Implant and Sword Fight

We went up to OHSU to activate Mike's new cochlear implant. It works, hooray!!

Whoa, he hears something...
Mike had to listen while the audiologist started at a base level and then adjusted it so that Mike could just barely perceive 3 beeps through his new implant. She had to do that 5 times across a 24-channel frequency to adjust the softness. Then she did the same thing for the loudness settings. That is a lot of beeps to listen for -- first when you barely hear them and strain to perceive any beeps and distinguish those between actual beeps and your imagination playing tricks on you. Then again with the loudness making sure it is loud enough but not so loud that it is uncomfortable.

Jake played with toys while Daddy listened hard.
The new processor. The bottom part that is beige will be replaced with black when more is in stock.
Jake wanted to carry Daddy's HUGE box of processor parts and accessories.
So Mike has been wearing both his old and new processors. He said that it is much more tolerable when he wears both together rather than just the new one alone. It helps the new one perceive sound as sound -- when you first get an implant you really don't hear any sounds, you feel them somewhere. I would feel a flooding sensation going through my brain. Mike feels them more as electrical signals. Another person I know feels them in his heart. Then, over time, the brain gradually perceives sound instead of a feeling. So with Mike's second, the brain is learning the signals from his left auditory nerve much faster because the brain is already receives and understands the signals from the right auditory nerve.

A shot that Jake took of Mama.
Jake has a sword fight with Guthrie!