"Success"!

Remember how I said last week that Beth considers "success" to be a score of 80% or higher on AZ Bios at 50 decibels? Well, we have achieved SUCCESS! At only 3 weeks post-activation!!! Today Brandt scored 83%.  EIGHTY-THREE. I am completely blown away.  Even more impressive, I think, was his CNC scores--64% on total words (versus 38% last week and 8% pre-CI [at 10dB louder]) and 81% on phonemes (versus 65% last week and 31% pre-CI [at 10dB louder]).

This is just mind-boggling. Ariel was beyond thrilled and said she didn't need to meet with us anymore because he's doing so great.  I was rather conflicted about that, I thought we were going to be coming in for months and months for therapy and instead we're told that we don't need her anymore!

A few anecdotes from Brandt on his success:

Our girl-cat jumped up in his lap and started purring loudly. I asked if he could hear it and he nodded. "So how long has it been since you heard a cat purr? 20 years at least?" I asked. "I'm actually not sure if I've ever heard a cat purr before..." he responded.

On the difference between his implanted and aided ear: "My left [aided] ear is so uncomfortable. The canal is hot and itchy, the sound is soft and muffled. Compare it to my right [implanted] ear, which is loud and clear, and doesn't hurt at all. The CI side is so much better."

He has been able to listen to NPR in the car for the first time in a year. He's always hated music but used to listen to NPR, particularly "Car Talk" and "The Diane Rehm Show," but had to give up on it because he was struggling too much.

On watching TV being bimodal: "I like being able to watch Star Trek in stereo! Now I have one ear for dialogue, and one for sound effects!"