Second follow-up and wisdom teeth

Last Tuesday (almost a week ago) I had to go back to MUSC for the second time following the operation. By this time, I'd worn my implant for two whole weeks, and it was time to do a little readjusting. I am fairly certain I mentioned in a past entry that I had four programs on my processor unit. Each subsequently numbered program made the volume louder. Whenever I felt like things were starting to get too quiet overall, I would bump the program up to the next one and hopefully continue to increase the threshhold at which my brain could handle incoming sounds. By the time I made it back for the second follow-up (last week) I was up to program 3 and probably would have bumped up to number 4 if I hadn't had to go to the hospital the next day. In any event, Abby readjusted these levels so that the current level (number 3) became number 1. I now have three more levels above number 1, each one louder than the last...about two days ago I moved up to program number 2. However, before we did this, Abby made me listen to some beeps and count the number of beeps (just like I did the first time I hooked up my implant). Although I don't know exactly how she does this, I know Abby uses my responses to create the best type of programs for my implant.

Then came something new...something that I should have expected, but didn't. I once saw a video of a guy who had received his implant, and a week later was able to identify days of the week and months of the year when they were said out loud...without reading the lips of the person who said them. I had to do the same thing last week. We started with the days of the week, and if I might say so, I think I did fairly well. Abby would cover her mouth and name a day of th week for me to identify. Because all the days of the week end in the same sound ("day"), the trick was to identify the initial sound. For someone like me who has a severe hearing impairment, this can be quite difficult. Much of what I have had to do in the past (prior to implantation) was like filling in the blanks of a jigsaw puzzle. A lot of times when a person starts to speak, I miss the first word or two of what they say, and as I quickly change my focus to them, I can pick up on the latter half of what they have said and then make an educated guess as to what the first word or two were. Fortunately, in the English language, most sentences start with a non-essential word like "the" or something to that effect. In any case, with Abby saying only a single word, there was a great emphasis on the initial sound. There were a few tricks, however, to identifying the words. Saturday is the only day of the week that has three syllables...and since I can identify syllables, anytime I heard three, I knew it had to be Saturday. Also, "s" sounds are not sounds I've been able to hear before, and so whenever I DO hear an "s" sound (because of my implant!), it stands out more than most. For this reason, identifying "S"unday was pretty easy. But, it was very hard to distinguish between Thursday and Tuesday, because both are two syllables with a strong "s" sound in the middle. Nonetheless, for the most part, I did fairly well.

Then came the months of the year. I thought this was going to be extremely difficult, but I am happy to say that it wasn't as bad as I thought. Of all the months, the one I struggled the most with was April (go figure, the month of my birth!). While it's tempting to say I used my super-duper detective skills to figure out all of these words, I have to admit, my implant should take the credit. I really felt like I was beginning to understand these words...as if I could actually HEAR them and not have to guess at them. Granted, even though I had a 1 in 12 shot of getting things right, not to mention I could cycle the months of the year through my head really fast, I think my success is a very good indication of how far I've come with this implant. Abby seemed to think so as well, as she told me I was making extremely good progress for having only worn my implant for two weeks! Good news!

Words are still distorted, but there have been a few times where I've heard someone talking and thought I was still wearing my hearing aid (which, of course, makes voices much easier to understand) only to realize that I am only wearing my implant. There's definite progress, and although it's taking longer than I would hope, I'm a pretty patient guy.

Finally, I had my wisdom teeth removed last Friday. I've spent the weekend in and out of sleep...playing a lot of video games and watching TV. I'm not in a lot of pain, but my face is very swollen and my jaw is pretty sore. So, hopefully sometime in the next few days I'll be able to get back to some REAL food. Thank goodness for Orange Snack Packs, Orange Jello, and Orange PowerAde from two of the greatest people around!

How fitting that we end this entry with Orange...

Speaking of...only 47 days until Clemson Tiger football! Almost better still (but not too much, because I know my mom reads this thing :-D )...33 days until I go back to Clemson!!