I was looking at some of my implant-related records today while getting them together to bring to a new audiologist (now that I'm back at school) later this week, and I came across some really neat numbers.

During the pre-implant evaluation, we did CNC Word List testing with my left ear, my right ear, and both ears. With my hearing aids, I scored 44%, 16%, and 40%, respectively. No context or lip reading, obviously. Not great scores, but then, that's why I got the implant, right?

Here's the cool bit: we tested my right ear alone (with the implant) 3 weeks after activation. Those 3 weeks of practice, and the 4-5 therapy sessions during that time period, gave me a score of 48% - better than I had done even with my better ear!

Of course, that's not the whole story; I'm having a lot more trouble with background noise than I used to, and integrating my aid and my implant together is tricky. But given time, those problems should resolve, so this is an auspicious beginning.