one year post-op assessment

Today we did the same listening tests with the speech therapist, which we did before I had the op, more than a year ago. So here are the results!
Lipreading & sound: pre: 88%; today: 93% (I notice here that it is very helpful to hear the fricatives better)
Sound only (short sentences): pre: 2%; today: 30% (these were short sentences where I heard a word here and there; for example I heard 'mother' and 'baby' in the same sentence)
Sound only (single words): pre: 13%; today: 21% (this was more difficult as it was single words out of context, I think I rarely heard an entire word but identified some phonemes)

It was considered I had done really well based on the tests. In the chats I had with the speech therapist and audiologist I emphasised that the main difference it had made was in being more connected to my environment and picking up on things, for example this week for the first time i heard the shop assistant say 'would you like a bag?' while I was looking down at the counter, picking up my shopping. Of course I identified the sentence as it matched the context and I recognised the pattern of speech. Out of context I don't think I would have understood.

I then completed the quality of life questionnaire. This went from 36% last year to 40%, whereas the expectation for most people was that it would jump to 60%. We put the low score down to the fact that most of the questions were not relevant to me, e.g. 'do you find that the cochlear implant has helped you to hear your friends and family on the telephone?'. Most of the questions would be more relevant to deafened people, for whom the transformation would be much greater as they regain lost hearing.

We did a hearing test with the audiologist, in which I heard sounds in the 35 to 45 decibel range. The audiologist would like me to come back in February to crank up the settings a wee bit to see what that does, although she says most people are comfortable with the settings I have now. She would like to leave them as they are for a further three months as I am comfortable with them. When we are looking at the curve of the current levels which are fed to the 16 electrodes, mine at the moment is like a bird flying, it falls slightly at the ends and in the middle. The current to each electrode will vary depending on each person so no-one has an identical curve. Quite early on the audiologist asked me to look away from the screen when setting each electrode, as I would unconsciously try to have each electrode set on the same level as the preceding one so as to obtain a harmonious curve!

I forgot to post on the 17th of October; that day the remaining two electrodes corresponding to the highest frequencies were switched on; at first everything was slightly more high pitched but not too uncomfortable and I soon adapted.