It has been a good day...

Wednesday was a good day for Cherri and me. We went to the Audiologist for the 'two week after turn on tweak of the software' which is normal and expected for implanted folk. I don't actually remember if the software was tweaked or not but we got to take part in some tests that proved that the implant was alive and well and firing on all cylinders.
A bit of background may be in order so here goes.
Before and after the implant was, well, implanted, Cherri went through large batteries of tests. I will mention only a few of them here.
In one test was the Audiologist reciting at random a list of six two syllable words.

GEEKSPEAK: These words are called spondee words and consist of words that equal meter and equal stress on the syllables. Words such as baseball, hotdog and ice cream.

Before the test started she (the Audiologist) went over the list by saying each word. She would then place a knitting hoop covered in black cloth over her face and would begin to recite the words. Cherri would then relay the words back. At the initial turn on, Cherri was able to pick up exactly zero words. This was not unexpected. When the test was performed Wednesday, Cherri was able to get six of seven words. FANTASTIC! It may be a simple test but the results were profound! I was really impressed by my punkin'!

The next test was a Ling six sound test.

GEEKSPEAK : A Ling six sound test is used to isolated phonemes to target low, middle and high frequency sounds. The sounds are: [m], [ah], [oo], [ee], [sh] and [s].

The Audiologist used the same snappy black hoop in this test too. In the initial turn on test, Cherri got either zero or one correct, I cannot remember exactly (I am sure that she will fill me in later.) At Wednesday's test, Cherri got four of six. A respectable showing on any day but the exciting part was that she got the [sh] and the [s] sounds! These were sounds that Cherri has not heard in decades!
We then went to the sound chamber to test Cherri's response to different frequencies. She passed with flying colors! The Audiologist came in and showed us the resulting audiogram and compared it to the results before the implant. We were stunned! The results of the tests showed a basically flat response across the frequency used by speech. Cherri's normal hearing results in what is called a "corner audiogram". It simply means that her hearing ability is confined to the lower left part of the audiogram. She can hear up to about 850 hertz with some help but beyond that there is nothing and no amount of amplification would help.

All that gibberish means the implant is picking up lots of groovy sounds and sending it to her brain. She was given some tools by the Audiologist to help her start to discriminate all of these new sensations into usable words, phrases and sounds. Time is the watchword here. It will take time for her to make good use of the implant and no amount of poking, prodding or impatience will help. It will come on it's own in it's good time.



Life is good! Let's head to the beach!