The Borg are linking!

Happy Birthday to Mark Stern, a fine man, a leader, amd a fellow CIer.

Mark was in my thoughts today. His courage, insights, and support motivated me to pursue one, then bilateral implants. He shared wholeheartedly his personal cochlear implant research, listing the pros and cons of each device. He introduced me to Dr. Joe ( Read more... )

We've gone to see Dame Edna at the Curran Theater in San Francisco. I'm using the theater's Sennheiser IR assistive listening device: with 2 stereo cables with a stereo splitter, I'm jacking the theater's sound system directly into the CI. The sound quality is superb! I'm following all the monologues and most of the songs and dialogues. I'm ( Read more... )

Tonight I went dancing at Mass party at 1015 Folsom. I hadn't been in that club since January for the New Years Day party. The entry space is much bigger now, and there is easier access to the floor. I wanted to see if the stereo effect at the last party on July 15 in a different dance space would be mirrored here. While the volume was loud, I didn ( Read more... )

Went in today for a remapping for the new implant, and my audiologist also did a new mapping for the older implant. Surprisingly, even almost two years after the receiving the first one, my T-levels are still going down. T-levels --where T is for "threshold" measure the amount of electrical stimulation required to hear softest sounds at each ( Read more... )

We were out dancing for the first time since getting the second implant. Hearing in stereo gave a new dimension to the music! I could tell how each side picked up the sound differently. Every now and then, the streams would deliciously meld together in my head, sending me into orbit. I've always loved to jump and spin with the beat, and it's ( Read more... )

This afternoon at a garden party, I chatted with many hearing friends. Despite the background chatter, I had no problems following conversations. Bilateral definitely helps with screening out unwanted sounds. I'm please that 2.5 weeks after activation, I'm already noticing a clear benefit. I'm already using the highest program and ( Read more... )

In Spiderman-2 movie, Doc Ock uses 4 snake-like protheses as extra arms, and these are directed with an artificial intelligence (AI) chip. In the course of an experience gone haywire, the arms fuse permanently to his body, and the AI takes over his brain, changing his relationship with the prostheis to one of slave/servant. I can't ( Read more... )

My second implant was activated today! After surgery on my left side a month ago, and the slow (much slower this time around) healing process, I was "turned on." I was pleasantly surprised that as bad as everything sounds with the new implant, it's not been disruptive. After the mapping, Becky turned on all circuits, and did a few simple tests. I ( Read more... )

Today my audiologist made slight adjustment to the mappings, but nothing significant worth reporting; things are very stable. My speech comprehension is up to 73%. I'm at 30% sound recognition, while the average for CI recipients is 40%. I'm so thrilled with the progress to date and look forward to continued improvement.

The BTE has been changed to 900 Hz, one program with low frequency emphasis and one without (neutral). The latter sounded soft so the volume was increased compared to the program with low frequency emphasis.