I'm in Limbo...

Well I had my 3rd mapping done on Friday last week. She only changed a few of the electrodes so the difference wasn't huge. The reason for this was because I had that emergency mapping done so I'd already been adjusted quite a bit. After the 3rd mapping I hoped I would be able to hear a little bit better or at least be picking up a wider range of sounds. I was disappointed to find that it sounded much the same! However, the more I listen, the more I can tell that there is more sound coming through. I can hear cars whooshing past in my car even when all the windows are closed. And it sounds real too, like a whoosh sound. I heard my mum's cuckoo clock ticking from across the room and I have never heard it before. In tesco today I was dawdling in the cereal aisle and kept turning around when a lady squeaked a dog's toy behind me because I wanted to confirm that's what I had heard. She must have thought I was getting annoyed with her! Speech is still a weird sound, if I have subtitles on the tv or a film what I'm hearing sounds right but if I've no idea what's coming I couldn't tell you what people were saying. It's possible that some sounds are robotic but I really can't tell at the moment, it's still monotone. Plastic, paper and bags are the most annoying sounds at the moment. They're so scratchy and uncomfortable I have stopped swinging my bags! I heard someone's trousers behind me swishing along the floor outside today with a lot of background noise.. I wouldn't have heard this with two hearing aids as the background noise would have drowned it out. I'm still not feeling 100% happy about all of this because I'm being impatient and there's not enough sound coming through all the time to give me the information I want. I.e how loud or quiet should I be talking in a situation, do I need to tread lighter in order not to stamp along school corridors (I have a very heavy tread anyway!) But all those little sounds that I can hear and mentioned above give me a warm good feeling inside that makes me think, well the more of those I have, the more I'll feel I've done the right thing..

I had a rehab appointment at the hospital after the tuning and in this I had to do lots of listening practice which was really hard. It's the first time I've really listened and I was pleased to find that I could follow the speakers voice as they read from a script. I struggled a little with identifying an everyday sound but I was able to hear the rhythm of the noise or say whether it was high or low. I was exhausted after this appointment but pleased as I felt I was making progress. I didn't get told off for wearing my hearing either but they did "encourage" me to spend time with just my processor on to practice listening and as I type this post, I have been wearing just my processor for the past 3 hours so I'm doing good. :o) The reason I'm in Limbo is because it's just over two weeks till my next tuning. I want to be tuned every week and have more and more sound come in during those tunings because I'm impatient to hear well again! However, I have a lot more listening practice to do and so that time will encourage me to work hard. I'm going every week for rehab and the next one is tomorrow so I'll write soon to let you know what happens!