Haven’t updated in a while because there hasn’t been much to say, but this week I had my first mapping in a year — I’d been putting it off due to the pandemic.

My word and sentence recognition scores are the same as last year. I got in the low 70s on individual words, in the 80s on phonemes, and 96% on sentences in quiet — I really do best with context. Background noise was more of a problem, but it’s not like I’ve had many opportunities to get out and be social this last year.

I will admit that I was a little disappointed that my individual word score didn’t improve, but my audiologist was happy with it, especially since I did so well on sentences, and I suppose she’s right — it’s not like people are saying random words to me out of the blue. I guess I’d just hoped that it would be clearer after a year and a half.

If I had to describe how voices sound to me, I’d say that everyone sounds like they’re on the phone — so they’re recognizable and understandable, but the quality is not quite as good as before I started losing my hearing. Don’t get me wrong; I am still very, very grateful that I can hear at all, because as I’ve said before, comparing the CI to my normal hearing is pointless. If I compare it to what I would have without the implant, there’s no contest — I’d rather be able to hear imperfectly than hardly at all.

Music still sounds kind of like a badly-tuned radio, and certain notes are discordant and not what they should be. During this week’s mapping, I asked for some tweaks to my streaming-only program in the hopes of making music sound better, but it didn’t really help much, and as a side-effect, TV streaming now kind of sucks — non-speech sounds are much louder and can sometimes make me jump. I plan to give it a couple weeks and see if I get used to it; if not, I’ll go in and get her to put the old program back.

Meanwhile, I’ve been seeing a ton of marketing buzz around AB’s upcoming new Marvel processor, and I will admit that some of the features seem pretty cool. For example, it will have built-in Bluetooth streaming with no need for an accessory. Same goes for connectivity with the Roger Select microphone — my current processor requires a receiver to use the Roger, but the new one has it built in. And it will have a phone app that will show the battery life (my Q90 will start beeping when the battery is low, but there’s no way to tell how low) and allow you to adjust the mic/aux balance on the fly, which would mean I wouldn’t even need a special streaming-only program.

So, there’s definitely some pretty exciting stuff there. Of course, since I just got mine a year and a half ago, there’s no way that my insurance will pay for a new processor, so my current plan is to wait a few months for patients to start getting the Marvel, and see what people who don’t work for AB have to say about it, especially those who are upgrading from older models since they can say how it compares. If I like what I hear, I’ll go get evaluated to see if my right ear qualifies for a CI; if so, then I’ll consider going bilateral, in which case I’ll get two processors and I can use the Q90s as backups. If it’s not approved for the right ear, I might decide to pay out-of-pocket for the new processor. But before any of that, I want to give them time to work out any bugs (because new technology almost always has bugs) and see if it’s worth the money.

I’m still not 100% sure I’m psychologically ready to go bilateral, even if I’m approved. With no hearing aid or CI processor, I’m about a half-step above functionally deaf: I can hear loud sounds with my non-implanted ear (the implanted one has no natural hearing at all — it’s dead without the CI), and I can hear when people are talking in the same room as me, but I can’t understand much of what they’re saying unless they’re really close to my ear and speaking very slowly and clearly — and even then it’s hit or miss. So yeah, almost deaf. But when I go to sleep at night and I’m not wearing my processor and hearing aid, if there were a really loud sound like the smoke alarm going off, I would most likely hear it and wake up. The thought of not having that little bit of hearing, as pitiful as it is, is kind of scary — as is being 100% reliant on technology in order to hear. Of course now I’m more like 95% reliant, so I’m not sure it’s that big a difference, especially since my husband can hear and I trust him to wake me up in an emergency.

Well, since I don’t plan to do anything until I’ve decided whether the Marvel is worth getting, I have some time to think about it.

More new charms just arrived today! These are from PhoenixFire Jewelry (https://www.etsy.com/shop/PhoenixfireJewellery) and I love them! They did a custom order for me with no findings (findings are things like the loop the chain goes through on a necklace, or earring hooks, clasps, or pin backs) and I stuck on some Velcro to attach them to my headpiece.

