Sorry, this entry is only available in Norsk.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Norsk.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Norsk.
Sorry, this entry is only available in Norsk.
The first thing you need to be prepared for is that it takes a long time to train your hearing with CI. I can’t emphasize it enough. The brain has to readjust to receive different signals and it takes time before the electrons are adapted. Even adults who had had normal hearing before loosing it will experience the sound through CI different from before. There’s probably very few people who actually hears well (understanding sounds) the first days of activation. It can take several months up to several years before you truly benefit from CI. Obviously you get better results if you actively use your CI and practise as much as possible listening to sounds, preferably also with an audio educator. You have to practice listening with CI, just as you have to practise balancing a bike before you can bicycle.
Even though I was mentally prepared to not understand the sounds right away and was expecting a long period of training, I was excited about how it would sound as opposed to hearing aids – something I’m so used to. I arrived excitedly at Rikshospitalet and was taken into a small room with an audio technician and my contact from the CI team. The audio technician had my CI apparatus, connected a wire to it from his computer and put the magnet on my head. I was very surprised over its position, it was quite far back. The placement of the magnet depends on the CI producers and Bionics position it (unfortunately) quite far away behind the ear. This could lead to issues such as losing connection when leaning back on something.
The CI activation normally last four days. You fine-tune the apparatus once or twice every day and the remainder of the day you try to perceive as much sound as possible. When you are adjusting the sound you sit with your apparatus on your head which is connected to a computer. The program on the computer transmit short frequency sounds. Remember to turn off your CI or hearing aid on the other ear, I didn’t catch that! The volume increases until you find it at a acceptable level or before it gets uncomfortable. When you say stop the audio technician proceeds to the next frequency. This repeats itself until you have adjusted a comfortable volumne on each of the frequencies. After this the technician activates your CI so you can hear the surroundings.
My first day with CI
Nothing could’ve prepared me for the sound I heard when the technician first activated the CI to listen to the surroundings. Voices sounded like bells and was completely impossible to understand. All the sounds was in very high frequency and it was weird to listen to the male technician talking with a bright Donald Duck-voice. The reason to why I perceived all sounds as very bright is probably because I’d lost all my treble hearing and was used to darker (bass) sounds. Therefore my brain has adjusted all familiar sounds at a darker level because it doesn’t include treble frequencies. The CI provides a much more accurate sound by using the whole frequencies range, bass as well as treble, and my brain need to readjust.
The highlight of the day was to hear something I’ve never heard before, namely the letter “s”. During the next four days of activation I experienced large variations and sound experiences. As the days went I got more used to CI and the sound became more comfortable and slowly more understandable, but I was still dependent on using hearing aid on my other ear to be able to understand speech. I have written a separate post on the days after the activation in The days after activation.
The fourth and last day of CI activation I obtained all the equipment to my CI including a starter’s kit (a CD with sounds and spoken sentences) for new CI users. Because I couldn’t hear the most treble frequencies I got a closer follow-up than what’s normal. I left the hospital with my CI programmed in three different programs to try out and a new session in two weeks.