We have entered a new era with our little man, Thomas. Today he did booth testing with our awesome audiologist, Dr. Bari, and let her test him for an hour all.by.himself! The little stinker actually let her do an eSRT on his CI. She was able to get 4 pairs of the electrodes done before he totally stopped cooperating.
Here are the results we got:
CI Only
He is still testing around the 30dB mark across the frequencies with only his CI. Med-el considers a properly mapped kiddo between 25dB and 35dB. Given the distortion he experienced when we got him between 15dB and 25dB, I consider this to be a good thing. His speech recognition threshold unilaterally was at 30dB. The cool thing is that his speech perception testing, without noise, came in at 92%. Can this sista get a WOO-HOO?
HA Only
He has held constant at between 45dB (low frequencies) and 55dB (high frequencies) unaided. He didn't have the patience for aided unilateral testing with his aid. However, Dr. Bari was able to get his speech perception testing done. Again, he scored 92% aided but, this time with an aided speech recognition at 15dB. Again, give me a WOO-HOO!
CI Mapping
With the eSRT testing, we found that each of the 4 pairs of electrodes were over-powered by approximately 4 charge units. So, she adjusted these electrodes and interpolated the remaining electrodes. We will see how this new map is and will go back again in another 3 months for more eSRT testing and bilateral testing.
I have to admit that I'm damn proud of how Thomas has matured when it comes to hearing tests. His patience has increased dramatically...although I have to admit...I bribed him with a new toy from Target if he did exactly what Dr. Bari wanted of him today. When we left Cook, we immediately drove to Target and he picked out a new monster truck toy to join his growing collection at home. He is SUCH a boy!
Ushers ... a New Journey
4 years ago
AMAZING! SIMPLY.AMAZING! I can't wait for this day when Aiden completely cooperates. Way to go Thomas! and mom, bribery is never a bad thing. love it.
ReplyDeleteHow did you know his sound was distorted at 15-25db? Noah consistently falls around that area across frequencies and he does GREAT there. (Bilateral Med-El)
ReplyDeleteMelanie, we did an ESRT on Thomas when we all recognized his closed mouth talking...almost 80% of what he was saying was with a closed mouth and not at all recognizable. Thomas has had sensory integration issues in the past with a high pain threshold. Once we did an ESRT, we found that ALL the charge units were too high. Our Med-El rep was with us during the ESRT and she said that he should have been in pain. If Noah isn't having problems with speech/articulation, I wouldn't worry about it! If his speech isn't intelligible, I'd talk with your audi...our said that with Med-El when an ESRT is done that the map should be set (although Thomas has EVA so it truly is never set). Med-El is different from other CIs and is programmed vastly differently...who knew we would all learn so much about technology.
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