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Category Archives: My Cochlear Implant Journey
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Posted on December 1, 2015 | 8 comments
Last week I received a new processor for my cochlear implant. The
processor is the tiny computer that translates sounds in the
environment to a code. The electrodes in my implant use this code to
end a message to my brain that I have heard the sound. I must admit
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invention for only three years. It seems like a lifetime and I can
hardly remember what life was like before my cochlear implant.
There are still challenges, especially when I can’t read a speaker’s
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‘life-half-full’ glass. My new processor includes a special receiver
that connects both my hearing aid and implant with the personal FM that
I wear in groups to boost the sound. So I am now hearing in stereo!
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this time, even more than that first time I experienced music with my
implant at the Symphony, some eighteen months ago. I could hear very
oft sounds distinctly. It’s really quite something.
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columnists sometime in the future. We’ll see.
And while my implant has improved my life in immeasurable ways, I still
experience trepidation in any waiting room wondering if I will hear my
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8 Comments
Posted in My Cochlear Implant Journey
More on music and cochlear implants
Posted on December 4, 2014 | 3 comments
Last June I wrote about my success hearing music with my implant. Since
that time I have been trying to explain the difference between hearing
‘normal sounding’ musical sounds and hearing these sounds with a
cochlear implant, to help others understand the enormity of this
milestone.
I had a meeting with my implant rehab therapist earlier this week and
he found this great illustration. (see link below) I want to share it
with you – both those of you who are implant users and those who might
know someone with an implant. I think this is an easy way to understand
what we go through trying to hear music with a cochlear implant,
especially when the implant’s sounds overpower the sounds from the
non-implanted ear.
Some people with cochlear implants never reach the ‘normal’ stage;
others get there fairly quickly. It took me almost two years. My brain
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very complex sounds.
I now hear the ‘normal’ sounding music with both my implant and my
hearing-aided ear and I am greatly enjoying this newly rediscovered
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ago. And I think the sound is actually clearer now.
It IS the implant that is making the difference here. A couple of times
during the concert I took off my cochlear implant processor so I could
get a sense of what I was hearing with just my hearing aid alone. It
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enjoyed performing. The concert last week was another.
I have one more task – feeling confident using my implant on the phone
– and that will take some time yet. But my “cochlear implant
expectation check list” is almost complete, so this will be the final
entry of my cochlear implant journey, almost two years after I received
this amazing device.
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blog on several occasions about my experiences hearing music with my
implant. I could hear the true notes of simple tunes like Twinkle
Twinkle Little Star with a week or so of practicing but a complex piece
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when you hear one of the two patterns. Seemed easy enough. Not!
For one thing, the notes I heard with my implant did not always
correspond with the placement of the notes on the screen. I know music.
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And a PS. I saw a different researcher for my post test. She explained
that cochlear implants are designed for speech, not music and music
involves a totally different signal. There is rhythm, there are
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7 Comments
My Cochlear Implant Journey: the year that changed everything
Posted on September 17, 2013 | 8 comments
A year ago today my cochlear implant was activated and I began my
journey to hear again. While preparing for this anniversary edition I
read through the early posts and I am amazed at how far I have come. I
had my first annual hearing test with the implant just a week ago to
ee how much I am actually hearing with my implant alone and with my
implant and hearing aid together. Prior to being approved for the
implant two years ago I took a number of tests, most particularly one
that tests your ability to hear sentences over cocktail party noises.
That time I got one right. This time I managed to get about half of
them right with just my implant. That is the proof of the pudding. Now
these tests are in a controlled environment; the speakers enunciate
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with real life. Still from a success rate of 2% to nearly 50% tells me
that my implant is working pretty well!
During those first few weeks after the implant was activated I
practiced hearing words without reading lips. Now I can manage a
telephone conversation of 30 minutes or more using my implant. Granted,
my conversations are only with people whose voices I can easily
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the phone ringing from other rooms and other floors in the house just
with my implant alone. Before I received the implant and using only my
hearing aid, I could not hear the phone ring unless I was in the same
room. The same for people knocking on my front door. Pre-implant when I
was expecting someone, such as a repair person or neighbour, I had to
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During my first year review last week with the audiologist, as she was
testing the implant’s processor I kept hearing a swishing sound. I
thought there was something wrong with the processor so I mentioned it
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Music has been a major challenge because it is such a complex auditory
process. I could hear individual notes fairly early on with my implant
but not a more intricate piece of music. About six months ago I
listened to the choir at church singing an anthem using just my implant
and did not hear ANY music at all. All I heard were the voices speaking
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than normal and were similar to the buzzing noise from the day my
implant was activated – just like they were when I first tried to hear
individual musical notes. But I could hear differences in tone and
could tell higher notes from lower. I must admit I did not have a lot
of hope that I could hear music with my implant. I worried when I lose
the hearing in my better ear and would need to rely solely on my
implant, music would be lost to me. Now I know that won’t happen. It
may take another year or even longer, but I will hear music.
There were so many firsts this past year. Some sounds are still robotic
and unclear. The implant is loud and my brain is still working on
filtering out extraneous sounds. At the moment, blasts from a noisy
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blog about the sound I was most looking forward to hearing once my
implant was working. It was the call of the loon. While I have not been
near a loon to test this out, I have no doubt that I could hear it now.
I have discovered that keeping things in perspective is an important
component of success with cochlear implants. The other day a retired
teacher of the deaf, on learning that I was approaching my first
anniversary with the implant said, “Oh, it is still very new for you.”
I realized that a year is just the beginning and I have many more
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in two things. First, I slept – a lot! And when you sleep, you don’t
wear any of the external parts of your implant so I wasn’t getting the
usual sound stimulation. And secondly my brain pretty much turned to
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important lesson for me at this stage of my development with the
implant because the progress I make now is tiny and not always truly
noticeable. So even when I feel I am not moving ahead, I actually am.
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on by one of my friends, I decided to ‘test’ my ability to hear complex
music with just the implant. To backtrack a bit, last December I tried
this test for the first time. At that stage in my development, I was
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took out my hearing aid (which does allow me to hear some music) and
just listened with my cochlear implant. There was no musical sound at
all. All I heard was the choir speaking words. It actually reminded me
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The other day someone asked me what is the best sound I have heard so
far with my implant and what is the worst. This is a very interesting
question and I had to think about my answer.
The challenge I have is that I can hear using my left, non-implanted
ear and a very strong hearing aid. So there are sounds that I hear with
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and some that I don’t (the beeping sound of a truck backing up). But
new sounds with my implant? Hmm.
It is raining quite hard today. I tend to wear just the processor for
my right implanted ear rather than the processor plus my hearing aid
whenever I can to help my brain practice listening for sounds and I
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The truth is that there were so many sounds that I did not hear –
either at all or not very well – before my implant that pretty much
every sound now is the best and there are none I can really call the