Mapping No. 1 (with photos)

I had my first mapping yesterday. The initial levels were set quite conservatively on activation the prior day so we were able to crank them up quite a bit yesterday. I'm hearing a lot more, but even so it's thrilling not to be annoyed by the loudness. I'm doing good understanding speech. I don't know where I stand on a standard audiogram yet -- my audiologist intends to test me at my third mapping sometime in January. My second mapping will be next Tuesday.

As we cranked up the output the CI started cutting out. After a call to Advanced Bionics my audiologist set the transmission power (the strength of the signal from external to internal coil) to high and that solved it. It is likely due to the swelling at the magnet point and we should be able to set it back to normal in a few weeks. In the meantime my battery life will be reduced somewhat. I'm using the smaller battery at this point to be as easy on my tender ear as possible (it's only been 2 weeks since surgery after all!). Even so, I got at least 10 hours out of it yesterday. I will find out today how long it truly lasts.

The overall nature of sound to me at this early point is that everything sounds deeper pitched, especially voices. I expect that to change over time, but right now it is really weird! My 2-year old son indeed sounds like a munchkin! Many environmental sounds are fairly close to normal: keyboard keys clacking, my footsteps through our creaky old wood-floored house, water dripping and gurgling, and all the various clunks and clacks when doing things. I don't notice the lower pitch as much with noises, but they are lower. Cars driving by sound like wooshing alien spacecraft! Well, what Hollywood imagines they sound like anyway.

I had a really cool moment yesterday. I thought I'd go back and have a look at Abbie's activation video. When I watched it in the past, even with my hearing aids, I could not understand a single word said in the entire video (which is the usual case for me with any web video). Well, yesterday I caught nearly every word! Even her audiologist off-screen! I never expected that a CI would help me with that so soon.

I'm having lunch with a friend shortly. It will be interesting to see how it goes!

For those interested in the technical details (like me!), here are my three program settings:

1. HiRes-P F-120 / IDR 60 / P-mic 50%, T-mic 50%
2. HiRes-S F-120 / IDR 60 / P-mic 50%, T-mic 50%
3. HiRes-P F-120 / IDR 60 / P-mic 0%, T-mic 100%

I need to learn a lot more about the technology, but here are some short definitions:

HiRes-P: Electrodes pairs are fired simultaneously (I think the "P" is for parallel -- 12/17 correction, "P" is for paired).
HiRes-S: Electrodes are fired sequentially (very fast!).
F-120: Fidelity 120 is AB's new strategy which uses current steering to stimulate nerve areas between electrodes. So instead of having just 16 stimulation points (one for each electrode), there are additional points between electrodes providing up to 120 "spectral bands."
IDR: Input Dynamic Range. This is input compression that squeezes the dynamic range -- loud sounds are reduced and soft increased. The higher the number the less compression. 60 is the default and is a moderate setting. I'm pretty sure it's a dB (decibel) figure.
P-mic: The processor's built-in microphone.
T-Mic: An auxillary microphone at the tip of an earpiece that locates the mic in the ear in order to make use of the external ear's sound focusing capability.

My audiologist instructed me to try both HiRes-P and HiRes-S to see if I develop a preference.

Now for some photos. My ear continues to recede back to its normal position. I'd say it's just over half way there!





Here is the same photo as above marked up to point out the various components and with an overlay of the implant showing its approximate size and location under my scalp (you can click on the pictures to see a bigger view):





We took some video on my activation day, so I will work on getting that posted soon.