December 8, 2009 I got my last mapping I will get before my surgery.My audiologist said that she set me on the S program the last time I was there and she wanted me to try each one of them.Well, I tried them since the last mapping, and I have noticed that I had a hard time understanding when someone is talking to me in a quiet or noisy place.
I told her that I took a replacement test before came to the office and that I had dropped from 86% down to 75% with the S program which is not good for me. She told me that she wanted me to try some new programming that was totally new and to see how I do. And she said that she was going to be back on the P program and that she would not let me on high fidelity 120 yet. She said she wanted to try new tips and strategies that advance bionics have provided her.
So I'm trying a new programming with the tips and strategies that AB has provided her. She asked me if I've been practicing on hearing journey.com, and I told her yes, that I do the practicing and exercises on there. She told me that she wished that all of her patients would try to practice focusing on what's being said. She telling me that she has asked former patients if they had been practicing in the listening room on hearing journey.com she tells me that they say well,"No," that they thought it was a waste of time and they thought that when they got the implant or implants that they would be able to hear normally like a hearing person. And she told them, that is not a quick fix, and that they are going to have to do practices and exercises to get better. She told me that she had told them about me and that I was a good example on how well you can do by going to the listening room and practicing each day for one hour or two, and not only there, but to listen audiotapes, and music. She asked me if I was listening to audiotapes and music, and I told her yes, that I was doing this on the computer. Going to Youtube.com, and listening to music there. She was happy to hear that I was doing so well and keeping up the good work and that she put me on 100% T-Mic.
We talked about people that have hearing loss, and the ones in the deaf community and how they feel about where they are between the hearing world and the deaf world.I told her that I knew people in the deaf community, and they feel that they are safe and secure in that community.I believe there are some in the hearing world that have hard time understanding the ones that have in hearing loss and wear hearing aids or are deaf.Though they tell us to turn up your hearing aids if we can't hear them, they give up push us a side. And she said that is true, because the hearing people don't really understand how hard it is for us.
She asked me what I think I would consider myself being in, the hearing world or the deaf world? And I told her that I don't think I'm being either world that I am in CI community and I'm between the hearing world and the deaf world. Because I hear during the day, but at night, I'm deaf, and then I had the best of both worlds.So that's why I say that I am between the two worlds, and that I have a wonderful technology to where I could be from both worlds.
She said that she would try the high fidelity 120 after the second implant is done in a few mappings after the activation day. She said that she set activation date, January 21, 2010 at 10 AM, and that is the day after my granddaughters birthday and a week after my birthday and Johns.
She told me that on December 7, she had called the insurance company and they told her that she did not put the "word for word test" in the report, and she had faxed a new report to them with the" word for word test" that they need to have to approve the surgery.
She commented that she will keep calling the insurance's company until they give the approval.Thanks to my CI team I have a good chance to get the second implant.Thank you, Dr. Donna Schwaber for pushing to get my approval for the second cochlear implant.I have take the replacement test again to see where I'm at with the P program and I scored a 88% at this time.
