Part 6 - Dinah’s Cochlear Implant Journey

Rehab

Dinah is now on full volume, and continues with her rehab exercises, progressing from distinguishing between two similar words to the more complex picking out speech from rising levels of background noise.

She's been improving daily, and today for the first time I noted that she didn't look up at me when I started talking. She's not having to be 100% focused on every word - at least with my familiar voice. I asked how she was getting on in noisier situations:

"When I am out at places like the gym, I used to be just smiling and nodding for a lot of the conversation. Now I am participating."

With a quietly spoken woman, in low-level background noise, Dinah noted that she picked up around 80% of the words. Her brain was able to fill in the gaps to keep her going in the conversation, she had to concentrate hard to hear this lady but it was at least possible!

The brain is an important point, because everyone will have different results from their implant. Dinah is a healthy 76 year old with no memory issues. She has kept wearing aids and being in social situations for her whole 'deaf life'. Others may hear 80% of spoken words and not be able to fill in the gaps - so they may require slower speech and a clear voice in order to keep up. The implant gives you the sensations of sound but the brain still has to make sense of the input.

Competitive Edge

Dinah has been a real stickler with doing her rehab exercises daily, I am really proud of her. As she points out, it helps that she has a competitive edge, and wants to exceed the expectations of her audiologist - she wants it to happen fast, and she wants to be the best patient. It's certainly paying off.

Weird Sounds?

It's already been noted that the implants sounds like a Dalek. This has settled down a lot since the fitting, and now Dinah experiences a 'tail' to sounds like S, F, Th. They have an edge of distortion that hangs on for a fraction of a second, and blurs into the next speech sound. People who have rehabilitated to frequency lowering will be familiar with this - the sounds are audible once more, but not natural. Over time I expect this will settle down for her, and we are both delighted she is able to hear an 'S' again!

Coming up in Part 7 - Adding a Hearing Aid to the Mix

#dinahsjourney