Resuming where I left off in mid-January (sort of)!

Today was my first appointment at the hospital since the dizziness got better. I had a discussion with my audiologist, describing how the last few weeks have gone, followed by a mapping session then a hearing test.

We have increased the settings for the first time since I started having balance problems at the end of February. Amazingly, they are still slightly lower than they were at the third mapping which was in mid-January; that was when it became too much and I really struggled to wear the processor. The plan now is to increase them gradually and I have two further appointments booked on the 4th and 20th of June for this (for mapping followed by speech therapy, as before). There will be a few more after that.

On the mid-January mapping the electrodes were all aligned just above the 300 current level; with the mapping I have now they sit just under the 300 line and drop slightly in the higher frequencies (as my tolerance of high pitched sounds is lower, not having heard these well with the hearing aid). On the previous mapping that I had to help me cope with the dizziness the higher frequencies were dropped down even lower; today we increased the higher frequencies more than the low ones to balance them out.

Of the 16 electrodes, 14 are switched on; judging from the x-ray I had after the op the last two were not inserted close enough to stimulate the nerve; I'm told it's quite common not to be able to fit in all the electrodes and that 14 is a good number.

I am very glad to finally resume the mapping and speech therapy at last. 4 weeks ago I was initially very pleased to stop feeling dizzy (again, I can't say what a relief that is!) be able to wear the processor again, then felt that I stagnated over the last 3 weeks. I wear the processor all the time; the only exception is when I am riding my bike; the processor picks up the wind and background noise and that masks out cars coming up behind me so I don't find it useful, and it stresses me out as all the shapeless noise makes me feel as though I were constantly followed by a car! With the hearing aid I cannot pick out the cars till they are right beside me but that's better than nothing and I still rely on my eyesight anyway, looking back frequently, keeping to the left and being generally cautious.

The hearing test was noticeably different from any I have had before as it's in a straight line and doesn't drop off in the higher frequencies. I can pick up sounds in the 50-40 decibel range; we hope to take this up to the 40-30 range; when this happens I should be able to hear speech better.