I have never understood why there’s such a stigma associated with hearing loss — many people who have hearing problems don’t want to admit it, and balk at the idea of getting hearing aids. I guess at least part of it is an age thing, since a large percentage of people with hearing loss tend to be older, but since my problems started when I was 30, I have been aware for a while that it’s not only old people who lose their hearing. I look at hearing devices the same way as glasses (which I also wear) or contacts: something in my body doesn’t work right, so why wouldn’t I avail myself of the technology to improve it?

Anyway, modern hearing aids tend to be small and pretty easy to hide; I’ve had people I’ve known for years tell me that they had no idea I had them until I mentioned it, though I never particularly cared about hiding them. The cochlear implant processor, however, is a different story. People with thick hair can hide it, but my hair isn’t that thick, and in any case, I don’t see any reason to be ashamed of it. So instead of trying to hide it, I decided to decorate it.

I have two processors (the second is supposed to be a backup), so I got a lot of different skins from SkinIt.com. Some are their designs, some are custom — they have a page that lets you make your own by dragging a picture over their template. I have a different skin on each processor, and I tend to change them every few months or so. I choose which processor to wear each day based on what skin I’m in the mood to use.

Some of the skins I’ve had (the last two are my current ones):

I got another idea from someone on one of the CI groups: take an ordinary pendant, snip off the loop that the chain goes through, and stick a piece of velcro on the back and another on a spare color cap. The possibilities are endless! (Guess what my favorite gemstone is…)

And then I decided to take advantage of the fact that my processor has removable color caps for the headpiece (the round part). I ordered a bunch and asked an artist friend to paint me some pretty designs on them. She asked me for my favorite colors (blue, green, and purple) and some of the things I like (dragons, knitting, turtles, stargazer lilies, Marvin the Martian) and did an amazing job!

With all these pretty decorations, why in the world would I ever want to hide my processor?

Today’s my one-year activation anniversary (activersary?). While I can’t say I’m to the point yet where things sound normal, I am definitely glad I did this. Compared to before my hearing loss, things don’t sound as good…but compared to what my hearing would be like without the CI, it’s amazing.

To recap: Going into my surgery, I had one bad ear (now the implanted one), which had about 10% word recognition, and one good ear (mild loss, about 80% word recognition). Just a couple weeks after the surgery, before I was even activated, my good ear had another sudden loss and is now at about 40% word recognition. Before that, the CI had been a “nice to have”, but after that it became a necessity. A year later, I have the CI in my left ear and a linked hearing aid in the right; I hear better with both together than I do with either one on its own, although the CI is definitely better in terms of clarity.

I’ve felt like I’ve been on a plateau for the last 6 months or so — I can recognize and distinguish different voices with no problems, but they still sound sort of like they have two layers to them: one normal, the other a little bit scratchy/echoey, like it’s coming through a radio that’s not quite tuned correctly. Music still sounds discordant and wrong, and I can’t hear harmonies very well (which makes me sad because I love harmonies), although I can easily recognize songs I know, distinguish between different instruments, and understand lyrics as long as they’re reasonably clear. I keep hoping that this will get better with time.

I don’t have a current word-recognition score, as my last test and mapping were 6 months ago (74% on individual words, 84% on phonemes, and over 90% on sentences). I figure I’ll go in next month and see where things stand.

Things are still pretty much the same as last time I posted. I am understanding most people pretty well, but the sound quality is nowhere near what it was when I had normal hearing. However, I keep reminding myself that compared to what I would have without the CI and hearing aid, it’s amazing. That’s the thing about hearing loss: unlike with most vision problems, it’s nearly impossible to ever get it corrected so it’s just as good as before the loss. Often the best they can do is “ok” — good enough to communicate with and understand (most) people, but that’s about all. So I’ve had to adjust my thinking and try to keep from looking back to when my hearing was perfect, and remember that it’s so much better now than it would be without the CI and hearing aid…and that it’s just never going to be “normal” again — best I can hope for is that I’ll get used to the new normal.

