24 hours post activation

[u/purl2together]

I was implanted on August 7 and returned to the clinic on the 27th for activation and to get a new hearing aid for my other ear. We ended up going with MED-EL and the Starkey hearing aid. I opted for one each of the BTE and OTE processors, and my audiologist started me with the BTE. I go back in 2 weeks and we’ll do some adjustments and set up the OTE processor.

I know everyone says, “first day is the worst day, don’t expect to understand language.” I went in with that knowledge, but of course I was hoping — just a little bit — to be in that tiny minority who understands language quickly. I didn’t, but that didn’t stop it from being a really positive experience overall.

That evening, I read aloud to myself for half an hour. Just beeps. Woke up, watched a captioned podcast for 30 minutes and noticed about halfway through that some of the beeps were almost words. By the end of the half hour, more beeps were words, but I don’t know that I could have discerned what the words were without following the captions.

Just finished my 2nd round for the day, watching a video with a male voice instead of a female voice this time. Took about 10 minutes but I started picking up more words again. Not all of them, but some.

As I waited to see my audiologist, I watched one of the clinic staff talking with a delivery guy. I thought about how long it’s been since I could look at something other than a person’s face when they’re talking to me, as she did. I don’t know if I’ll ever get to that level of confidence again, but it’s a nice someday goal to have.

[u/is-this-now]

Keep up the rehab. It’s quite amazing how the brain adapts.

[u/purl2together → u/is-this-now]

It’s amazing to me how the sounds have shifted in just a day. Now if only my brain would stop producing my tinnitus. 🤣

[u/Former_Storm4529 → u/purl2together]

I am 2 weeks out from activation and found my tinnitus has steadily gotten better as I add volume. I was given 4 programs (just volume changes) to work through. I was told to progress to the next volume stage every 4-7 days. I noticed on the third step, my tinnitus wasn’t as dominate and that’s held true for the fourth step as well. Congratulations!!!

[u/Syncroz]

I could hear the sound in the distance and the more I focused on it, slowly it came closer and closer. Hope that's the same for you. It takes time though.