Going bilateral

Eleven years after my first cochlear implant, I have decided to go bilateral. I have 2 young children now so I want to hear them better. I came to the realisation one day that there was really no need for me to have a 'bad side' anymore. So next week I have surgery and I expect to be very dizzy so not looking forward to recovery. And switch on will be 23 November :)

Sound from the CI

Due to recent visitors who may not know about cochlear implants, I'll explain a bit about the sound:

As I was late-deafened, I 'remember' sound so I can compare how it is to normal hearing.

When it is first switched on, there is noise. As in my video, I was spoken to but all it sounded like was one high pitch, no understanding at all. I was expecting actual speech so that was a bit of a shock.

Coming out of the office after activation, when playing with my mobile phone, I could hear the clicking of the keypad! It was the everyday type noises that I recognised almost right away and I spent weeks revelling in all those little things that people take for granted, like the click of the light switch being turned on and off and the pffssshhhttt noise when opening soft drink.

It took about 2 weeks before I could understand speech without lipreading. I believe that is really fast, some CI recipients who are born deaf my never get to that point.

I could not live without my implant. It has helped me so much. Saying that, it is not like 'real' hearing. It can still sound a bit hollow and robotic. I am still hard-of-hearing because I don't understand everything. I find it very difficult to hear when there is a lot of background noise. I still prefer to have subtitles when I watch TV and movies.

I couldn't use the phone when I had hearing aids, I could not understand a thing. But now I can pick up the phone and talk to my loved ones and that is priceless :)

Upgrade information

I just joined a cochlear implant form on yahoo and already someone with a Nucleus 5 has given me lots of information!!

I find the new Nucleus 5 processors are:

- Much more elegant design, look and feel. They are much smaller in size and much lighter on your ear to wear. Much more comfortable. Not that the Freedom wasn’t, but the new processor is better.

- I have found the new microphones on the Nucleus 5 to be more superior (for my listening situations). Also the microphone covers last much longer and are made of a new gortex material and you only have to change them now say every 6 months.

- I have found that the rechargeable batteries are great with the Nucleus 5. You have a choice of stand size (longer battery) or Compact Size (which is shorter and makes the processor even smaller overall). Having said this the standard rechargeable’s last longer in length of hours etc.

- The N5 takes 2 Zinc Air batteries compared to the Freedom taking 3 batteries. I find that with the new processor I get nearly as long battery life with 2 Zinc Air as I did with my Freedoms using 3 Zinc Air.

- The remote control is fantastic and so easy to use. It is even better if you have Bilateral Implants as you can control both processors at the press of one button to change to say Program 3 from Program 1 etc. The remote controls either one processor, or two processors at one time. It gives you the flexibility to adjust from EVERYDAY program to NOISE or BEAM programs very easily and therefore you have a better listening situation if you adjust your programs to suit the environment.

- It also has an Auto turn off feature so that it turns itself off after not being on the ear/head etc after 2 minutes. Handy feature.

- It also has Auto Telecoil feature which is great when at home and the home phone rings. If you have it in Auto-T mode, when you answer the phone the Telecoil turns on automatically and turns off automatically after you hang up thereby enhancing your telephone listening experience. I used to never you Telecoil on my Freedoms as I was to lazy to press the Telecoil button, but now that it is automatic, I use it and can actually hear better on the telephone with it.

- I also find that the new software with Nucleus 5 allows me to hear better in noise. Listening in noisy places is always a bit harder for everyone and something none of us like, but with this new processor I find I survive better in noise.

- Overall I am very happy with the new Nucleus 5. Having said this, you still have to get mapped and tuned to suit you as an individual and it takes time to get your new maps set the way you like them.

Upgrading

While I was at the audiologist last week, I gave her instructions on how she can order an upgrade on my behalf.. which involves paperwork to Cochlear Ltd and my health fund.

But while I was there I got to see the new speech processor which looks lovely and shiny!! It also looks a lot smaller which hopefully means it will not be as heavy on my ear.

So my audiologist put in an order for it the very next day (I am going for the boring beige colour, though the white was very appealling!!) and yesterday I got my paperwork from Cochlear, which I simply hand over to my health fund and they can pay for it!

I already have my new "switch on" day, which is the 30th April. I probably could've had it done a lot earlier but I'm getting married in about 2 weeks and apparently the sound will be different so I think I'll stick with what I know for my Big Day :)

This is perfect timing for an upgrade too as the last couple of days, my speech processor has been cutting out for no reason. I changed the coil over and it seems to have behaved itself since then.

I can not WAIT to get my new speech processor with all it's new features!!!

T switch

I visited the audiologist who made the t-switch an actual program, rather than pressing 2 buttons at once.

