Right CI switch on

20th April 2009
It is now 4 weeks since my operation and it took 3 weeks for me to feel that I had recovered properly! What a ride!
Just when I thought I would never feel normal again, the date of my switch on was looming ahead of me and today it finally arrived. I didn’t feel anxious until a couple of days before – wondering.. what if it doesn’t work – after all, I have had no nerve stimulation for close to 26 years in my right ear and even then it was only a brief stint with a hearing aid, before that it was about 7 years since I had really had any hearing in that ear, which makes it 33 years since I had had any proper nerve stimulation on my right side.
Before switching me on, Lisa (the audiologist at the Mater Public Hospital) tested the electrodes. What a relief to see they were all working, now I could sit back and look forward to hearing sounds. After Lisa tested to see the softest sounds I could hear, she told me she was going to turn me on. I could hear a series of dings straight away – it was so weird! This startled me – I don’t recall that happening with my first implant. The dings continued when ever someone spoke and I realised each ding was a sound. Courtney, my daughter was playing with shapes behind me and each time she moved them I was hearing a series of dings. I asked her to talk to me about what she was building and it was Courtney’s voice that started to make the dings sounds like words. I did really well with Lisa doing speech recognition for a series of simple words; however, I feel I still have a long way to go with my right ear. I’m confident it will improve quickly as I train my brain to figure out what certain sounds are and even though this has been a very different experience than my left ear, some aspects are still the same such as placing the processor on for the first time after having it off, it gives the brain a bit of a shock and I think Ohmigosh... but this usually settles for me in about 30 seconds or so.
I put a CD on in the car and played around with my ‘ears’, listening with both, removing my new right one for a minute or so and then putting it back on while the music was playing. The difference was awesome. Its not louder, it just seems more.... wholesome... I’m at a loss as to what is the correct word!