Third Mapping!

I was so tired, House was on last night, and of course, House won. I ended up getting home from my mapping much later then expected because the valet somehow mixed up my keys with another ticket. I was just happy that they let me go through the keys because they originally thought the keys were dropped somewhere. Mistakes happen, no big deal, moving right along.

A review of my last mapping had these settings:

Base program is HiRes-P with Fidelity 120, IDR of 60 with extended lows and a gain in high frequency. My audio mix is 50/50 Mic/Aux.

Sounds have gotten a softer or my brain might have started ignoring them. I doubt my selective hearing will ever go away. So what’s a girl to do? Pump up the volume!! But pumping up the volume brought a not so nice sensation in the back of my left eye. Otherwise, I was picking up speech fairly well. I was reading the Winnie the Pooh book which is so gosh darn riveting and picked up words here and there. Music is coming through ok. I am still having a problem with certain sounds cutting out.

My noise program is HiRes-P with Fidelity 120, IDR of 45 with an audio mix of 50/50 Mic/Aux.

I didn't really get to use this because I maxed out the volume of this program within a week.

My music program is HiRes-P with Fidelity 120, IDR of 80 with an audio mix of 30/70 Mic/Aux.

Ahhh...what can I say about this program? This is a *pretty* program for me. I love what I can hear on it. I could hear people talking 25 away in a store. Only downfall is that I can hear crickets on this program, shudder.

Before I continue, I want to explain what HiRes-P and Hires-S are, I don’t want to lose readers in the technical mumbo jumbo ☺

HiRes-P is the program that tells my implant to process sound by sending electrical pulses to two pairs of electrodes or four electrodes causing them to fire all at once. When they fire, my brain interprets the electrical impulses as sound.

Think of it this way:

Imagine 16 soldiers lined up in a row for target practice. These soldiers represent the 16 electrodes wrapped around my cochlea.

If the general said "Soldiers, on my command do a HiRes-P formation"

General says, "Go!"

First four soldiers fire once.

General says, "Go!"

Next four soldiers fire once, while the first four soldiers are recovering.

General says, "Go!"

The next four soldiers fire once, while the first and second sets of soldiers are recovering.

What is happening here is when the four soldiers fire at the target, more damage is inflicted. When four electrodes fire at once, it means that more auditory information is being sent to my brain. Make sense? I hope so!

HiRes-S is a program that tells my implant to process sound by sending electrical pulses to one pair of electrodes or two electrodes causing them to fire all at once. When they fire, my brain interprets the electrical impulses as sound.

Back to the range! The same 16 soldiers lined up in a row for target practice.

If the general said "Soldiers, on my command do a HiRes-S formation"

General says, "Go!"

First two soldiers fire once.

General says, "Go!"

Next two soldiers fire once, while the first two soldiers are recovering.

General says, "Go!"

The next two soldiers fire once, while the first and second sets of soldiers are recovering.

When the two soldiers fire at the target, damage is inflicted but not as fast as the HiRes-P would. When the two electrodes fire at once, it means that only two electrodes are sending auditory information to my brain. This program does not like me.

IDR means Input Dynamic Range, which means the higher the number the bigger the window of sound is available to me. The smaller the number, the smaller the window. Big window=more sound, little window=less sound.

Anyhoo mapping results!!

I keep a little journal of what I can hear in a memo pad, so I whipped it out at the mapping and told Jennifer everything that I have documented. Try picturing a very girly cop taking notes, and you have me at a mapping. She worked her magic with alleviating the twitch. She gradually raised the volume and increased the pulse width. She didn't want me to lose power if I absolutely didn't have to. She did say my comfort levels were above average. The number that it is set at is escaping me but I believe it is 316 but do not quote me on that. It muffled the twitch some but not completely. She tried to see if it was a single electrode causing the twitch. That was not the case. She tried taking me off Fidelity 120, and I was not happy with what I wasn’t hearing. Since I was started with a Hires-P program, she tried switching me to Hires-S and I *hated* it. I think she said one syllable and my brain started frantically firing all the neurons it can for me to blurt out SWITCH IT BACK!!! So she did switched it back and my brain was happy. I'm in the long haul with the HiRes-P program. She took off the extended lows filter and that seemed to do the trick. She took off the auto gain compression on my base program to see if that was causing the cutting out. Today I noticed a big difference; it didn't cut out when the phone rang and the psycho in me was able to sit calmly at my desk suppressing the insatiable urge to rip the air conditioner out of the window. Ahh, such is bliss.

Jennifer ran off some sentences and words that I had to choose which one she said with her mouth covered. I did not even look at her. I think there was 30 different questions and I got one wrong. Darn F words.

My new settings are now:

Base program is HiRes-P with Fidelity 120, IDR of 70 with an audio mix of 50/50 Mic/Aux.

My noise is party program is HiRes-P with Fidelity 120, IDR of 45 with an audio mix of 50/50 Mic/Aux.

My music program is HiRes-P with Fidelity 120, IDR of 80 with an audio mix of 50/50 Mic/Aux.

She decided to stick me in the booth and do a tone test comparison with my last map and the new map she just created for me. The results I posted are with the new map yesterday. Jennifer said I am doing extraordinarily well. I felt like I was in first grade again receiving my first A+ when she said that.

I received the go ahead to welcome an old familiar friend back home. She said I can wear my hearing aid again!! Life is good, life is really good.