Friday, October 22, 2010

Bits and Pieces

--One day at a time, I've been alternating HiRes-S and HiRes-P (singular electrodes vs paired electrodes). There is a resounding difference between the two. S is softer and gentler to my ear. The sounds aren't as shocking and abrasive as P. So on the days that I leave it on P, I find myself reacting strongly to certain sounds -- doors closing, toilets flushing, babies crying. It's not because they are loud, per se. Just very coarse, with a little bit of an echo trailing behind it. It's hard to describe the unpleasantness of it. The S setting is so discreet, sometimes I don't even know I'm wearing the CI.

If I had to make a decision today which program I like best, I would choose HiRes-S. But I have until Tuesday to continue experimenting. On Tuesday, the audiologist will build onto the program with the setting I'm most comfortable with.  As we get more advanced and add more power, things will get louder and clearer.

Hopefully. :-)

--I want a wider IDR! IDR (Input Dynamic Range) measures the amount of sound coming into the processor. A wide IDR would be 80 or 90, while a lower IDR would be 30 or 40. A fellow CI recipient explains it best this way: To best illustrate this think of a window - a window opened 60 inches shows you some of the beautiful sights outside the window - a window opened 80 inches can provide even more insight to the things outside that window too (maybe adding the flowers at the bottom of the window that you could not see at 60 inches).

With that scenario in mind, I feel like I'm missing the bigger picture. I'm hearing sounds around me (even if I may not know what it is I'm hearing), but anything beyond 20 feet from me are too soft to register. A wider IDR, I think, would pick it up. The sound of my voice is at a comfortable volume, but everything else is drastically reduced as it inches further away from me.

--I'm playing my own version of "Name That Tune" with my iPod playlist on shuffle. I try to recognize the song that is playing, and most often, I get it right. I can hear the bass and drums really well (which gives the song away, for the most part), but I can't pick up the strings at all. It's like hearing music with only half of the instruments playing. I can also follow the lyrics of the songs I know best. None of the lyrics or music sound "good," really. It's all so very muffled and tinny-sounding. But the fact that I can recognize them and follow along are very positive signs.

It may not seem like it, but I'm making headway, slowly but surely. The changes in my hearing since I last posted are so subtle, but definitely existent. It's only been 9 days!

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