Category Archives: English

English version

An implantable hearing aid

Michael Chorost describes a fully implantable hear­ing aid which is in the stage of clin­i­cal tri­als in the US. The com­pany which cre­ated the device, Oto­log­ics, is plan­ning to make a cochlear implant with this tech­nique too. Sure this is … Con­tinue read­ing

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Brain rewiring after the CI

Nieukowiec sent this link: Brain’s ‘Hear­ing Cen­ter’ May Reor­ga­nize After Implant Of Cochlear Device I’ve always said that it’s all about brain repro­gram­ming. I won­der what would my brain scans show since I’ve never had nor­mal hear­ing. I am sure … Con­tinue read­ing

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The world is a noisy place

There is nobody home. What is this strange sound? Ah. It is me scratch­ing my own back. I some­times feel like I hear every­thing in my envi­ron­ment. Pity that I can’t inter­pret most of it yet.

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11 weeks

I have turned on my cur­rent pro­gramme a week before it was planned. Here goes the story. Two months after the switch on I real­ized that I don’t have ver­tigo. It was gone. The visit to the implan­ta­tion cen­tre was due … Con­tinue read­ing

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Life is going on

Due to some prob­lems in the fam­ily I am not much in the mood for blog­ging lately. For the same rea­sons, I am a bit behind with the train­ing exer­cises. What is new? I have a new pro­gramme. As far … Con­tinue read­ing

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Two months after the switch-on

I am able to fol­low the text lis­ten­ing and read­ing it simul­ta­ne­ously, even when my hear­ing aid is off. I have one book in audio and in print, and it is a good exer­cise. The book is read by the … Con­tinue read­ing

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Speech and batteries

A friend of mine told me yes­ter­day that my speech is clearer now. I pro­nounce some con­so­nants more dis­tinctly. She was the third per­son to tell me this (with­out being asked). Inter­est­ing. I haven’t tried to speak more clearly than usual. … Con­tinue read­ing

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7 weeks after the switch-on

I observe some inter­est­ing effects of the speech/hearing ther­apy. First, I can dis­crim­i­nate vow­els. I still con­fuse some of them, but there is def­i­nitely some progress. How­ever, I’ve noticed a strange prob­lem with some­thing I could do before the CI, … Con­tinue read­ing

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Birds.

I have escaped from the big city for a few days. Here I can con­cen­trate on sounds — no cars, no peo­ple every­where. I hear birds. They are so loud! I had imag­ined this sound quite dif­fer­ently. I wouldn’t know … Con­tinue read­ing

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My new toy

I have found a toy on a Mac­book: vir­tual piano! It is some­thing just for me. I am sit­ting with­out my hearig aid on (because of the ear­lobe irri­ta­tion) and play­ing like a child who sneaked to the room where … Con­tinue read­ing

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And so on.

Yes­ter­day I have changed the pro­gramme to P3, which is louder. At my work­place the win­dow is open and I hear some­times a sound sim­i­lar to the ambu­lance sirens. But my win­dow isn’t fac­ing the street. Is it pos­si­ble that … Con­tinue read­ing

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One month after the switch-on — reprogramming.

The visit to the cen­tre after one month — tests and repro­gram­ming of the proces­sor. We are asked about our impres­sions from this first month and we fill in numer­ous ques­tion­naires. Then there is a meet­ing with a speech ther­a­pist, … Con­tinue read­ing

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Four weeks after the switch-on

It is 4 weeks with the proces­sor on. I begin to hear some envi­ron­men­tal sounds. Not the loud­est ones. Rustling is pretty loud. But I still don’t hear the major­ity of speech sounds. I am aware of speech, though. Some … Con­tinue read­ing

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Easter housework

I hear the vac­uum cleaner (this post prob­a­bly means that I don’t clean my room very often). This sound is much softer when heard through the CI than through the hear­ing aid. Rustling sounds, on the con­trary, I hear much … Con­tinue read­ing

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Steps

Yes­ter­day I wrote that I heard the click­ing of my heels. Today I hear the sound my soft shoes make when I walk on the linoleum. It is a strange sound-sensation.

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Stuff

Vel­cro rip­ping. Some music. Howl­ing of the brakes in the old bus. Open­ing and clos­ing its door. My own heels’ pat­ter. In this case I am not sure if I hear or feel this. Maybe it is how it’s sup­posed … Con­tinue read­ing

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Bolero

Bolero, the favourite music of Lucyna and Michael Chorost… When I lis­ten to the ver­sion I have with my hear­ing aid on, I don’t hear much at all in the first five min­utes. Then it prob­a­bly moves to the lower … Con­tinue read­ing

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Words

When I write that I begin to hear some­thing, I mean that I per­ceive this as a sound, not “feel” them as some­thing like ver­tigo. I feel a lot of sounds this way. It is not that I hear these sounds … Con­tinue read­ing

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How do I know the batteries are dead?

Ver­tigo. It is good that I’ve just received new sup­ply. It has been the sec­ond set of bat­ter­ies only. I will be test­ing the Ray­ovac Acoustic Spe­cial now (the hear­ing aids kind, not the spe­cial CI ones). And I switch … Con­tinue read­ing

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A week’s worth of sounds

Day 6 The sounds are emerg­ing slowly. Today I heard the clank­ing of a big hair­pin. Like planned, I have switched to the 3rd pro­gram today and I feel like return­ing to the 2nd. I have tin­ni­tus (like a fan … Con­tinue read­ing

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Switch on

Mon­day, March 19th I come to the cen­tre in the morn­ing, but it turns out that the speech proces­sor pro­gram­ming — the first time my implant is going to be switched on — is at 2 pm. There is a group … Con­tinue read­ing

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Pulsar (English)

K. had the switch-on day yes­ter­day. I have asked him about his first expe­ri­ences some 4 hours later and he texted me: The proces­sor was switched on, but I don’t hear much besides the sounds typ­i­cal for the inter­fer­ence noises. … Con­tinue read­ing

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10 days to go

10 days to the switch-on date. Yawn. Noth­ing hap­pens. The veins in my right hand grad­u­ally cease to hurt, with­out any med­ical inter­ven­tion. I only switched the mouse to my left hand and it would stay this way for some … Con­tinue read­ing

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Catch 22

It has been two weeks since the surgery and I am still hav­ing some prob­lems with the veins in my hand after an IV drip. I am not sure if I should worry about it, or if it is just … Con­tinue read­ing

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Stitches

I had my stitches removed on Thurs­day, 10 days after the surgery. It hurts a bit, but is also a relief. I have WASHED MY HAIR for the first time and I feel civilised. The switch on day is set … Con­tinue read­ing

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Day 0 and later

Zoe asked me to write in Eng­lish too. This was unavoid­able I think :-). I am going to post in two lan­guages, though the Eng­lish ver­sions may appear a bit later and may be shorter. Feel free to point out … Con­tinue read­ing

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