Whoa! I'm ACTIVATED!!

Without realizing it, today became my activation day! I have been itching to go "back on the ear" with my left ear. I haven't felt lost without my hearing aid, but I definitely missed my hearing aid. I'm at peace that the hearing aid is gone, I now want the new processor! So the Associate Director, Mike, asked me today at work, "why not activate you today?" Well isn't that a good question?! We got the go ahead from my awesome surgeon, and my managing CI audiologist, Mandy, was available! We were on track to hooking me up today! I was so excited!

Mandy and I got everything ready. My profile on the computer was made, we loaded it up, connected the shiny new processor... it won't connect... troubleshooted, troubleshooted, and more troubleshooted... verdict: first processor: out of the box failure! Rare, it does happen. Luckily they send two processors! The 2nd processor gets connected to the computer, and the computer recognizes it! Success!

We ran impedances. This is a measurement that checks how well my internal electrode array is interfacing with the tissue/anatomy of my inner ear. The impedances were a bit high, but this is standard as this is the first time the electrode array was being stimulated. We then moved on to the mapping where we measured the softest sounds that I could hear, and then we went LIVE! Mandy increased my C's (comfort levels) to a level of loudness that I could comfortably tolerate. Man! How different it all was! The sound that was most prevalent was a high pitch "whinnying" sound (the only way I can describe it) that I was hearing constantly. It reminded me of tinnitus, however, this sound goes away when the processor turns off. It is something in the environment that I am hearing. We brought me into the booth and my average thresholds in the booth were 25 dB... this is consistent with borderline normal/mild hearing loss thresholds! Pretty awesome considering I was hearing all this just outside of an hour after programming!

After work, I went out to dinner at Panera, and could hear so many different sounds with the new processor. The ice being dumped into the soda machine, and the pagers vibrating as people's orders were ready! It was insane. I can hear everything so clearly with my old Freedom processor, and the clear sounds merge with my new Nucleus 5 processor in a really cool way. I feel very balanced! It's incredible!

I came home and took off the Freedom, and am wearing only the new Nucleus 5 alone. I went to the bathroom, and could hear the water running (and a few other things I won't mention!). I could hear Jason sneeze, and I can hear myself type on the keyboard. I can even hear Jason typing on the couch beside me with his laptop! I'm really very very excited for all that is going on with this processor! It's going to be awesome!

So I took a bunch of photos: