Duet Piano

Bryndi, my dearest friend, came visit us for a weekend. Monday--we were planning to take Bryndi a tour to Washington D.C. but we got lot of snow. My work and Annie’s work were cancelled. UMM what would we want to do on that day? Ah, I knew Bryndi loves to listen Annie’s piano. So I asked Annie to play piano for me. Suddenly Bryndi put a big smile when both of us playing a duet song. I don’t think we really did a great job, eh. You can see why when you play this video. Bryndi took a little video while we tried to do our duet song. Oh I just watched this video and I can't help laugh watching this video! Okay, watch for my facial expression when I made mistake! Haha.

Third Mapping

Well, you know it’s obviously that I went for third mapping this morning, right? This appointment was supposed to be 90 minutes with Steve. I ended up finished after 40 minutes with Steve. Yup, that was FAST when he did three things. I guessed right that he would do three things for this mapping. 1. Audiogram 2. Test my odd electrodes 3. Fix some programs on my cochlear implant

Steve was lazy to do audiogram. Well, I mean he did quickly than normal it should be. Then Steve didn’t do ALL odd to test my electrodes. He did only 1, 7, 9, and 11. He skipped 3 and 5. I don’t know why he did that. Finally he started to explain about FSP and HDCIS. Don’t ask me what it is but it means FSP=Fine Structure Processing and HDCIS=High Definition Continuous Interleaved Sampling. He wanted to know if I can tell the difference between FSP and HDCIS. He warned me that I might not able to recognize the difference. And I was not able to tell the difference. He said that we will do that again when I come for another appointment which is one month away from today.

He also explained that he have established only TWO programs, not four. It’s almost too sad to hear about that. Because I’m stuck with only two programs. Because I’m almost reach the goal to 25-35 dB. Basically he only set two programs that goes louder. I’ll be on program 1 for two weeks then change to program 2 until to the next appointment.
That’s it! All three have been done in 40 minutes! He said I’m FAST than others because they have tons of questions or other things. Like problems, need to fix, etc.... I’m just perfect person without complain about loud or anything like that. Yes, I’m saint girl.
Yeah, I almost forgot to add one tiny thing about the audiogram. You noticed there are yellow highlight on the audiogram. He said I’ll continue to improve after increase stimulation. So it’s our goal to reach 25-35 dB. Well, it’s not bad for wearing cochlear implant at one week old. Annie said it’s funny because my old hearing aid already accomplished at 250 Hz but of course much worse at 2,000 Hz. After that, I heard nothing. I think cochlear implant heard more than hearing aid. Different sounds and louder. I think also different uhhh sensitive to the sounds. Hearing aid does not make any sense, well some of environmental sounds make sense with hearing aid. Such as aware of voices, door knock, dog barking, blah blah. One neat thing about cochlear implant that I can hear far than hearing aid can.

Oh another amazing has happened when I left Steve’s office. I had to go to the restroom. There are two small restroom which are next to each other. Annie and I had to go before hit the road.

I went to the bathroom and nothing exciting than first mapping. I knew the flush will scared out of my mind PLUS my heart will jump out of my chest! So I didn’t flush until I’m ready to leave the room. I push and ran out of the restroom! But before that, I was sitting on the toilet and suddenly heard the flush from another restroom!! And I heard Annie’s shoes walking after left the restroom. WOW!! Of course, I can’t tell which shoes but that one was obviously because Annie was next to me.

So that’s it for now. All of exciting is gone for awhile. Hope will have another exciting happen so I can post more fun things on this blog.

Top

I have a reason to use Top on this topic. And I have another reason to use this picture even there is no Laynie in it. Annie wanted to go visit Honor family for Morgie’s birthday. Well, Morgie’s actual birthday is next weekend. She is going to have a big slumber party and we do not want to invade the party. So it was sort of last minute decision to go New York. We only stayed there for the weekend. We left on Friday late afternoon and come back home Sunday.

We had fun time with kids. We went to Chef Central store in New York, THAT WAS AWESOME! I think kitchen store has become my favorite shopping! :D So the weekend has come quickly and it’s almost time for us to go home. Sunday morning greet us a nice surprise, snow! The Honor family left for church. Morgie stayed with us because she was still sleeping. Morgie finally woke up and join us for breakfast. Guess what we had for breakfast? A pie! I know I know I know...but what can I do? They had a party from last night and left us to eat some for breakfast.

Annie wanted to have some pictures of her and Morgie. I was exciting because it would be fun taking pictures in snow. Well, Morgie was a little devil because she is a little girl--what can I expect her to stay still for a few minutes while I was trying to get focus to take a shot. Anyway, I was walk behind Annie and Morgie. I heard the snow creaking and crack in details when I walk. Amazing how it made sounds! Then I step in ice and HEARD the ice cracks! WOW! Well, it’s not the big wow for this blog. Let me tell you the real WOW thing.

I decided to take picture of Annie and Morgie while they are walking. My camera was in my jacket to protect from snowing. I had umbrella with me too. I yelled stop so I can take the camera out of my jacket before they walked too far to take a picture. They stopped, somehow I heard Annie said ssss something. I realized she was telling Morgie that I deleted S when I said stop. Because Morgie asked Annie how she knew what I said. BRAT ANNIE! I yelled stop with SSSSS in it. I said it’s not fair you mocked me because I did not use SSS in stop. Annie turned her head as looked surprised! She asked me how I knew that she was talking about me about stop. I just don’t know how I knew she was talking about my S problem. I heard Annie said S. We thought it was funny and amazing same time.

Not Much

So far I’m on program 2. Remember the programs are different than first mapping. It is a bit louder than program 1, I think. Now I’m not sure if it’s really louder or different blah. Uh, I forgot to make a listing what I have learned. Really, it was not much so far. I can hear when I erase on the blackboard in the classroom. Umm what else...OH yeah I heard the paper when I move on the table. So it’s not exciting this week compare to last weekend.

This morning I was a bit worried because I kept hearing weird errie even there is not a sound. I emailed Steve to see if it’s normal or what.

I don't know if that's normal or not... Maybe I'm just paranoid. :D It's really hard to explain. It's funny because last night when I took off my processor it was fine, but this morning, when I woke up, I felt like there was something there. Not hearing exactly.. but something in my brain. Like after you hear a loud noise then your brain thinks it's still there. But it's really quiet and continuing. It's hard to describe! Sometimes it would stop, and sometimes it would continue yesterday. It even happens when the processor is on. Sometimes it might be from a noise like refrigerator or humidifier, but sometimes they are off and I still hear it. This morning it has not stopped at all when the machines are off. Annie told me when everything was off or when things were making noise.

It's so annoying. I feel like all the machines, like refrigerator, heater, humidifier, and car, are getting stuck in my brain. :S

Should I worry about that? Or it will go away?

And I got reply from Steve--

It is normal. This is a consequence of the implant stimulation. What happens is, theoretically, once your brain realizes that input from your ear can have meaning, then when there's any stimulation it tries to connect a meaning to it. so the resting potential of your ear's nerve is an ongoing stimulation whether you have the processor on or not, thus it is "hearing" this and you recognize it.

I would expect this to go away over time as your brain wears off the novelty of hearing sound.

Okay, I guess I’m okay. I just hope the sounds will go away NOW! Sighs..... Hurry up my brain to get used to it!

Second Mapping

Before I start blah blah, I want to answer Nicole’s questions. Steve, my audiology, said that I have wear C.I. all the time. I shouldn’t take it off except go bed or have a shower etc. He also said if I gets sick of sounds or too much I can always turn the program down or go to somewhere quiet to calm down. If it’s really necessary to take off, but I shouldn’t leave it off no more than twenty minutes. My brain need to get used to it. If I keep taking it off, then I will not get used to it or let my brain develop to recognize sounds around me. Make sense? It’s tough for a few days. Now it’s getting a bit better. I guess I need to build up more patience for leaving it there all day. So far I did, I have not take it off not even one for calm down. :D

Back to my story, this morning I went to see Steve, my audiology. He did a bit different than last visit. He test me two things. I did nothing with it. He just test my nerve. He had to test me even electrode to see how it works with my nerve. I have twelve of each electrode. He told us that he’ll do even today and do odd next visit. He started with number 2. The result caused Steve surprised and said, “That’s gorgeous! You couldn’t ask for any better.” He continued with number 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. He was amazing how my nerve response. He said I have possibly potential to understand the speech. That surprised us. But it’s still too early to say because my new ear still learning and still need to adjust my cochlear implant to used to it.

