One of the blogs I frequently follow is the Chronicles of a Bionic Woman. This is a blog of a fellow CIer, a single woman, 27, who was implanted and turned on just recently. Her website contains some interesting videos about her experience when she was “turned on”.

She mentioned in a posting about her battle with the “twitchies” in My fifth mapping went a little something like this... Yesterday, I took the posting to my audie at Buffalo Hearing and Speech for what would be consider the final mapping before my other ear goes bionic on January 15, 2008.

As I was still suffering from an occasional twitch, it was worth a try to change from HiRes-P to HiRes-S. HiRes-P means the electrodes of the implant fire in pairs. Comparing to HiRes-S, that would be the equivalent of doubling the power of the signal to my brain. And the size of the field of that signal is such that it envelopes the facial nerve. HiRes-S is much softer than HiRes-P. In other words, the peaks and valleys of the frequencies of HiRes-S are more rounded comparing to the sharpness of HiRes-P. HiRes-S would be a firecracker comparing to the stick of dynamite, in describing HiRes-P. VIOLA….no more twitching! In the meanwhile, my brain is still adjusting to the switch-over so it’ll be a couple of days before I feel comfortable with the new mapping.

Having gotten that out of the way, I made my appointments for the activation of the other ear. February 15th will be the “turn on” date, February 20 and March 5 will be the adjustment dates. I am really looking forward to going “bi” as in bilateral. Many friends of mine have gone “bi” with such dramatic improvements.l One is Jen in Tennessee who just recently went “bi” and tells her story in Surround Sound: A Journey to Bilateral Bionic Hearing.

Time for dinner, folks! And tomorrow is Christmas shopping starting at 6AM…….in the meanwhile, 24 days till I go STEREO!