I’ve been looking for a new job lately, and given that most companies are working remotely because of COVID-19, I’ve had to do several video interviews. These have gone surprisingly smoothly; I’ve had little trouble understanding the interviewers, and as a bonus, they most likely have no idea I have a CI because it’s not really visible face-on. (Not that I care who sees it, but unconscious bias is a real thing, and I’d hate to have someone discount me early on because of my hearing problems, so I’m just as happy they don’t know right away.) I also do okay on the phone, with one exception: if the person I’m speaking with has a heavy accent. I spoke with one recruiter and missed half of what he said because of his accent. I’m not blaming people with accents; it’s no one’s fault that I have a harder time understanding them.

When I bought my CI accessories, I decided against the ComPilot, which is basically a combination streamer/remote control. I didn’t need the remote functions (the buttons on the processor do everything I need, and I have no finger or motor control problems that prevent me from using them), and the CI Connect does streaming; and plus, I didn’t want yet another device that I’d have to keep charged. But then I heard that it could stream to both my CI and hearing aid, and I could get actual stereo (CI Connect is mono), and it could pair with more than one Bluetooth device (CI Connect only pairs to a single device plus the TV Connector), so since AB was having a 20% off sale, I decided to order one. And the sound quality actually is better with it — for instance, though music still sounds pretty bad, I can hear bass sounds that I couldn’t with the CI Connect. Phone calls are also a bit clearer, as I hear them in both ears — I hear better with both the CI and HA than I do with either on its own, so having the sound in both helps a lot.

Now if I could only figure out how to use the ComPilot with the TV, that’d be even better. Tried to pair it with the AppleTV, but it said the pairing code was invalid — the same code that had worked with both my phone and iPad. I could buy yet another accessory, the TVLink, that is supposed to work with the ComPilot, but that’d be another couple hundred dollars. Being a cyborg ain’t cheap. The CI Connect/TV Connector do work, so I can just keep using them; it’s just that getting to hear the TV in actual stereo is really tempting. Well, AB’s sale is still going on, so I’ll have to decide before it ends.

Anyway, with the stay-at-home orders lately, the only person I’ve really been interacting with is my husband, and I have no problems understanding him since his is the voice I hear most often. Today we had a friend over — the first one we’ve seen in 2 months — and at first I had a little trouble understanding her. It got easier as time went on; I guess I really need exposure to different voices. TV and audio books help some, but I guess I need to talk to actual people too. I don’t generally have a problem with the semi-weekly work meetings (done over Microsoft Teams), but my coworkers are all men, and I seem to have an easier time with men’s voices than women’s.

Don’t know when I’ll be able to see the audiologist for another mapping. I really wish I could make minor tweaks on my own and try different settings, rather than waiting months in between audiologist visits. Next time I do go, I plan to see if there’s a program she can give me that’ll make music sound better. My current programs are: 1) normal (the one I use 99% of the time); 2) background noise; 3) telecoil; 4) streaming only (external microphones disabled); and 5) headpiece microphone (I use that with the Aqua Case or when I’m biking to cut the wind noise). I do use all of them at one time or another, but since I have 2 processors (the second is meant as a backup in case the other one breaks), I can just ask for either the t-coil or headpiece microphone program to be replaced on one of them, since those are the programs I use least and I probably can sacrifice one of them on one processor. But that’ll probably have to wait until the lockdowns are over and things get back to something resembling normal.

So that’s where I am now. As I said, I definitely hear best with both the CI and HA, and they allow me to get through life relatively normally — I miss things here and there, but I manage for the most part, which I would have a really hard time doing without them. I do wish things sounded better, and most of all that I could enjoy music, but I have hopes that it’ll happen someday. And I’m very grateful for what I do have.

Well, I did go on my cruise — one of the last ones before all the cruises stopped because of the coronavirus. We’ve now been home 2 weeks with no sign of illness, so I’m pretty sure we dodged the bullet, although a few people on our ship have since come down with it. We had missed the first port stop (the cruise line’s private island in the Bahamas) due to bad weather, and then Grand Turk wouldn’t let us dock because of coronavirus fears, so we went back to the private island on the last day. Still had a good time; the JoCo Cruise is never about the ports for us anyway.

