13 days post switch on... 'Country Road...Take me Home...!'

I had a bit of a breakthrough today. I was at work and experimented streaming through my minimic (a piece of equipment that allows me to wirelessly stream music from computer/phone etc direct to the implant and my hearing aid). At the moment music through the implant sounds pretty terrible. It's a cacophony of electronic noises more than anything else but in the interests of 'acclimatising' I persuaded myself to stream music to both my hearing aid and implant. Someone came over to my desk to speak to me so I turned my hearing aid off 'streaming' mode and spoke to them and then just let the implant carry on streaming music. I wasn't playing much attention to what was playing in the background but then I suddenly realised that I knew what song was playing and I was listening to it with just my implant! It was Country Road by John Denver (I realise it was an embarrasing playlist....) and I recognised it!!! It didn't sound that much like the song but the fact I knew what it was amazed me! Considering last week I couldn't hear the difference between the words 'purple' and 'blue' it's pretty phenomenal progress. 

Of course, this kind of moment takes a long time before it happens to some people - and for others it happens at switch-on - but it's moments like this which make me think that it will all be worth it. I admit, that despite what I know about the time it takes to adapt to the implant, the importance of the changes that early mapping will make etc etc I still had some moments last week where I thought I might have made a mistake. I dreaded putting the implant on in the morning and couldn't wait to take it off in the evening. I'm sure many people feel like that but it's good to feel like I'm making some progress now. 

The implant is still my annoying beeping friend but it's becoming less irritating by the day and is starting to become somewhat useful. The other day I spent half an hour trying to work out what the noise in our bathroom was (to the point I became convinced our boiler was about to explode) only to find out it was the washing machine spinning underneath the bathroom!! Who knew anyone could hear that?!?