Patience can sometimes run short as I wait for increased clarity and understanding with my device. But it takes time! The length of time is variable and cannot be predicted well.
After 6 months, there should be noticeable improvement and certainly after a couple of years. Already I’ve noticed improvement and I’m just shy of three months.
It gets better with time, but getting where one wants to be or reaching potential takes patience!
This morning I had a scary thing happen that was truly frightening. I had an onset of this roaring noise (tinnitus is a medical condition that is not harmful and is quite common – often described as ringing in the ear). Well, I had an onset in the implanted ear, which hasn’t had much issue with tinnitus. But it did this morning! Not only that, but my residual low frequency hearing seemed to be fluctuating.
Right now, everything has pretty much normalized and my hearing is fine.
I have an appointment with a doctor today as I immediately contacted the audiology clinic after my experience. It’s always good to contact one,’a doctor if something strange happens.
But it’s experiences like this, with a new device, that make it scary at times in the beginning. As time goes on, things stabilize and the expectations are more predictable I believe. The Hybrid itself, with retaining low frequency hearing (hopefully) rather than the traditional cochlear implant where that isn’t the focus, is a newer technology and thought-process in regards to this retention of existing hearing. There’s much more hope for residual hearing than there is for the traditional cochlear implant, which from the start is programmed to replace all hearing.