As I expected, hearing on the cruise was challenging. I faked my way through a lot of conversations, but mostly managed to at least understand enough to get the gist of what people were saying. The Aqua Case worked great for swimming and snorkeling, although I need to make sure to turn up the volume a bit more next time, because my hearing aid is not waterproof, which means that the CI has to pick up the slack for both ears.

I had mixed results with the assisted-listening devices on the ship. The first one I got didn’t work at all; I only got static. The second one was much better, but it only worked in the main theater, so it didn’t help when there were events I wanted to attend in other venues on the ship, and I skipped the land concert entirely because I doubted my ability to hear it. And at least one performer stepped away from the microphone and spoke to the audience without it a couple of times, which meant I didn’t hear a word of what he was saying. (Thankfully, Ray is really patient and told me what he was saying.)

And now, of course, we’re socially isolating like most of the rest of the world, so my life is pretty quiet. I’m glad I had a mapping not that long ago — no idea when I’ll be able to have another one with a pandemic raging.

Haven’t updated in a while because there hasn’t been much new to report; for the last few months I’ve kind of felt like I hit a plateau with the CI, with no discernible improvement. But I had my 6-month mapping appointment last week, and she tested me in the booth, and it turns out there has been some improvement: at my last appointment 3 months ago, I got 64% on the word recognition, and this time I got 74%. I also got over 90% on the sentence recognition, which means I was correct in thinking I tend to do better when I have context — even if I don’t get every word, I can often work out the ones I didn’t get from the rest.

A couple months ago during a discussion on the Advanced Bionics (AB) forums, I posted my CI programs, and a couple people there told me that all my programs were “P”, which means the electrodes fire in pairs; the other option is “S” where they fire one at a time. Apparently P is the default, but some people do better with S and the suggestion was that I ask for S just to try it. So since I had an open program slot, I got an S program. I’ve only had it a few days but I do think it’s a bit clearer than P, and music definitely sounds a lot better with it (though still not great).

In general, though my comprehension has increased, the overall sound quality is still pretty poor. It’s like voices have two layers: one that sounds nearly normal, and the other is sort of scratchy (still rather Gollum-like). I’m easily able to distinguish between male and female voices, and even to recognize voices I know well, like my husband’s, but if I’m watching an animated movie, for instance, I can’t necessarily recognize famous actors’ voices like I used to be able to. Music still sounds kinda bad; I can distinguish between most instruments, but the notes sound all wrong. With the P program, I couldn’t really hear harmonies at all; with the S one, I almost can.

I’ve found some novel ways to use my accessories. I stream Bluetooth from my phone with the CI Connect a lot, mostly audiobooks or music, and also the TV (using the TV Connector, another accessory). And the Roger Select has proved to be pretty versatile; not only does it work as an external microphone that I can place close to a person or sound source (like, for instance, the car speaker) so I can hear it better, but it also plugs into the headphone jack of any device that has one and streams the device’s sound directly to my CI. Turns out it works really well with those assisted-listening devices they have at theaters — it sounded much clearer when I tried that than just listening normally. I tend to have an easier time with comprehension if I stream than if I use speakers.

I’ve got a cruise coming up in a few weeks, and I had been dreading the thought of swimming or snorkeling because after my post-implant hearing loss in the other ear, I can hear very little without the CI or hearing aid. (During our last trip, as we were walking down a noisy, crowded street, I took off both the CI and HA and it was suddenly eerily silent; I could only hear people if they were not more than a few feet from me.) I was kind of resigned to either being nearly deaf while in the water or else avoiding the pool and hot tub, but then I decided to order AB’s AquaCase. Because I had to get not only the case but also the accessories that make it work (it requires a special cable, a waterproof headpiece/microphone, and a smaller battery to fit in the case), it was not cheap, but if it works it will make a huge difference and allow me to go in the water without being mostly deaf. The downside is I’m going to have to give up one of my programs to use it — it requires a special one for the headpiece microphone. I’m still trying to decide which one to sacrifice.

