Fully adjusted!

Hi again,
Fairly recently I have been noticing that if I forget to wear my BP100 I miss it during the day. I will be talking In a conversation and realize I can’t hear as well as I normally do. I think that this means that I have fully adjusted to my new hearing aid, a little less that a year from when I first got it. Also, sometimes I start to think that I forgot it because I don’t notice it, but it turns out I am still wearing it. This proves that the new hearing aid has become part of my life, and is no longer something weird and different.

BAHA_Dude

Hello Again!

Yes, I know that I haven’t made any posts recently, but to tell the truth there hasn’t been anything to talk about.  Unitll now, I mean.  Recently I sent my new BP100 in for a software update, one that was supposedly going to fix the feedback problems.  I got it back, and the update definately helps, but is still not perfect.  For things like the stove timer (the beeping triggers the feedback), the feedback starts like usual, but stops about a second after the sound stops.  Before, it used to squeal for up to 15 seconds afterwards.  Now it stops after a second or two.  With my violin, the same thing happens.  While I’m playing, there is feedback the whole time, so that part hasn’t improved much.  However, when I stop, the feedback stops fairly quickly.

The new update definately is a step in the right direction, but it’s not quite there yet.

I will update the blog when something else interesting happens!

baha_dude

Update

Not much has been happening lately.  Cochlear hasn’t come up with new software yet, and probably won’t for a while.  The BAHA is normal for me now, and I think I am improving a little with localizing, but it’s hard to tell.  Not much else to say.

Audio Cable!

A couple days ago I received an audio cable we had ordered a couple days before that.  I find that it works quite well, although if it gets turned too loud and then back down again, I still get whistling/feedback as usual.  However, it is definately an improvement from headphones if I need to listen to something, as I do not have to hold it by my ear.  I found that the sound quality is pretty much the same as when I am listening from a stereo or speaker of some kind, which is really good.

New BAHA

About a week ago I went to the audiologist to get my new hearing aid.  It turns out that it did the exact same thing that the old one did.  There was feedback/whistling whenever there were loud sounds, or certain frequencies.  Basically, I noticed no difference at all.  Now we’re going to just wait until Cochlear comes out with some new software, because then we can try to fix it through programming.

Localizing

Today I tried localizing again.  Someone would talk, and walk around, while my eyes were closed.  I would try to track where they went.  Most of the time, I would be able to follow the general direction of the sound, and almost always found where they were at the end.  It turns out that I can’t localize noises that are behind me.  I can tell that they are behind me, but nothing else.  Also, if a sound is to my left and slightly forward, I find it hard to tell if it is slightly forward or slightly backward.  I thought that these results were quite good, and I must be getting used to hearing direction a little more.

The BP100 is a regular part of my life now, it doesn’t sound weird to me anymore.

Faulty!

Well, I went in to the audiologist, and he said that the BP100 was faulty.  Apparently he had spent a couple hours trying to reprogram a BP100 with the same problem, with the result of realizing that it just needed to be replaced.  So, after the holidays we’re going to send in the BP100 and get it replaced.  Hopefully the new one will not have the same problem with the feedback noise.

Reprogramming Tomorrow

Constantly changing the BP100 setting, and turning it on and off because of music, loud noises, and background noise is getting a little tedious.  Hopefully this will be fixed tomorrow, though, because I am going to visit an audiologist that has the software to reprogram it.  I am going to bring my violin, and we are going to try and figure out how to make it work.  I really hope that it will help, at the very least, so that I can actually keep it on while playing violin.

Audiologist Appt.

Yesterday I had an audiologist appointment, and we tried localizing, and using the background noise mode on the BP100.  When we tried localizing, I was doing a little bit better than when I only used my compact, but I was still not great at it, by any means.  It was also quite a bit harder to localize in a soundproof room than in normal situations.

One thing I realized yesterday:  the background noise mode on the BP100 helps a whole bunch!!!  I was tested how well I can hear wearing both BAHA’s with background noise (just white noise), and then compared it to the same situation with the BP100 on the directional mike, and it was significantly better than without.

This was interesting, because before the test I didn’t really notice the background program helping that much at school, or other places like that. Now, however, I am noticing more and more that it really helps cut down the noise behind me.

BP100 and Cell Phone

I am definitely getting to the BP100 – slowly but surely. It doesn’t seem “really loud” so much any more, although I am wearing it at a lower volume setting. I noticed that when used the cell phone today, I was having trouble hearing, and at first I thought it was only because I was in a crowd of people talking.  After, though, I realized that it was a lot harder to hear because the crowd in the background was twice as loud as normal, but the phone wasn’t any louder than it was when I wore only my compact.  I think now I know why some people plug  their ear (the one that is not right next to the phone) when they are talking on the phone.  : )

In the future, I might make a habit of turning off my right side while listening to the phone on my left side.  (at least when there’s background noise)