A year since...

A year since...

Almost anyone who knows me, wouldn't believe its been a year since my hearing 'packed up and left the building.'
Even I can't believe how much has changed!

A year ago at the start of January my hearing went, I wouldn't believe where I am now. A person who has bionic hearing, who can control my ears to what levels I want to hear. Even the hearies of my family are well jealous, I think hearing my sister play out a squeaky pop boy band is enough to drive anyone batty. Thank god for the remote that I have that came with my new Nucleus 6 that I received two weeks ago.

Oh yes! I finally got my Nucleus 6 after a long wait. However, the journey to getting them was a so not fun. Me and my mam got stuck on the motorway for 3 hours which eventually lead to me missing my appointment. But with my CI centre being such a lovely group of people I finally got them. It turned out I wasn't the only person to missed their appointment that day due to the horrid journey on the motorway. Thank goodness my audiologist was willing to programme them. Thank you my Audiologist C! 

'pimped' pink ci's

Whilst programming the CI's I noticed that they were so much lighter. So light that I couldn't feel them on my ears. It was so weird. Even now after getting use to them for a few weeks I can tell the weight is there but isn't as heavy as a my hearing aids or the Nucleus 5 was. In terms of size and shape they are defiantly a lot sleeker.
The colour of the CI's were slightly darker than my N5's were but I could solve this by 'pimping' them. As when I entered the room. My audiologist C, noticed that they were jazzed up with an shiny bright pink which caught her eye immediately. She asked if they were Skinits. I told her they were done with nail foils and this amazed her. So the 'pimping' effect is being spread further ha-ha! 

After the appointment...

Once I was finally programmed with three settings to work through like normally. However, I should finally be evening out my hearing levels according to my audiologist and won't need to have much volume as it should now be like 'normal' hearing. My next appointment will be a year since I got switched on and it will an anniversary of bionic hearing that I am eternally grateful for.
Anyways back to after the appointment. The CI's were really weird. It was like being back in August when I got switched on all 'Dalek' sounding. However speaking to some other CI's wearers this shouldn't really happen. Well I suppose its got to happen to someone, typical its me.
It took a whole week for the robotic/Dalek sounding to finally fade and I worked from the first setting to the second as it was sounding very quiet after two days. With having the remote handy, I was able to adjust the volume within the setting/programme.
Now nearly two and a bit weeks on since gaining these CI's I am on the loudest programme and the volume is nearly on full, (even now I am still brain training more than six months on).
I tend to adjust this due to the environments at 6th form. For example being in one class its continuously noisy and I am having to compete with the surrounding noises. Whereas in another it is so different by being so quiet. It also doesn't help when the teacher is softly spoken and has a beard which makes lip-reading difficult. However, I still rely on SSE in some classes such as the one above to cope with the lesson. Whereas in other classes I have relied on my ears more and its paid off!

Hopefully this progress keeps going and eventually I won't have to rely on sign language or lip-reading as much!

Well I'm off to christen my new CI's and pimp them with a bright outrageous colour!