But the upside is I might actually be able to use the AquaCase for other things besides water sports; because it comes with a clip and lanyard to secure the processor, I might be able to wear it on roller coasters. Since there’s nothing but a relatively weak magnet holding it in place normally, I take it off if there’s any chance of it going flying, but if I have something to secure it, I might be able to keep it on.

I’m also a little nervous about the cruise in general. This cruise is very entertainment-oriented and there will be a lot of people we know from past cruises on board. That means shows without captions (they do have assisted-listening devices, though I have no idea how well they’ll work) as well as a lot of chatting with people in noisy areas, which is not easy for me. I know people will be patient and understanding with me, but everyone’s patience has a limit and I’m afraid folks will decide it’s easier to avoid me than to have to keep repeating themselves…or I’ll resort to the old standby of pretending I understand when I really don’t.

Guess I’ll post after I get back and update about how the AquaCase worked and how the cruise went in general.

Had my 3-month mapping today. She also tested my word recognition — this was a man’s voice saying a series of words preceded by “Ready” (e.,g., “Ready – ball”) and I had to repeat the word after “ready”. I got 64% on the words; she also counted how often I got the right sound, even if I didn’t get precisely the right word, and that was 82%. I feel like I do better than 64% in normal conversation, at least in a quiet setting, because I have context; where I have trouble is if someone uses an unfamiliar word or makes a quick subject change when I’m not expecting it. And I’m doing better with men’s voices than women’s.

I also got a Naida Link hearing aid for the other ear about a week ago. The one I was using, one of a pair of Starkey Muse BiCROS (obviously, the other half of the pair was replaced by my CI), was pretty useless and I stopped wearing it. The Link is pretty cool in that it (as its name implies) links to my CI and has similar programs. I have a little trouble understanding people with just the hearing aid, but it does improve my ability to hear in stereo.

At today’s appointment, I asked for a streaming-only program — currently, if I use my normal everyday program for Bluetooth streaming, I have problems if there’s a lot of background noise, such as at the gym, because it’s still picking up sound from the processor’s microphones; it’s set to 70% from streaming and 30% from the microphones, so that I can hear if there’s something going on that I need to hear, like a fire alarm or something. But there are times when I just want to hear the streaming — I still have a little bit of hearing in my other ear that would certainly be enough to hear a fire alarm, and plus my husband’s usually with me when I’m likely to use this program, so he’d alert me to anything I needed to know about. The new program can also stream to the hearing aid, so I get the sound in both ears. For situations where I still want to be able to hear external sounds, I can use program 1 for streaming like I have been doing all along.

The new program also helped an issue I was having with the TV Connector: unless I had the TV’s normal sound muted (impractical unless I’m watching alone), I got this weird echo effect when streaming from the TV to my CI Connect. The processor microphones would be picking up the sound from the TV’s speakers a fraction of a second before I’d get it through the streaming, so I’d hear everything twice, just slightly unsynchronized. Disabling the processor microphones fixed that, so I can now use the TV Connector. (I’d been streaming through the Roger Select instead, which didn’t seem to have that problem for some reason.)

These are my programs now (not that I have any idea how to interpret this):

In other news, AB sent me a replacement CI Connect after I complained to them about all the problems I had with my original one. This one works much, much better — hasn’t cut out at all, even in the places where the old one did, and I can keep my phone in my pocket and it’ll still work. So it was just defective, I guess.

My biggest problem lately has been volume. I got the audiologist to lower it a bit, because small but sudden sounds, like someone coughing, have a tendency to make me jump out of my skin, and things like my coworkers talking one or two offices away have been driving me batty. I can (and do) turn it down, of course, but it only goes down so far. Hopefully this mapping will help there; at least, I didn’t feel the need to close my office door today like I’d been doing the last few days.

So, it’s going reasonably well. Understanding people still takes mental effort, but I’m grateful that I can understand them at all.

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.

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.