Adventurous Appointment

I think this one will going to be difficult for me to explain what happened at my appointment with audiologist, Steve, last Friday. I will try my best.

You might wonder why I have gone Steve even it’s not time for my sixth mapping. Well, I’m going to refresh your mind. My fifth mapping—one of twelve (it’s number 10) electrode have caused a bit pain when Steve turned the volume up. He decided to turn 10 off. I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, and 12 on active.

I went home and feel weird. Maybe that mapping electrode 10 caused it to be sore. Like you have a cut and then you touch it. I guess I waited to see how it goes in a few days. Over the weekend, I started to feel it was different that time. The feeling is very hard to describe and I tried to explain it to Steve. Imagine that. Let me try to explain it to you if you understand what I mean. It’s sort of like some cough drops, it makes your throat tingly/cool. That tingly/cool feeling is deep in my ear. I don’t think it’s related to a specific sound. The strange is that when I took my cochlear implant off, it was disappeared. Too weird! I had to email Steve. He suggested me to go see the doctor to see if I have an ear inflection and I don’t have it. He suggested me to turn the volume down and it didn’t work. We have been forth and back then finally decided that I should go back to see Steve and see why I’m having that feelings.

That was two weeks ago since I had an appointment with Steve for fifth mapping. The appointment was Friday at eight in the morning. I went and the appointment took longer than usually I had with mappings. This appointment was different. Steve said he have a theory and wanted to try it to see if it works. I went inside of his office and saw there was a machine and it was Middle Ear Analyzer. I thought it must be for other clients.

Steve: That machine, Middle Ear Analyzer, I’m going to use on you. I have a theory and I wanted to try and see if it works.

Me: (Confused: But it’s not the issue since ear drum was worthless to test because cochlear implant goes in different way..)

Steve: It will goes to your right ear.

Me: Uh huh? How it works?

Steve: What I will do is to put this in your right ear and check to see … too loud that would trigger the muscle. It will apply the same as your left ear.

Me: (Curious) Okay.

I guess that’s what he did to me. He pulled the Middle Ear Analyzer close to him so he can work on his computer and Middle Ear Analyzer same time. What he do with the computer? The coil wire goes to the machine that connected to the computer. He turn the volume up to my individual frequency to see when it would trigger. He started with quiet until loud. He will asked me if the loud is okay with me. I had to answer it’s okay, not too loud. Nothing exciting with electrode 1. He tested electrode 4. Suddenly Steve was so happy and proud of himself. I have no idea why he was so happy but realized that he was happy that his theory probably right. So he continued with other frequency. Nothing wrong with some frequency until 10.. Of course, the number 10 is the problem. He had to start with quiet until where it hurts me. Bingo, that hurts. He turned the volume down and it hurts a little. He again lower the loudness and that time no pain.

At that moment, I asked him why it was causing pain? Because when it hurts, I can feel hurt goes down to my throat. It’s almost like throbbing. Steve was diligent to give me the answers why it has happened to me. He started to give me the example—doctor taps your knee and you kick. It's a reflex. Same idea with ear. When the sounds are loud, it triggers the muscle to pull your eardrum. (Later Annie told me: When you yawn, you couldn’t hear the noise because while you yawn, the muscle pulls the eardrum tight.)

He said that number 10 is sensitive to the electrical stimulation from the implant.

So the question is can he fix the problem? Yes, he can by change the mapping a bit. Now my newest mapping does not change a lot except number 9, 10, and 11. He made the number 9, 10, and 11 stimulation lower than other stimulation and try again on me to see if the problem have solved. The first try, it hurts; therefore, he had to lower once again. Finally no more pain on that mapping.

Before Steve was confirmed the new mapping is good for me, he had to test me by saying Ling sounds with a black cloth to cover his mouth. He asked me to raise my arm if I hear him say something. He started to say one of Ling and I had no problem raise my arm for awhile as he said the sounds quieter and quieter. One time I was not sure if I heard it. I said umm I’ll go ahead raise my arm and not sure because I think it’s extremely quiet. Am I imagine? Steve was thrilled that I was able to hear the quiet and said it’s good mapping for you now. You do not have two programs now. You have accomplished that area.

Steve asked me what I wanted to do with second program so I decided to go for music. He set up a program for music. I wonder what’s the different but Steve mentioned that the music he set will be broader than program 1. Program 1 is narrow to focus on the speech frequencies.

The result is that I haven’t had weird feeling since last Friday. After the appointment, I felt everything was quiet. I recalled that I noticed nothing much after the mapping until NEXT day. True enough, the next day it was a bit louder than Friday, but not too loud as before. It’s different somehow. Things tend bothers me was not important to me now. Yes, it’s loud but not enough to drive me nuts. Such as plastic bag or flush the toilet. I sometimes ran away from the toilet when I flush it. Sometimes I forced myself to stay to wash my hands while flush the toilet. That sounds was unpleasant to me. Now I can get used to that noise because the high frequency is not overpower other frequencies.

Well the first day was quiet. The second day was better. The third day was a lot better. Now I feel the bathroom is loud and starting annoying again, but not awful. I guess I am picking up the sound even though Steve turn down the stimulation.

Now I feel I have to learn everything over, because the high frequency is not overpower other frequencies. I have to do listening therapy to see if it sounds the same or different. I guess I will find out soon. I guess that's it for now.