Previous and latest hearing tests

Dec 21 Audiogram

I had my last hearing test and mapping back on December 21st. I had some basic increases in my mapping as we are still trying to get me use to high frequencies. The following audiogram shows my test results a month after my activation (Nov 9) and the slight improvement I had a month after that (Dec 21). I do not have a copy of the audiogram from today, but only low frequencies increased slightly with my high frequencies remaining the same.

Speech test with background noise

This is a speech test from Dec 21st. I was to repeat 10 sentences as I "think" I heard them; one is done with quiet and the other is with noise added. As you can see, I did exceptionally well on both of these tests back in December, getting 65% accuracy in quiet and 53% in noise.

Speech test with no background noise

The bad news, today's speech test was pretty bad. I only got 22% accuracy on both tests. In my defense, the vocal level "seemed" quieter than it should've been and if this is so, it's likely because of whatever is going on lately that has been affecting my quality of hearing with the CI. For instance, I have been hearing voices sound "crackled" every now and then and just last night, the CI sounded really soft and i had to turn the volume all the way up to hear at where I should be hearing.




























Other than that, I saw my surgeon about my vertigo, nausea, headaches, tinnitus, and facial pain. At first, he was just ready to let me leave and said he thinks my symptoms are just because my ear is adapting to the implant and it should go away eventually. Then I mentioned that the vertigo seems to mostly occur when I'm laying down and he's convinced it's Benign Positional Vertigo. So to fix that, I have to do some really boring "exercise" for 10 minutes, 3 x a day for 2 weeks. There's a 95% success rate that it will go away, but there's a 33% chance it will come back and all I can do is repeat the exercises. I guess the nausea/vomiting just goes hand-in-hand with vertigo-like attacks?? Other than that, he thinks my facial pain and headaches, if not most of the symptoms, are related to my TMJ and that my right jaw is possibly inflamed. The end. He didn't even look in my ear or anything or suggest a CAT scan. What about how I feel "unstable" visually? Does this mean I now have an vision issue on top of everything else? I mean, the unstableness can be correlated to when someone has.. dizziness... my eyes could not focus on movement without giving me nausea and a headache and sometimes something as simple as walking makes my eyes feel like they are reseting themselves because of the thumping of my walk, or the thumping from being in a car. Make sense? I suppose my surgeon would say it's a balance issue and part of the healing. So, I guess all I can do is get a night guard (for my mouth) and practice the exercises and see how I'm doing in 2 weeks. If my attacks hit again, I just take the meds I already have, although the surgeon was specific in saying I should not take the drugs too often unless I really need them.

Guess what I'm hearing right now? Not sure really, but it's sounded like an air conditioner is going off IN my ear since I got the mapping increased. Another reason I'm sure I didn't do too well on the audiology test because the humming is distracting.

I've got another audiology test in a month as a precaution to be sure that my test today was only a temporary setback. If my test results next month are like they were today, then there's possibly something wrong the CI or the CI+my brain/ear/whatever.

Health Update

Since my visit to the doctor, I left with some anti-nausea and anti-dizzy pills to basically prevent me from dehydrating myself again, as that seems my biggest threat when I get vertigo and nausea cause I can easily go days without eating and sipping barely one cup of water/liquids. The pills worked for the most part, although I felt like either the anti-dizzy pills aren't working 100% or I'm having side effects from one or both of them that is just causing a small amount of dizziness. It's been two days since I've taken a pill and I feel like I don't need them lately. Lingering symptoms is mostly a deep feeling of lingering dizziness that will definitely come back full on eventually, headaches and tinnitus. Tinnitus use to not bother me very much cause I had it so often and it was usually short lived, but for the past two weeks it's been like a motor going off in my right (implanted) ear and its been always accompanied with a tension headache.

Another side effect, which is the most uncomfortable one, is this feeling deep in my arms, hands and legs that feels like something is insulting my nerves, or maybe my blood. I can't really explain what it feels like; it's just really uncomfortable, makes me shake my arms, take deep breaths, switch positions and wait for it to go away. It usually always kicks in when I'm laying in bed and the only other times I ever feel it, is when I'd drink more than one glass of wine at night.

