As of yesterday, it’s two months after my surgery and one month after activation.

I have basically stopped wearing the hearing aid in the other ear at this point because I understand more with the CI than with what used to be my good ear. It’s still far from perfect; I can’t easily distinguish between individual voices and everything still sounds weird, but I’m understanding more every day. It’s harder when there’s background noise or more than one person talking at a time, but I get the impression that that’s just a problem with CIs in general.

My audiologist tells me that I will have one more mapping where it’s just increasing in volume, and then we’ll get to the real programs, where she starts tweaking things so they sound better. So I figure that if I’m doing this well before I get to that, it can only get better.

I went to an event that AB (my implant maker) hosted on Sunday at the National Botanical Gardens. It was sometimes hard to understand people there because of too many conversations going on nearby, but I got to meet my local AB representative and talk to a bunch of people who’ve had their implants for years (and all love them). I was the newest one by far.

I finally got access to AB’s web store and ordered a couple of extra cables because I can’t find the second one that came with my implant. The cables are under warranty, but I didn’t want to be without one if anything should happen to my primary. But wow, they are super-expensive — $125 for a 4-inch cable! I know they have a small market and they’re a business and they have to make money and all, but geez. Even half that amount would have seemed expensive.

As to my other ear, I finally finished my course of hyperbaric oxygen treatments (and I am so glad that’s over, as having to come in early, leave late, and take several hours out of the middle of every workday was killing me), but unfortunately there has been no improvement. Since I’m unwilling to pursue the “woo” remedies like chiropractic or acupuncture, I’ve now come to the end of my treatment options; that’s the thing about idiopathic sudden hearing loss: sometimes treatment works, sometimes it doesn’t. Makes me really glad I got the implant, because so far it’s taking up the slack as I’d hoped. I didn’t expect that I’d be able to rely on it this soon after activation, but I’m glad it’s working so well.

Today was the first visit with the audiologist since my activation. When my CI was activated a couple weeks ago, it was set up with five programs, each increasing in volume from the previous one. I started at program 1, and was supposed to spend a couple days on each, reaching program 5 before today’s appointment.

On day one, I wondered if I would make it — everything was SO LOUD, and the implant hindered my ability to understand speech rather than helping it; everyone sounded a bit like the adults in the Peanuts cartoons: “wa wa wa wa wa”. However, I did manage to get to program 5 this past Sunday, and my understanding is increasing as well. People still sound scratchy/staticky — as I’ve said, a bit like Gollum from the Lord of the Rings movies. But still, the implant is beginning to actually be helpful rather than a distraction. And my audiologist is pleased with my progress.

So today’s mapping was basically the audiologist triggering each of the 16 electrodes in my cochlea. I’d hear a series of beeps and she kept increasing the volume until I indicated that it was just on the edge of being too loud. Each electrode had a different frequency. So now I have a new set of five programs, again increasing in volume, which I’m supposed to get through in about a month. As before, right now everything sounds really, really loud, and normal sounds are startling me. But hopefully it’ll work the same way: my brain will get used to the new volume and I’ll be able to increase it. At least now I have more time; I can spend a week at each level if I have to.

In other news, the insurance company denied my appeal for coverage of the hyperbaric oxygen treatments for my other ear. Not exactly a shock, but still disappointing. I’m keeping on with them, though, in the hopes that they might help. So far they’ve only changed my distance vision: it’s actually better without my glasses now than with them. However, they tell me this is temporary and it should go back to normal once I’m done with the treatments. Guess I’ll put off that eye exam I’m overdue for until after that.

So, I continue to listen to audio books and TV streamed directly into the implant. I’m basically trying to do as much with just the implant as possible and only wearing the hearing aid in the other ear when I absolutely need to understand something. Luckily, Ray is okay with repeating things for me. (I imagine it does get annoying after a while, but he’s very patient.)

When I went in for a followup related to the new hearing loss, my ENT’s office ordered an MRI, since I hadn’t had one since 2014. I didn’t expect to put the “MRI-safe” thing to the test so soon after my implant, but then I didn’t expect another hearing loss episode, either. The hardest part was getting the appointment: the second she heard the words “cochlear implant”, the scheduler immediately said they would not do an MRI on me, even when I tried to explain that the model I have allows MRIs with some restrictions (which I could provide). I sent an email to the provider’s website explaining the situation and asking them to reconsider; I got a call back from a manager who was very apologetic. He had to contact AB and my audiologist, but he got the info and I had the MRI yesterday. It went fine; no problems. (No idea on the results yet, but I don’t expect them to find anything unusual; I’ve had them after hearing losses before. No one has been able to tell me why this keeps happening.)

Still no improvement in my non-implanted ear, nor any word from the insurance on whether they’ll cover the hyperbaric treatments (which I’m still doing every weekday). I did get my hearing aid adjusted for my new level of hearing loss, but volume and clarity are two different things and I still struggle.

Meanwhile, I can understand audio books with my implant. I keep the print in front of me for new books, but I don’t have to look at it very often. Podcasts and normal conversation (where the speakers aren’t necessarily professional readers and I don’t have captions or printed text) are more difficult, but I’m picking up more words all the time. And the implant is starting to be almost helpful rather than a hindrance to understanding others.

As much as possible, I stream things directly into the CI so my other ear isn’t trying (and mostly failing) to pick up the slack. We couldn’t get the TV Connect accessory to work, but Ray was able to connect the Roger Select microphone directly to the TV so it streams into the implant. And of course I can stream my phone into it as well to listen to audio books or podcasts. I’ve been listening to Harry Potter in the car since I know it well enough that it doesn’t matter if I miss a word here and there, and new books at home so I can look at the print if I don’t understand something.

My implant was set up with 5 programs, each increasing in volume, and I was supposed to progress through them by my next appointment in a bit over 2 weeks. When I got it, everything was so loud that I didn’t think I’d ever get past program 1. But today I went to program 5. As always after I go to the next one, everything is REALLY LOUD. My next mapping appointment is on Wednesday (I’m writing this on Sunday).