My comprehension continues to improve. Still a ways to go, of course, but I am pretty much relying on the CI for my hearing now, and as long as there isn’t too much background noise, I can have conversations pretty easily. I no longer have to be right next to the person I’m speaking with; I can even understand Ray when he’s talking to me from the next room.

We just got back from a trip to Italy. I wasn’t able to pick up more than a word here and there from the announcements on the plane, but between the engine noise and the accents, that’s probably not too surprising. After 18 years of always walking on my right side because that was my good ear, Ray has had to start learning to walk on my left since the CI ear is now the better one. But he says he sometimes even forgets that I have the implant, I’m getting so much better with it. At one point while we were walking around Florence, I noticed how noisy it was in general (it was pretty crowded), and I pulled the magnet off my head to see what it sounded like without the CI, and it was eerily silent — I could only hear people when they were right next to me.

We watched a couple of episodes of John Oliver last night. Last time we watched him, a couple weeks ago, I had to rely heavily on the captions because he has an accent and often talks pretty fast. This time I hardly had to look at them. So there is definite improvement. And I can use the phone now (though I don’t like to any more than I did before).

I saw the audiologist yesterday for another mapping. My previous two were simple increases in volume: 5 programs, each louder than the last, and I was supposed to progress through them between visits. I thought this one would be more of the same, but nope: I’ve now had my last volume increase, which means I just need to get through the next couple of days. (Each time I’ve gone up in volume, I spend the next few days jumping at every sound because it’s all so incredibly loud. Then my brain gets used to it and it’s fine.)

I only have 3 programs now: one I will probably use most of the time and one for noisier situations, plus the telecoil. The main one uses omnidirectional microphones to pick up sounds all around me, and the second focuses in front of me, so that if I’m in a noisy environment trying to talk to someone, it should pick them up better as long as I’m facing them. And I asked for the telecoil to be activated so I can use it for shows at places where they have loops. I also have a neck loop that I can plug into the headphone jack of any device that has one.

The accompanying technology for the CI is great when it works, but maddening when it doesn’t. There are two main things I use: the CI Connect, which is a small dongle that streams from any Bluetooth device directly into my processor, and the Roger Select, which is a microphone that streams sound into a receiver attached to the processor.

The CI Connect is awesome when it works, but sometimes it will just stop working, as in the phone still thinks it’s connected and working, but I’m not getting any sound. This seems to be location-based: it never happens on the main floor of my house or in my car, and it was also fine on the plane, but in my basement, at the gym, and on a Metro train, it cuts out repeatedly. When it does this (or sometimes just if I have to pause it for whatever reason and try to start playing again), it takes a lot of fiddling to get it to work again: I have to do everything from press the button on the CI Connect to disconnecting and reconnecting it to the processor to unpairing and re-pairing. Eventually I do manage to get sound again, but it’s so annoying to have to fiddle so much! AB is supposedly going to send me a replacement, but it’s on backorder, so no idea when it’ll get here.

The Roger Select is what I use to stream the TV sound to my processor, because although I have another device called the TV Connector that’s supposed to do the same thing, it works with the CI Connect, and my TV is in my basement — one of the locations where the CI Connect cuts out frequently. Turns out that if you plug the Roger Select into a device, you can use it to stream it to the processor (there’s a different receiver dongle for that). Great! So I went to try this on the plane with my iPad, and couldn’t get it to work at all, not even just as a microphone; Ray ended up lending me his over-the-ear headphones instead. A few days later I had a tour guide wear the Roger clipped to his shirt so I could hear him and that worked fine…but then the next day, on a different tour, it didn’t work at all again, and I had to get my husband to tell me the highlights.

So like I said, when stuff works, it’s great. But it doesn’t always work. I’ve been in contact with AB about these issues, but no resolution so far.

As to my non-implanted ear and the new hearing loss there, I’m sorry to say that despite all the steroids and hyperbaric treatments (which are thankfully all done now), there has been no improvement. The CI is picking up the slack as I’d hoped it would, and I’ve got an appointment next week to talk to an audiologist about hearing aid options for that ear, since the one I have (which I got before this new loss happened) is pretty much useless, so I don’t even bother wearing it anymore. I’m hoping that a different or more powerful model will help. Bonus points if it’s one that can pair with the CI so I could stream to both (these do exist).

Overall, I’m very glad I got the CI, especially with this new hearing loss on the other side, and I’m getting used to the new normal. Since there is noticeable improvement all the time, I’m pretty optimistic that it’ll get even better.