Young and the Restless

[Guest guest]

I just finished watching Y & R and think they portrayed Devon's CI activation

pretty accurately. I would have liked to see an audiologist conducting the

mapping instead of a doctor (because that's the way it is in real life). It

also would have been nice for there to have been a brief explanation of the

mapping process as well as the doctor telling Devon that speech may sound

unrecognizable and that more mappings would be required to improve the sound

quality of what he hears. I liked how Devon referred to the voice of his

doctor sounding muffled as if someone were speaking through cotton -- he

didn't have instant understanding. I don't know if anyone else noticed this,

but when Devon's mother asked, " What are we going to do? " the audio sounded

different (tinny) as if the producers were trying to simulate what he was

hearing through his CI. I chucked when Devon told the doctor to " keep

tweaking " his CI. I also laughed at Devon's comment about being able to turn

off the transmitter. Now that Devon can understand speech with his CI, it

will be interesting to see how he reacts to environmental sounds and whether

or not they will be overwhelming to him. I'm also looking forward to seeing

the reaction of his friends and the people he knows outside of his immediate

family. Just as I suspected, there was absolutely no mention of a CI brand

-- although I don't know if AB's website appeared on the TV screen at the

end of the program. Since I didn't hear anyone say something to the effect

of " If you would like to learn more about cochlear implants, visit X, " I

assume their web address wasn't shown) All in all, I think the producers of

Y & R did a great job with today's show.

Left ear - Nucleus 24 Contour Advance with 3G

Implanted: 12/22/04 Activated: 1/18/05

Right ear - Nucleus Freedom

Implanted: 2/1/06 Activated: 3/1/06