The Miracle Continues – Unleashed and Enhanced!
By Dale Grace Oftebro
Editor: Everyone who gets a cochlear implant has a different hearing
history and different expectations. Dale is one of the folks who didn’t
have high expectations, because she had essentially no hearing for about
50 years. Her results were far better than anyone expected, and they
continue to improve even six years after getting her implant!
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Here are Dale’s thoughts from a year earlier.
Today I’m celebrating 6 years of hearing – I had no idea when I started
this journey that it would be such an amazing and miraculous gift, full of
new and wonderful experiences.
The timing of the whole process seems to have God’s fingerprints all
over it – insurance holdups meant that I received authorization for the
surgery just after a brand new internal implant had received FDA approval,
which had the ability and capacity for software upgrades as they became
available, without further surgery.
Shortly after my implant was activated, I was blessed to be introduced
to the first BTE (behind the ear) processor that Advanced Bionics
produced, which freed me from being tethered to the processor and earpiece
by a cord, and made wearing dresses so much easier, since I didn’t have to
clip the body worn processor to some exterior item of clothing.
Backtracking to 2001, the doctor and audiologist had cautioned me that
the most they anticipated my being able to hear was environmental sounds,
resulting from 50 years of no usable hearing, and never having used
hearing aids, so the nerve had not been stimulated in that time period. My
audiologist has commented that she marvels when sentences are read, and I
can repeat many of the words – it just shouldn’t happen! I still remember
being astonished by the first words I heard during testing, back in
November of 2001, "chocolate pudding"! At that time my sentence
recognition was around 7%.
About a year after my activation, a new sound processing software
became available, known as HiResolution or HiRes, and with that my sound
perception increased, and sentence recognition went from 29% to 45%.
Unfortunately that program on my BTE simply didn’t seem to have the
ability to sound "right" – everything sounded gravelly and hoarse. So the
BTE went in the drawer.
Fast-forward to 2007 – the HiResolution program, which gave me 16
channels of sound (from the 16 implanted electrodes) has now been enhanced
to HiRes 120 – I now get 120 channels of sound after reprogramming about 6
weeks ago. Quite frankly, with my body worn processor I didn’t notice much
difference in the sound quality or find music any better. However, a 3rd
generation BTE was now on the market, Advanced Bionics Harmony processor.
With some trepidation and cautious optimism, I decided to trade it in for
my original BTE, hoping and praying that even if it didn’t sound
wonderful, it would be usable, I could wear dresses, and not have the cord
down my back which constantly needed readjusting and was challenging on
hot days.
Miracle of miracles, it sounds WONDERFUL! Sounds are crisper and
clearer, and the battery life has been greatly improved. With my old BTE I
was getting 2 to 4 hours per battery; with the Harmony I get around 14
hours – a full day for me. I’ve been unleashed and enhanced!
Even better, when we did the sentence testing, a year ago I was hearing
about 58% of sentences, but with the Harmony, after only 6 weeks on the
new program, I heard 65% – absolutely amazing! Not only do I have better
battery life, but better electronics and a superior microphone – the
timing of all of this has been nothing short of a gift.
This has been about the technical aspects of the implant. What all the
technology and testing don’t take into account is the personal and life
altering aspects of the gift of sound, the only sense at this point that
can be restored. Deafness and hearing loss are not just the loss of sound,
they have also been described as a "communication disorder" – which it
truly is. Not being able to communicate makes it difficult to make
connections with others and build relationships; it can be very isolating.
So in addition to the actual gift of hearing comes the blessing of
communication, and enhancement of everyday life. I enjoy what I’m hearing
so much, all the household sounds, fountains and the ocean, children’s
voices, birds twittering, trees rustling, leaves crunching. I continue to
be grateful for the ability to hear cars coming, things dropping on the
floor, the dog barking to announce someone at the door. And of course
there’s a lessening of tension and stress in not having to work so hard to
hear through lip-reading. I even enjoy at some level the not so pleasant
sounds – crows cawing, children screaming, and the cacophony of sound at
social gatherings.
A friend at church asked what I most enjoyed about being able to hear,
and my answer was, of course, music. That is absolutely the icing on the
cake – listening to my CD’s, hearing the organ at church, being able to
sing and close my eyes so I can just meditate on the words, actually
hearing the dance music at ballroom classes and folk dancing and not
having to rely solely on my partner to keep the beat – can’t get much
closer to heaven!
This morning I realized, as I was cooking breakfast, that I could
actually hear the eggs sizzling, the microwave humming, the clock chiming
and the toast popping up – all at the same time! Never would I have
anticipated hearing anything, much less 4 things at once – by the grace of
God, the skills of medical professionals and advances in technology, I’ve
come a long way. And the journey continues.
