

I learned that my “good” ear is remaining stable and I am likely not going to qualify for an implant in that ear for quite a long while. I’ve already decided that when I eventually meet the qualifications, I’ll proceed with the second implant. I can only surmise that my aural sense of that ear getting worse is perhaps an indication that my implanted ear is improving and is beginning to take over the lion’s share of hearing for me. I’m quite aware now that the device is doing its job. In other words, my brain is getting better at interpreting the digital signals as sound.

I’ve never stopped playing piano. In fact, I am playing the piano at our church this coming Sunday, July 14^th. I’ll provide the special music and the offertory. I feel confident enough in my playing now that I have planned a concert of Christmas music. The program is nearly finalized and I’m practicing it regularly. At our house, it seems like it’s Christmas in July. ♫