It's been fantastic ever since, it's much faster to change over and can hear on the phone so much better!!!

Wearing out

The button I press to get my "telephone" program on my CI is wearing out. It's so hard to swap over and that is a real pain when the phone is ringing and you want to answer it right away :(

In other news, the rebate code for the new processors have come out so hopefully I will be able to get somewhere when asking health insurance companies if they cover upgrades :)

Clean it out!

Lately I've been getting Stu (my partner) to repeat himself a lot. This morning I finally twigged that this has been happening more frequently

Me: Is my hearing getting worse?
Stu: (exasperated) YES!!

Ooops. So today when the batteries died (at work) I grabbed a screen cleaner wipe, opened up everything I could...then saw how filthy it was in the microphone area. So cleaned that up and put it back on and VOILA!!! OMG, the difference is amazing, I can hear all the little things again!!

I emailed Stu and told him it was dirt covering the microphone and he was very happy, LOL

So should clean that more often :P This explains why I've been turning up the volume just to hear normal convos, lol

Screen wipes are awesome :)

Cords

I just read over my last post about fraying cords. I believe they have made them better and my new cord hasn't needed to be replaced for over a year!

I've also read (skimmed, really) "Rebuilt : how becoming part computer made me more human" by Michael Chorst and I've wondered if anyone would publish a book if I wrote about my experience ;)

Fraying cord

So my audiologist mails me a warranty card explaining that the frayed cord is only covered for one year. This warranty card is different to the one they gave me originally, which does not mention anything about cords and just tells me it's covered for 3 years.

RUBBBISSSH.

So I email cochlear with a scanned copy of MY warranty and they still tell me it's not covered for 3 years like it says!! ARRRGHH.
Now at dinner on Monday with the family, both Dad and Garth said I should demand replacements if my warranty says 3 years.

I chickened out a bit, it's easier for them to refuse me on email so I asked Dad (he said I demanded) that he ring and prove this point. Dad didn't even get to the warranty bit, the girl on the phone said it was a common problem and would send me out TWO replacements! WHOO!! $500 of free stuff!
Apparently they've worked out what makes the cord fray and are doing something about it.

So that covers me until my 3 year warranty runs out *sigh*

Fraying cords

My CI cord is fraying AGAIN. I go through 2 of these a year. I just emailed my audiologist who tells me I'm now out of warranty (I think I still have a year to go) so I have to order it direct through Cochlear Ltd and the cord is $235!!!! And I need 2 a year!!! PFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT

TV

I watched What About Brian last night (after last week where they found out one of the kids is deaf) and they ARE researching cochlear implants. This is going to annoy the hell out of me, I wanted to slap the character when he said "I've done research on the internet and deaf people are against it". They are against it because of their culture which isn't really applicable to someone in a hearing family.

Talking about CI's, I had someone totally random call me at work and I helped them. YAAAY!!!

Switch on anniversary

It has now been over a year since I've been switched on!

I can't put into words what a fantastic decision it was to get a CI. I'm starting to take noises for granted now but every now and then there will be something that will remind me.

I hope I never ever take understanding speech without lip-reading for granted. Just the past couple of weeks I have called people for appointments, etc, something that I would never have done a year ago. And going to normal movies, something I always avoided... and watching TV without subtitles without needing someone to repeat what was said every 5 minutes!!

One of the best parts is having confidence in knowing I've heard something correctly, without a lot of guesswork involved. I LOVE that.

Plans for the other ear??... bring on re-growing cochlear hairs!!!

Fiddling

I was just fiddling with buttons on my CI the other day (I was trying to find the sensitivity) when this "+L" came up. Then I pressed the same buttons again and a "-L" comes up. I did this a few times to try to work out what that meant but it all sounded the same.

Then I went to call Garth and I went to switch it to the telecoil and it wouldn't do anything, it just beeped at me. It was THEN I figured that +L and -L means lock!! It locked the controls! That'd be a safety thing for little kids. But I'm glad I worked that out :P

New CI stuff

About a month ago I got excited about a new battery case that was coming out which was smaller and used less batteries. When I asked about it, it hadn't been released in Australia, only the US (never mind the fact that Cochlear Ltd is an AUSTRALIAN COMPANY)

Its finally been released here, along with rechargeable batteries (I assume for the larger casing). I got some advertising leaflets in the mail about it. And I nearly fell over when I saw how much they were charging for this stuff

Bare in mind I nearly fell over when they told me the cord that connects directly from the CI to an iPod cost $100.

Rechargeable battery (2 of them... with the battery power lasting only one day and will last 362 charges) is $562.50. And thats at 25% off!! I don't spend that much on batteries in a year!

The new smaller battery case is *drumroll* $337.50! Also at 25% off.

So won't bother getting the new accessories.