3 weeks post 'switch-on'. Starter for ten...

It's now been three weeks since switch on and progress is slowing a little. In the first week or so you make a huge amount of progress and that's really motivating. It made me want to do lots of 'implant only' time without my hearing aid in the other ear. Now, as you might expect, the progress has slowed down. Although I'm still noticing some changes over time it's nowhere near as dramatic as the first week. It's very tempting to discontinue the listening practice because it's really hard work and I'm not getting the same reward. I've still found programmes without any background music the easiest to help with the training practice - I'm getting through the entire last series of 'University Challenge' at the moment so I'm great at understanding Jeremy Paxman!

The implant sounds much more like the 'simulations' of cochlear implants that you can find online now. Pretty electronic and a bit distorted but definitely more speech-like. I'm hopeful that will still become clearer for me over time. My voice is becoming more natural and the tonal quality to other people's voices is starting to become clear. I still don't get much expression though - everyone is very monotonous and dull!

One of the hardest things at the moment is imagining how much continued improvement I will notice with the implant and when will it plateau? I'm not sure what my end-point for the implant will be and no-one can tell me that. Some people seem to plateau after a few months and others still notice improvements years down the line. 

In terms of my general health - the dizziness has pretty much disappeared. The tinnitus has been getting louder though. It seems like every time I have a new 'map' it gets louder still. I don't notice it at all with the implant on - it's only really when I go to bed. Tinnitus seems to be really variable between different implant users - some people find wearing an implant really helps but for me when I take the implant off it's like a very loud white noise sound which calms down after a while. It makes it hard to go to sleep and difficult to get some peace and quiet! I've been trying to play sounds into my hearing aid ear to distract it but any other tips would be gratefully received!