Yesterday was my "turn-on" day for my Ponto Pro bone anchored hearing device. What an exciting day it was. I'm still in a euphoric state enjoying not having to twist my back to get my "good" ear in position to hear someone.
Because there are no audiologists trained to program the Oticon Medical devices nearby, I traveled to the University of Kentucky in Lexington to have my Ponto Pro programmed and learn how to attach and unattach it. Dr. Meg Adkins is the audiologist who helped me yesterday and she was wonderful. She spent two hours with my husband and me, going over all of the ins and outs of the device and answering all of our questions.
One of the fascinating things we talked about was how the brain is really what does our hearing ..... the ears only transmit the signals to it. Therefore, when an ear loses its ability to transmit signals, the brain diverts to the other side to receive the needed information. Maybe it is not new to the rest of you, but it was new to us when she said that sound coming from the right side is sent to the brain's left hemisphere and vice versa. Since different parts of the brain are the primary locations for various functions, it does matter which side is deaf in the way the brain compensates. Anyway, it was fascinating information to us.
All this is to say, after having had hearing loss for 3 1/2 years and totally deaf for three months in my left ear, my brain is now having to rework how it handles the incoming sounds from the bone conduction on my left, being sent to my right acoustic nerve, which is apparently then sent back to my left hemisphere. Meg gave me some exercises to speed up this process. If anyone is interested, PM me and I will describe them to you.
Good news ..... tonight we went to a noisy restaurant to celebrate and to try out my new "hearing." I am pleased to report that I had no trouble hearing my husband across the table, which previously had not been the case. The down side is my tinnitus has cranked up to a horrible level. Hopefully that is another brain retraining that must occur and it will quiet down again.
Overall, I am so glad I went this route with the Oticon Ponto Pro.
Clarice
