One of my readers wanted to know if I have good days and bad days. And, if the growth in hearing ability is consistent, or does it come in waves.

Since the CI is a major improvement over what I had, it would be hard to say I have bad days but I do have them. So, a good day would be considered as not having a bad day. And an exceptional day would be considered as something new…which hasn’t happened too much over the last couple of weeks.

On some days, the tinnitus, louder than others. But this is due mostly to lack of background noise which does a good job masking. The background noise can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Background noise to me is sound that I am not expecting. It can be as pleasant as the clicking of keyboards to as loud and abrasive as Vic’s blowing his nose, two cubicles away.

Another bad day can be where I have excessive facial twitching due to over stimulation. It doesn’t really bother me as it’s something that I expect although my audiologist does not want me to let that happen. Maybe it’s because I have a high tolerance for pain and torture! In any case, it needs to be dealt with in order to avoid causing damage to the facial nerve.

The growth in hearing ability will come to any newly implanted person in waves before subsiding and then coming in spurts. Most of the time, you don’t realize it unless you are thinking about it. For example, last week I was trying to figure out why certain voices were more difficult than others so that I could describe the difficulty. It just didn’t dawn on me that the trouble I was having with “Ahhhhhhh” was there all along – I just wasn’t consciously aware of it.

Tomorrow is another mapping session. At this one, we will be trying Fidelity 120 which people have said is an improvement over the Hi-Res strategy I currently have. I still haven’t grasp what the difference is so that I can explain it to you but perhaps after tomorrow, I can.