The next test was almost the same as I had first visit. But it’s a bit different that time. He asked me to make all sound even loudness for 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12. And it must be medium (loud). So we did get it even with my best guess listen. That was fast. Steve wanted to test me if I can hear the ooo, ah, sh, sssss, eeee etc. Realized that I respond to sh and sss better than others. So he turned low frequency up for me.

Now remember I have a remote that has four programs. He said I must on the same one program for about two days then step to 2 for two days etc. It’s different program than I had before. I had no idea what the different it would be. I guess it might go louder.

Next Few Days

What can I say about my cochlear implant when it’s only four days old? I have been continuing surprised how much loud around here. I realized there are lot of machine humming around here and there. Things were quiet on first day, now things started to sound louder than before. I guess my brain finally recognize some of them. So I thought I should put what I have heard with my cochlear implant in few days. I wanted to keep a journal to see how much I have learned and what I have heard for first time. You might notice that I wrote program 1 etc. There are four programs the audiology set up for me. I need to accomplish program 4 before I see him tomorrow morning. My goal is to take a small step and get comfortable the sounds around me. When I go to next step, the sounds gets louder or something I dunno! Haha. Yesterday and today I’m on program 4. I’m sure my audiology would be surprised because he would probably expect me to do program 4 today, not yesterday or Saturday evening. :D I guess I wanted to push myself to get used to it. Eh.

Things I Heard

Activation Day-February 13, 2009
On Program 1
Crack of a cracker stick breaking
Crunchy cracker stick
Plastic bag crinkling
Toilet paper tearing off
Toilet flushing
Zipper on pants
Drawer pull clinking
Drawer shutting
Cabinet doors closing
My own cough!
Annie sniff
My mouth clicking
Voices (but don’t sound like voices)
Car starting outside of car
Fork clinking on a plate
Sonic toothbrush
Light switch
Dad whistle (but didn’t sound like whistle)
Car engine whirring (not just a static sound)
Myself blowing air (“whew”)
Mouse wheel clicking
Kiss on the cheek

Second Day-February 14, 2009
On Program 1, quickly switched to Program 2 for most of the day, used Programs 3 and 4 in the evening
Individual pieces of granola falling into the bowl (not just one sound)
Awful hand dryer in a public restroom!
Coins clinking in a plastic cup (man begging)
Clapping
Identified rhythm of music on Guitar Hero
Tap on drum and brush on cymbals sounded different
Water fountain (big one outside)
High heels on a hard floor
Dice rolling on hard table
All piano keys (but didn’t sound right)
Airbed inflating
Air compressor on train (AC?)
Road – concrete bridge sounded different than regular paving
Noise of people getting into/out of car, buckling, doors closing, etc.
Whisper at about 1 foot away
P, t, k, s, sh, th, f at about 1 foot away

Third Day-February 15, 2009
On Program 4
Water bottle crack
Toaster oven timer—high and annoying!
Napkin rustling, wiping hands
Scratching my head
P, t, k, s, sh, th, f, h at about 4-5 feet away
Aluminum foil
Car blinker
Neck crack
Phone ringing (VideoPhone) – loud!

Fourth Day-February 16, 2009
On Program 4
Things are louder today
Jacket swish
Hands rubbing together (WOW!!)
Projector at school
Projector screen pulled down
Floor creaking
Engines of other cars
A lot of engines/machines sound the same

Amazing that I was able to hear quiet noisy around here. Wow! I’m very curious what would do next for second mapping tomorrow morning. Oh boy!

Activation

Thank you.. Thank you for having me in your mind and heart today. To be honest, I'm nearly dead and not wearing my glasses. Wearing two things on my ear is too much to handle and it hurts. Well, I'm stuck without glasses for awhile.

Alright, I know you guys are looking forward to hear stories from me. Dad have told you lot of things that has happened to me. (I’m going to add Dad’s comments on family website:

“Laynie got turned on! At first it did not seem to be much of a big deal. She just thought something weird was going on in her head. To start they just made the volume low until she learns to get used to all that sound in her head. She is supposed to turn it up every day as her brain learns to ignore the background noise and she gets to recognize what sounds are.

After our visit with the audiologist we were going to go home, but Laynie thought that she needed to go to the bathroom. The first thing that surprised her was that her zipper made a noise and she had to play with her zipper after realizing what it was. Then when she flushed the toilet, it nearly scared her to death. I suppose she must have thought that the whole building was getting flushed. She still looked rattled when she came out of the bathroom and she was afraid to drive home from the hospital.