On a side note, I've also noticed caffeine, in coffee or tea format, and alcohol are setting off the symptoms. Again, no idea why. It's all sudden and I have never abused using either drinks.

So far, I got called in to take a pregnancy test today to rule that out as the cause, because of the nausea and vertigo (apparently vertigo is a rare symptom in pregnant ladies and lasts up to 3 months), and I expect the test to be negative for several obvious reasons. Plus, if it required being as sick as I was to have a kid, I don't think I'm going to ever want a kid cause that's just a death threat. Also, apparently my surgeon is out of the country for the next two weeks, so I can't get a consult from him for another 2 weeks at least. And if my symptoms come back or get worse, I'm just suppose to call his nurse... and then probably go to the ER since they'll be my only option.

I expect to be called in for a few more tests, but I'll find out over the next week or two. Some research I did tonight suggested viral labyrinthitis, but again, dunno. Really can't find any information at all on possible infections post-cochlear implant surgery. All anyone reads about is Meningitis, and I doubt I've got Meningitis, as the symptoms don't match and I had the vaccine.

Another update- 2 hours later:
Uncomfortable pressure, tension and tinnitus in my right ear right now, radiating in the area in front of the ear, up to my temple. Also, I took the CI off for an hour because it's irritating my ear, and when I put it back on, voices are making a crackling sound... like when someone is sick with mucus in their throat and they sound all broken up. It also seems to make the tension and tinnitus worst. I experienced the same crackled voices a few days ago too, but it went away.

Sudden Vertigo and Nausea

I realize it's been a while since a post. My husband and I are in the process of a buying a house, and on top of that, I have my usual school load, which I am behind in. We also left town for a week and that put us behind a week in a lot of things. I will eventually post about my improvements during my last evaluation and audiogram testing, but by the looks of it, I will be back from yet, another, mapping by the time I post about that.

For the time being I wanted to post about my side effects. If they directly or indirectly related to the CI, I do not know yet. But I can't help but think they are.

Basically the day after we got back from a week in California, I woke up with vertigo that lead to nausea and throwing up 3x. Which of course led to not getting much food or liquids. That day was a softer version of the day after my surgery when I was stuck in bed with seriously bad vertigo for 2 days that lead to my being severely dehydrated. For the past week, I've had a little vertigo, a little nausea, and a LOT of sleep. I'm worried that any day I wake up I'm going to have another attack and it totally sucks. So I can't help but think it's related to the CI in some form or another, but I have no idea what is setting it off 3 months after my last episode.

My research shows I may have Benign Positional Vertigo, in which some calcium deposits have gotten loose and this causes vertigo when my head is in certain positions. Which completely applies to me as the vertigo sets in the most when I turn my head while laying in bed. Other than that, yesterday I was pretty normal for the first time in a week, until I was laying in bed watching tv, and it started happening again. Only this time I noticed my fist was under the back of my skull for merely 1 minute before the vertigo kicked in, so now I can't help but think I've got a blood flow problem with my brain stem. Again though, what is setting it off? The only other alternatives are basically, anything, electrolyte imbalances, dehydration, blood infections, etc., which I'm going to demand my doctor take some tests to at least eliminate them as causes on friday. If the doctor comes up stumped because she's going to automatically assume something typical, like dehydration, I'll be off to my CI doctor.

I could also mention I have had lockjaw for 2 weeks now. It is not as bad as it was a week ago, but it's not really opening all the way or being completely pain free when I eat something mildly crunchy. Again, this is another thing I can't figure out what set it off, although my dentist is assuming that if I had a tube down my throat for the surgery (3 months ago), it may have irritated my jaw and set off some inflammation. Again though, it was THREE MONTHS AGO. So ya, I'm stumped. Gotta figure out what is causing these problems all of a sudden.

If anyone else has had random episodes of vertigo and the like after surgery, please do tell me. Cause there is NOTHING about it online.