Hiccup

I have been having problems with sensations in my head, when I should be hearing sound. Some frequencies have inverted which means basically I have little range in frequencies. I am only running on 10 out of a possible 22 electrodes as the rest of them seem to strike a nerve and cause a bodily sensation such as mild dizziness and pecularily, a vibration on the head.

Last Thursday I was informed that the surgeon, CI team and Cochlear Corp. agreed that I was having irregularities in my progress. That was a disappointing surprise. I am going in for a 3D CT scan early on Tuesday morning. This will tell the team the precise placement of the array and its existing devices. It seems the array is not hugging the cochlea curve as it should. There is also suspicion that the array went into a nerve pocket or is touching where it shouldn’t be.

The team are also mystified at how little my residual hearing was unchanged post surgery. This adds to their concerns of the array placement. I was told prior to surgery that once the surgeon enters the cochlea part of the ear, it is difficult to see exactly where the array is going because of the curve of the cochlea itself. Take a look at this 'at' sign: @, which is like the shape of a snail. That is similar to the shape of the cochlea. Imagine where the array needs to go - inside the tiny opening and around.... It is a tricky process that requires crossing the fingers in hope that the remaining hearing will not be damaged. Researchers, scientists and engineers are continually working on making the array as easy to insert and as atraumatic as possible (in other words, less traumatic to the structures of the cochlea.)

There is hope in this: if I am re-implanted, I will have improved hearing progress and that will be easier on me and the CI team. The mappings will be more realistic. That is encouraging given the situation I face because I thought I was doing well even though the audiologists were having a time trying to make things work for me! I had nothing to compare the CI to and summed everyone’s experience as being unique. I still continue to wear the processor as I enjoy some of the crisp sounds and along with the hearing aid in the left ear; it feels as if I am wearing 'two hearing aids' which is good enough for now. I thought that these annoyances I was experiencing were temporary, rather than unusual, as there are symptoms such as head noise, echoing and other oddities that fade away with time.

The surgery team has done re-implantations before for various reasons and I am assured that the second time around is a much simpler process.

This hiccup is a nuisance, but fortunately is expected to be a temporary situation.

Update: I am getting weary with this persistent side effect of feeling a buzz and have opted this afternoon to cease wearing the processor until the issue is resolved. I'm back to wearing my HA's in the interim.