We were going to go out to dinner but we decided to come back to Laynie's apartment for Laynie's nerves to calm down. Right now she is starting to get used to things and she has even started to experiment. She has been making sounds to see what they sound like and she just tried eating a cracker which really started her giggling.

Next Tuesday she goes back to the audiologist to be reprogrammed. It looks like it will take a while before they get everything adjusted correctly (in her brain as well as in the computer).”

So I think this experience was very WEIRD. I mean it, VERY WEIRD feelings. Today was longest for all of us. It's only 8:27pm. Oh dear, Dad is right. Nothing fancy has happened to me. Steve, audiologist, said I need to get used to it. This program is just only beginning for now. I'll have to go back this Tuesday to reprogrammed. I have no idea how it would be but hopefully it would be much better than today!

Seriously, when we finally go in the room. I thought I might have to use audiometer or something but I was WRONG! We went in Steve's office, that's where he programmed my first mapping. I remember everything went fast. I saw stuff on the table and Steve said those are mine! Mouth fell--that lot of stuff to bring home. Anyway, he started to explained that he will do test me to see if I can hear the sounds. He told me that I'll hear the beep. Okay, I was ready to listen for the beep. I was waiting for Steve to start. I was extremely nervous. I had no idea how sounds it would be.

Suddenly I feel a bit weird on my chest and head. I felt like I'm going to dizzy or something. It's hard to explain but not really throbbing but feel like it but no pain. I was oh no I'm getting panic but it hits me... THAT SOUNDS FROM MY COCHLEAR IMPLANT!!!! It throw me confused and don't know how to describe the sounds. It was very strange feelings that the sounds spread in my head while throbbing. Everything didn't make sense to me. I almost like it's blowing a thorn but repeat! It started from quiet to loud. OH BOY!

It surly made my brain confused. It took not long to complete this mapping. He explained how I can use and put it together. Then I'm done until Tuesday. Dad have told you most of it.
We left the office and I had to go to the bathroom. Amazing, I heard the toilet paper ripe when I took it. And the flushed scared me to death. I was like GROANS! (Goodness my toilet flush at home didn't make THAT LOUD...) Well, Annie made a good point. That bathroom at the hospital do have echo. It made louder than our bedroom in apartment.

While Annie was driving us to go home, it was overwhelming for me. I was going to cry because overwhelming and weird going on inside of me. Hahaha. I just remember that Steve said the strange will go away. Everything will get better. I guess I need to be extra patience and go second miles on that one.

Umm there are few things I heard that I have never heard such as zipper, eating a stix, turn the light on from the switch, make noise from my mouth when I talk, and umm. I need to make a listing what I have heard. There were two things that surprised me. It was eating a stix because it was so crunchy! Wow I heard crack and crunch! Wow. Then I started to talk and heard my tongue clicks and moves. OH OH I even heard my big signs. Oh my! I surly made lots of noise! Oh boy!!!
I wonder how much I would hear...:S But good things..

Okay, I better stop because I'm getting tired and ready to drop on my bed soon. I promise I'll fill you in more later. Love you!!

Silent Ears

Annie told me that I should write it down about my recent feelings. Before the surgery, the doctor told me that I cannot able to use hearing aid after the surgery. It didn’t hit me until about two weeks after the surgery. At first, I thought oh that would be easy. I can handle it. I went without hearing aid sometimes but not longer than a few days. I don’t know about four weeks but we will see how it worked out.

Well, that was a big mistake. After two weeks, I started to complain that I couldn’t use hearing aid to listen while watch movies, listen the music, listen some sounds around me, listen Annie playing piano, and many little things. THAT SUCKS! I think most bothering me is watch on television or movies. It’s not the SAME without sounds. I feel like I’m watching pictures and words. I have missed lot of cool effects, background, etc. Gosh, I feel days get FOREVER to arrive on the 13th. Annie kept saying 6 more days, blah blah to remind me that it’s getting close to that special day. I can’t wait this Friday to activation my cochlear implant. Same time I’m very nervous because I have no idea how it make sounds. Everyone said hearing aids are very DIFFERENT than cochlear implant. It’s driving me NUTS. THREE DAYS to go! TWO DAYS for mommy and daddy to come.. This weekend will be hectic for me. I hope I won’t have any nervous breakdowns. Yikes. I just hope that the weird sounds--my brain will quickly pick up and get used to it. :S Well, I better go to work and school. Long day for me. Blah!