CI Activation, Take 2!

There were some nail-biting moments, but the CI has been activated!

Brandt was able to get his magnet to stick to the new implant on Monday night, so we thought there wouldn't be any problem with activation on Wednesday. But even though Beth was able to get it to "lock" fairly easily, the computer couldn't measure impedances of the electrodes, which is the first step in activation. There was a collective "ummmm....." in the room.  When Brandt pushed down on the magnet, it finally connected but if he moved even slightly it was lost.  Beth called Ariel over to bring a strap or something to keep the magnet pushed tight on his head. She brought a t-shirt and ripped it up, tying it around his head like The Karate Kid.  It worked!  Impedances were measured. "Now let's see if we can actually activate..."

Thankfully it worked, and after only a few minutes, Brandt was already understanding speech! Last time, Beth had to type everything she was saying but this time it wasn't necessary.  She explained that patients often progress much faster with the second implant, because the brain already knows how to process the sound--there is "crossover in the pathway" that allows for much quicker and easier understanding. But of course it still takes some effort to teach the other ear how to hear with the new technology.

When we got home, Brandt wanted me to test him with some sentences.  I decided to make up some really weird sentences where he couldn't easily guess troublesome words.  I said "The purple goat quacks at lunchtime," "My cat just gave birth to 17 puppies," and "The waterfall is full of Orange Crush soda."  Shouldn't really be surprising at this point, he got them all right.

Today, 48 hours post-activation, Beth decided to put Brandt in the sound booth and run some tests that are usually NEVER done this early. At 50 dB, he scored 42% on the AZ Bios sentences test.  Apparently this is incredible--there are many patients who don't score that well after several weeks.