A Year in Review - CI Scores

There, I was today at the Audiology Department of the Hospital University of Pennsylvania, sitting cross legged in the same chair that I sat in 364 days ago when I had my cochlear implant activated. Time is a funny conundrum of sorts because some people claim it is relative, others absolute but the fact of the matter is that it just – flies. My temperament was flickering with nostalgic moments of how just a day shy of a year ago I was reintroduced to the noisy world of sound. I still remember how I wanted to commit mass genocide of anything with the consistency of paper. I remember trying to harbor laughter when anyone – man, woman and child spoke to me as if they were practicing to become an extra in an Alvin and the Chipmunk movie. I remember how a helicopter dangled fifty feet above my head and heard not a thing. I remember my emotions running amok – one day I was on a high, the next I was depressed and one-second I would be savoring a sweet melody and the next I would frown at gosh awful noise. I remember my eye twitching because I was too hasty with my volume and I praise the day it was resolved. I remember people telling me to be patient and that I will eventually reap what has been sewn in my head. I remember all of tedious and trivial details as if it were yesterday and yet I can’t remember what I had for breakfast this morning.

It has been a while since I had a mapping, seven months to be exact. I have developed quite a few gripes over the past couple of months. I have completely maxed out on my volume. I still have the utmost difficulty understanding men and some women. I can understand women with no problem but that can be a bad thing because I understand them too well sometimes. When a man says bosom, it sounds like booze. When a woman says thirteen sounds like fifteen and vice versa. I used to be able to hear the airplanes from in the house and now I can't which is disturbing because I live right near a military base and there are constantly flying overhead. I used to be able to hear better in noisy conditions but I think that is due to my CI needing a tune up badly. Edelweiss sounds like anal rice or anal vice depending on who is saying it and lip reading doesn't help me in the least little bit. I walked in and plopped down and unleashed my tiny list of tasks to be tinkered to my dear audiologist.

Right off the bat, she raised my volume which was a dire improvement. With raising the volume, she raised distortion also. She flattened the lows and tweaked the high frequencies. I was able to hear the sizzle of the S’s and rushing air of the SH sound. It sounded nice and crisp. Amazing what just a little bit of tweaking can do. I am happy to report that Edelweiss now sounds like idle vice which is a drastic improvement over anal rice. Whew! It was time to go into the booth!




You will graphically see as I provided that when I was tested for CI, I bombed every single test with my left ear – zero’s across the board. Quite pathetic I know but what did you expect from an ear with no stimulation for over 15 years.

A month after my CI activation, I was plopped in the soundproof jail and I scored an average 44% on sentences in quiet. The harder test is the words which I scored 8% on, but I managed to score 33% on the phonemes. I get points for phonemes because that means I was able to guess part of the word. For example, the man in the speaker said tick and I said kick – I get points for ick. :)

Five months after activation, I got stuck in the jail again and I scored an average of 79% in sentences in quiet which was well – a 79% improvement. :) My audiologist Jennifer decided that I progressed enough to do the HINT (Hearing in Noise Test) test. She gave me the +10 HINT which means the voices was raised 10dB above the noise and I scored a pathetic 34% on that. Now my one year mapping results – I scored 79% on the sentences in quiet which is not a major improvement from my last test, but I was never one of those people that was aiming for 100% because all I wanted to was to hear something. I feel that I perform much better in real life and the following tests scores prove that. These are the result of the +10 Hint – 74% which is a great improvement from my last score of 34%. My audiologist decided to give me the hardest test – the +5 HINT test which means the voices is raised 5dB above the noise and I scored – 65% :)

Some of you might go, you went through surgery and got your head cut open and you can’t even get over 80% comprehension in quiet! When it comes down to it, I didn’t get the cochlear implant to hit hundred percent in a soundproof booth; I got it to gain anything over zero percent. I was happy with the 44% a month after activation and I am happy with 80% now. However, in all actuality these test scores do not reflect how I feel that I perform in real life. I can see how well I perform just by what I am picking up.

Patience is a beautiful thing when you have it and you definitely need it with a cochlear implant. I got 364 days of certifiable cochlear implant experience notched in my head and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow and the next day brings to me. Each tick of the clock leads to a more enjoyable experience. Put it this way, getting a cochlear implant is like making a fruitcake – it Is a lot of hard work but the longer it sits, the better it is and my bionic fruitcake has gotten better and better with time! :)