Back to Sunnybrook early today for a post-op checkup. It's a snowy day now but not much had fallen by the time of the appointment so there was no problem getting there.
The nurse removed the staples from the incision. Mercifully, they have a special tool for this, something like tiny retaining-ring pliers. So it's looking a lot less grotty now:
Dr Chen said it may take 2-3 months before my taste and feeling in the tip of the ear is fully normal. He emphasized the importance of active listening with the cochlear implant - e.g. listening to familiar spoken or music recordings over and over or reading things out loud to improve my voice modulation.
On Friday, I go back to Sunnybrook for activation! Barb will likely come with me. Whatever happens, it would be good for her to understand how it works and what sort of experience I will likely have with the cochlear implant. It will be interesting to see how it goes!
I understand that a few CI recipients find that they are able to comprehend speech almost as soon as the device is turned on. A revelation, in effect. But for most people, there's a learning curve of 3 to 6 months before they are fully functional. And for some unfortunate people, it doesn't work at all and they revert to other means of communication.
Why different people have such different experiences isn't well understood. It seems to have more to do with hearing history and motivation than anything else.
People who have lived a normal hearing life only to suffer sudden deafness seem to do best. Though traumatized by their loss of hearing, they are likely to be highly motivated to adapt to the cochlear implant as they have no 'fallback' means by which to hear. They are unlikely to have developed speech/lip reading skills and it can take years to develop fluency in ASL (american sign language).
Those who have lived for a long period of time with no sound at all seem to find it hardest. Their auditory nerve may have atrophied from lack of stimulation. They may have forgotten how things really sound or what they hear is just a small part of the full sound spectrum of each word or syllable.
You might think that children would have the easiest time adapting to their CI. Curiously, that doesn't seem to be the case. They do not seem to have to depth of experience of sound that older people may have. And, of course, if a child has not learned language during a critical period of early life, he or she may never to ever learn to understand words through a CI.
The nurse removed the staples from the incision. Mercifully, they have a special tool for this, something like tiny retaining-ring pliers. So it's looking a lot less grotty now:
Dr Chen said it may take 2-3 months before my taste and feeling in the tip of the ear is fully normal. He emphasized the importance of active listening with the cochlear implant - e.g. listening to familiar spoken or music recordings over and over or reading things out loud to improve my voice modulation.
On Friday, I go back to Sunnybrook for activation! Barb will likely come with me. Whatever happens, it would be good for her to understand how it works and what sort of experience I will likely have with the cochlear implant. It will be interesting to see how it goes!
I understand that a few CI recipients find that they are able to comprehend speech almost as soon as the device is turned on. A revelation, in effect. But for most people, there's a learning curve of 3 to 6 months before they are fully functional. And for some unfortunate people, it doesn't work at all and they revert to other means of communication.
Why different people have such different experiences isn't well understood. It seems to have more to do with hearing history and motivation than anything else.
People who have lived a normal hearing life only to suffer sudden deafness seem to do best. Though traumatized by their loss of hearing, they are likely to be highly motivated to adapt to the cochlear implant as they have no 'fallback' means by which to hear. They are unlikely to have developed speech/lip reading skills and it can take years to develop fluency in ASL (american sign language).
Those who have lived for a long period of time with no sound at all seem to find it hardest. Their auditory nerve may have atrophied from lack of stimulation. They may have forgotten how things really sound or what they hear is just a small part of the full sound spectrum of each word or syllable.
You might think that children would have the easiest time adapting to their CI. Curiously, that doesn't seem to be the case. They do not seem to have to depth of experience of sound that older people may have. And, of course, if a child has not learned language during a critical period of early life, he or she may never to ever learn to understand words through a CI.
Hi Steve. Great progress you are making and wonderful to read. It has been nine months since my activation at Sunnybrook and every day gets better. I enjoyed this blog and look forward to your activation post.
ReplyDeleteDavid