Testing at NYU

Cormac went for his annual check up at NYU and went in the booth for testing.  I don't have the full reports yet but the audiologist reviewed them with me before we left.  Here is a little bit of a summary:

Cormac can hear speech at 5-10dcb across the board.  Yes, you read that correctly.  I cannot detect speech at 5-10dcb across the board.  Just utterly amazing!

They tested both ears one at a time and of course together.  I can't remember all the numbers off the top of my head but the most important one I do remember.  While bilateral with noise (they introduce noise) to make it more difficult he was able to repeat sentences totaling 140 words and he only missed one!  He responded to them all so quickly and was never even phased by what they were saying.  I am pretty sure he scored above 95% in all of the categories.  I will be waiting for the official report.  Needless to say, I could not be happier with his testing results.

His audiologist also did something she has never done before.  They tested his hearing without his implants.  Yep, headphones in his ears with tones.  The reasoning behind has to do with the improvements with preserving residual hearing after surgery.  She said they are testing all of their patients now.  We knew he would have no results because of the amount of hearing loss he had at birth. 

Cormac was surprised by the testing and a little confused because he knows he can't hear without his implants.  While the test was going on the audiologist kept increasing the volume.  At one point I could hear it even though it was on headphones.  Cormac raised his hand and said to the audiologist " I can't hear anything.  I can only feel the vibrations"  He said it felt strange and tickled his ears.

I consider him a great reporter and he was very cooperative during testing.  His results are nothing short of amazing to me.  When I think back to the beginning and learning about Cochlear Implants for the first time I never thought in a million years results like this were possible. I knew he would have access to sound.  I saw other children talking with their implants.   To sit in the booth with him and watch him whiz through testing with ease is just unbelievable.  Sure, he doesn't hear like you and I hear but looking at him it doesn't appear that way. 

On our way into NYC Cormac was playing with Google Translate on my phone.  He was using it to translate English to French.  He sat in the truck talking into the phone, listening to the response and repeating it for me to hear.  Granted lots of his statements were silly words and sentences but he was learning French.  When we got home he happily shared his new words with his brothers.  They can all say "Dad blew up the toilet"  and "My brothers exploded the bathroom" in French.  Hey, as long as they are learning another language....I will take it, right?

Cormac also decided he wants to start a blog.  He is naming it Hearing Power...My Life as a Bionic Boy.  He has just started it today so keep an eye out...

Here is a selfie he took in the Lincoln Tunnel

 

Here he is in the waiting room.  I remember him being so tiny in the chairs.  Now he is outgrowing them.