Yea….Master CI the baddest DJ of all CIers. Actually, I do wonder if there is one. All right….I got a couple of comments and a few emails on where is the update I promised yesterday. Here it is and I said “More later”….but I don’t recall giving a time!

The mapping session was truly a learning experience because the Advanced Bionics rep (they call them Clinicial Service Specialists) was there. Now, this is not a knock on my audie who not only has to put up with my hour’s worth of dorky remarks but so Michelle, if you’re reading this…DON’T TAKE IT PERSONAL…you’re still the bestest!!

We actually did find out a few things that they both claim defies what they knew. One…the eye twitching in the right ear may be gone but guess what? My chin twitches!! Yup…my chin as in below my mouth, bottom of my face. I never felt it but they saw it. The eye twitching is probably due to the thickness of the wall of my right ear’s cochlear. Its probably thinner than my left that some of the residual current is leaking through. And the theory is because the P strategy is more powerful since the electrodes fire in pairs, its more like the cause. So what we did was switch around some settings and changed the t-mic from 50/50 to 100%. This allowed the sound to come in clearer and crisper but at the same time, adjusted the “window” to prevent too much sound from getting through. Because of the eye twitching, we were really limited to just one setting which is what all three programs have now.

We also did find out that my left ear being the dominant one will always be that…no matter how much we try to get the right side in balance. So we left it at that and created one master setting. Then we took that setting and made three different windows. Program 2 (middle) is my primary program for every day listening. Program 1 (down) is for lots of background noise which gets filtered out. This is great for loud places or even my office which sits on the corner of a very noisy and business intersection. And program 3 (up) is for music and has the biggest window of the three. And all three give me unlimited volume.

To test them out, we carried on conversations while switching all three and at the same time, the !@#$%@#$%!#$ noisy fan was blasting above. In program 2, I could hear it no differently than the normal person (or so they say). In program 3, it became a blasting annoying whine but the volume and pitch of the voices remain the same. In program 1, the volume and pitch of the voices became insignificantly softer but the *$%@#$$##$%#$ fan disappeared!

So in reference to the DJ comment, I am like running a sound board in the disco (my truck). No…not with Led Zep and not with Sergio Mendes but with a CD of a live recording of Dave Brubeck’s legendary 1963 concert at Carnegie Hall. With a combination of adjustments on the CD volume, the CI volume and programs I was able to get the sound to a point where I think I am actually sitting in the audience. And fully hear and understand each and every instrument. And the sound was a lot more appreciating. I could have sat in the truck all day, press the Repeat button and let the music flow but um…someone has to pay the bills!