Does my Cochlear Implant work well?

Hmmmm!!!

A week or perhaps two my speech processor used to work well without anything negative to report.. I had the coil changed and it worked great. However a few days ago, it started again to have little failure problems...

I took a closer look and saw that this little outside part is a bit "broken", how do you say? Have a look at the photo! This is what I mean? Can you see!

I guess this is the reason what makes the strange "blackouts" happen again. It's a bit odd but at least I know what's the matter. I'll have to wait until my audiologist comes back from vacation then I'll stop by to tell him about.

This is however not such a big deal, I could live day by day even with this little minor issue, as long as my cochlear implant still works. I got used to hear again so not to hear but be a bit adjustment to me.
I respect everyone's choice. I have made one for myself. I want to hear but also enjoy silence many times.

Someone who doesn't hear is not much different than someone with hearing!

Go to my Facebook page to read my latest poems

https://www.facebook.com/stolnikspoetry

Cochlear Implant restrictions

click to enlarge

Bummer ... :(

Ah, too bad those contests are always for the US and Canada only. There was another contest a while ago from Cochlear Americas and I was so eager to make a video, talked about my cochlear only later to hear I cannot participate :/

Never mind, I still enjoy their updates about the latest things going on with CIs :)

I hope tough one day they open up their "borders" a bit so people from outside the US can contribute.

Strange minor error issues with my cochlear implant

Hello my lovely readers!!

It has been a while... again!! I know I have said this many times. My life has been pretty wild, packing and traveling abroad. I went to China exactly a month ago. I thought this year my vacation has to be something special and it was. God I was on the other side of the world :O Pretty cool. A different culture for sure with many things to see, different food and all.

Oh that was definitely an unforgettable trip. I met many people and made friends with some Chinese locals who work and live there and some who work here but come from abroad. Here's a photo of me with a Chinese friend. We went out for dinner and were a big group, had lots of fun that day.

So to come back.. I had issues with my cochlear implant... for months I have reported some kind of malfunction and I didn't know why, or what it has caused... until just recently when I went to hospital and figured out what was wrong. I made an appointment with my audiologist and he checked my device but couldn't figure out anything wrong with it. He said we'll have to start exchanging parts.. and see if it will stop and work properly or not. If not, then after all the outside parts have been exchanged, he'll have to call another specialist...

So then he sent me first to my accoustician to change this round part which is called "coil" as he didn't have that B-coil in color brown. On this photo it's this thing where this number 3 is shown.

Thank God for this wonderful system what we have here in Austria because the social insurance is going to pay for that new part which I got. They exchanged it and I signed papers and I got a new one.

After that, I haven't noticed any more malfunction. It seems as if this has been the issue. I'm glad it had nothing to do with the internal part but this one, which can be exchanged. That would have been really bad.

So phew, I'm relieved it's working properly!!

I wanted to share this with you because I wrote a few times about this malfunction and now I know the reason. So if you too, have similar issues go and get in touch with your audiologist to see what's wrong.

Powerone Implant Plus p675

Hi there!!

I only had this one little box left and had to order new ... So I got my big package of CI batteries within a week. It's still unwrapped but at least I have them now. I'm much calmer that I know I have a reservoir. I don't like to run out of them...

I soon plan to go on vacation overseas and I'll need to make sure to take at least one such box this this one opened with me. I can't wait. More soon!! It's going to be an exciting wild trip far far away :D

Here are more of my poetry videos

here's a screenshot of some poems that I uploaded

Hello my friends,

I think you already have seen some of these videos but there are more if you scroll down. I have put up different playlists and organized my videos a little bit.

You can find a playlist about

• My poetry
• My Cochlear Implant Surgery

My 100 Day Challenge & any many more.

I have video material for other videos but it takes time to edit, and put the clips together. When I get it done I will let you know. Until then enjoy these videos here.

Thanks for reading!

To Graeme Clark - POEM

Hello my lovely readers!!

I'd like to share with you my poem that I wrote for Mr. Graeme Clark. He is the inventor of the cochlear implant.

This was my tribute to his achievements, to say THANK YOU

I don't know if I have told you but I sent a letter to Mr. Clark, to tell him about my book and to share my poems with him. He got back to me and was very touched and pleased by the poems and the fact that one poem was for him. It is nice that I was able to reach him and to show him my poems. I hope he's going to see that video too, so he can see myself as if I were talking to him face-to-face but here virtually... through that video!

I hope he'll enjoy it and you all as well!

Leave me some comments on my youtube video! I'd lot to hear from you all!

Thanks for reading!

Stone Deaf Ear - POEM

I never knew how to locate sound,

Or to tell from where it came.

It always gave me shivers

I never liked this children’s game.

To turn left or to turn right?

I never knew which way to go.

Always heard some stupid laughter.

Making fun of me? I didn’t know.

Since the day I was born,

Silence was my company.

It was like a second layer

That did not want to leave me.

Can you revive my stone deaf ear,

Can you give it the sound back?

Can you unite my two ears,

So they can walk together this track?

By Sandra Stolnik

August 2, 2011 

Here's one of my poems about my ear. You can find more of my poems on youtube. Just search for "mytruestory85". I wrote this poem last summer, when I just began to hear with my new cochlear implant. Everything was new to me at that time but soon I began to notice positive changes, though still... I still had something I was longing for... to be bilateral, to hear on both ears. My RIGHT ear is still deaf & even to this present moment now, I still do not hear on that other ear.. but only on my left one.

Some people say "it's enough, you already have one hearing ear." Yes I do but why can I not be bilateral? I enjoy being deaf too. It has a lot of advantages that you begin to appreciate now. I am both hearing and deaf!! This reminds me of another poem I'll post soon.

In secret I hope for an internal failure with my device so that perhaps when that moment comes I can be implanted on both ears at the same time, risking only once another anesthesia. :P

We'll see what will happen in the future, but I better not wish such scenarios to happen because for half a year or so, I have noticed minimal first signs of a possible failure. It doesn't have to mean that something is wrong but sometimes I notice for a fraction of a second that my device stops working and then it's "on" again as if nothing happened before. The same feeling as if you take away that magnet from your head and stick it back, as soon as the magnet touches the other magnet which is under your skin you hear again, when they are not close together you don't.

This is weird but I'll pay attention to it further and see if there will be bigger changes that will affect my hearing.

I hope you enjoyed reading my poem!

Your Poetry Girl :)