As I head home from the second cochlear implant appointment, I can’t help but squint with pride after discovering my new superpower. I remember this movie from my youth where they were testing a girl’s hearing, and they discovered that she could hear beyond the normal human range. I thought that was SO cool and […]
At the beginning of the second appointment, we covered off questions, details, admin, and then we went straight to adjustments. I confirmed what almost all people said about the delay with the sound between the hearing aid and the cochlear implant. I also discussed my challenges with certain aspects of the environment, noise, distinguishing between […]
Geeking Out About Sound: I am happy with some of the benefits that I have started off with the CI, but the complexity and the distortion of sound most times are overwhelming. I woke up and dropped something on my dresser which should have had a simple thud. The thud was a series of complex […]
Today we started off by asking how I was recovering from the surgery: the healing ear, balance, taste, and other symptoms. I was healing well! Check Check. Is this thing on? The external processor was handed to me and we went through the steps of attaching it to my head using the magnet (my head […]
It’s Closing Time…. in the Post-op. Now if this recovery room were a bar, I would have had the reputation of the night. After 3 anti-nausea meds and several long naps, a very drowsy, puky me was the last gal being wheeled out of the recovery room. Even on the way home, I was being held up as […]
It was a last minute phone call, but when they call you for something important like a pre-op, you have to squeeze it into your calendar. Accessories: The devices meeting came first. One thing I wanted to mention the Audiology Department at Sunnybrook – for the amount of hearing loss they expect of their qualified […]
It is the last meeting with the surgeon. Here we go… *deep breathe* You think I might be able to breathe easy since I just discovered the balance test wasn’t a “make or break it” test for qualifying for the surgery… However, I was still a bundle of nerves. This was it! The surgeon entered. MRI. […]
The final test is a balance test and as a form of caution, they suggest that I prepare by expecting to vomit. I was so nervous, because sometimes if I simply touch my ear and my head starts spinning*. I flashbacked to the worst vertigo and I remember that intense feeling of wanting to vomit. […]
Being a part of a list for a CI at Sunnybrook – I get an email (yes, an email – they’re nice that way) to ask if I would like to participate in a study. The study is for testing out how the brain works with lipreading. “I cannot silent lipread” I responded. This apparently […]
Here I am at the Sunnybrook waiting room after months drastic changes in hearing loss. I often wondered why my doctor and specialist were not referring me to this program until I became completely deaf in the left ear and a severe-to-profound hearing loss on the right. It turns out that the criteria for this […]