DS's cochlear implant

[CristinaTheAstonishing]

DS (7) had his cochlear implant op on the 31st January. It was "switched-on" this Monday. After a few nail-biting days when he couldn't understand anything through it, last night he told us he can hear himself saying "shh". The first few days he could hear just bells ringing, cats miaowing, tyres screeching, all in his head. Gradually these self-generated noises died down and now he can hear real sounds. It's still very early days as he has to re-learn each sound at a time as they will be different to what he was used through hearing aids. But it's working and it will only get better. Huge sigh of relief that we made a good decision for him.

Christina, that's fantastic...I only just saw this. I didn't realise he had his op already! What a brave wee thing. Is he coping with it now?

Keep posting about his progress, I'm really interested in how it goes. If I'm suitable for the CI, I may be getting it quicker than I thought...possibly in the next few months. Quite a scary thought, had so much to deal with over the past few months. And getting the CI means that I can't be in denial anymore. Scary.

Much love to ds, you and your family kx

Oh good news Christina!

Good luck to you all as you learn to adjust.

I missed this earlier. Excellent news.

Thanks all. Dominic has had his implant switched-on for a week now. He is turning to his name but not consistently yet. He can hear a few individual sounds but can?t understand speech yet. He stayed on programme 1 for one week and yesterday we moved him on to the second programme that was programmed into the speech processor. This is a bit louder. I think they?re being too conservative (he has had sound until now so he?s not going to be scared by loud noises). He?s still wearing his hearing aid in the other ear and only wears the CI in addition to it. Also on its own for about an hour a day. During that hour we try and make sure we talk to him a lot so he can make sense of what he hears with the help of lipreading, context etc.

He?s not in any discomfort anymore. At the beginning he?d wince everytime we put the CI on and he told me ?I don?t hear you mummy, I feel you. Here and here, in my scalp and in my face?. I think it?s such a different sense to what he?s been hearing so far, but now it?s fine and becoming proper hearing again. Sorry, not explaining this very well.