CI recipients, how are you all going?

Cochlear Implants
#16

Kathy,
this approach only works if your other ear is bad enough, if it has a severe to profound loss, too, or even is deaf.
If your other ear is too good then your brain won’t learn automatically. In this case you need to do rehab explicitely.

Ah, I was right :slight_smile:

You should have a smartphone. From there try listening to podcasts to your CI only. You may also look for audiobooks and read the printed version at the same time you are listening it. You need to do this a couple of times with the same audio source(s).

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#17

Hello Deaf_piper,
my last assessment has been in January this year at my 2-year appointment. I don’t have any idea how my scores have been the last time as I am not really interested in statistics at this time. The only thing that counts is that I am happy with my current maps :slightly_smiling_face: Why?

Listening to talking people is much easier for me than at the time where I had 2 power hearing aids.

I am also glad to have 2 implants. My second ear was as bad as my first ear before surgery. So there was no reason not being bilateral. It is really nice to be able to listen to birds chirping. It’s cool to hear a bike coming before crossing the road. It’s fantastic to hear leaps rushing in the wind again. I like my implants very much.

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#18

This is also one of my issues. I do not have any kind of cell phone or Ipad.the accessories from cochlear I was given I returned.,that includes all the streaming devices with the exception of mini mic.I am not tech savvy. I told the audiologist before being implanted. I wanted something simple. This should not have been an option for me. All I wanted was something to equalize sound like the BAHA but the Dr said this was better.

#19

Hi there, well, you dont have technology, but you do have tv or radio, right?, do you have grandchildren or friends willing to spent say half hour to sit with you? Have someone read (newspaper, magazine or book of poems) they read words to you and you repeat.

Your brain needs to hear and recognise the sounds, no matter how small, repeat until you do repeat the words how you should hear it. In order to be able to tell your audi what you are not hearing. It can be fun or simply reading hour.

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#20

just wanted to share my scores. Pre CI was 1%,6 mo 18%, 1yr 17%. They reprogrammed went to 44% but after several weeks (14mo) lt dropped 7% i was reprogrammed again. Don’t know what it is now. Have not been retested.

#21

It’s been two and a half months for me since activation.I understand speech very well in quiet one on one and sometimes do well with 2or3 people in quiet. People that I regularly talk to I understand well. New people I usually have to listen real hard. The robotic sounding voices have slowly faded away, especially the familiar ones. My wife’s voice is almost how I remember it.

I seem to understand female voices better. Most male voices sound deep and similar, which makes it tough in group conversation as I am constantly looking to see who’s talking.

Hearing birds is amazing. They seem so loud, how could I not hear them before? And yes, being bimodal I don’t know where they are.

Haven’t been tested yet for word recognition but I go in for a mapping this Wednesday. Last mapping I understood my audiologist with a mask on. She enunciates very clearly and usually wears a clear face mask.

I am very happy with my results and glad this amazing technology is available. I am eligible for the other ear and I am strongly considering it in the near future.

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#22

did you do any type of auditory rehab exercises or make use of the streaming devices?I have Kanso 2 by cochlear. Almost 2 yrs no benefit. All I hear is static sound. No word recognition. I am also deaf in only 1 ear which seems to be a drawback.2 different sounds competing. I am happy you are doing so well with yours.

#23

I have the N7 with the Kanso 2 as a backup.
For rehab I mostly stream TED Talk on my desk top computer using the mini mic. I did a little with Cochlear’s Copilot. I also stream TV with the TV streamer when I really want to hear the program clearly.

#24

Hi
When you say your streaming Ted with either the Mini mike or the TV streamer , do you just sit there and listen ,watch the subtitles , or do you talk along with the subtitles .
I have just started my mappings earlier this month and dont seem to be making to much progress . I have the N7 on my left side and user my HA on my right side .
Do you use a HA as well

#25

For the first 8 weeks I just used my CI streaming direct to my ear. After this I used my Resound Enzo 3D aid. I used several apps initially but then moved to my local library app. Then streamed audiobooks direct to my ear.

With every mapping speech became a lot clearer.

If you don’t have a Resound aid which has been properly set up by your CI AuD you won’t stream bilaterally… Just to your CI…

Here’s a copy of some apps that are available. Also you have your local library app… You also have ESL on your computer.

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#26

Depending on the clarity of the speaker or the program I am watching, I try to listen without looking at the captioning. I still find myself looking at the captions when I don’t catch what is being said.

I have a hearing aid for my right ear but I don’t use it. I find it confusing and distracting. It does not help much since I am eligible for a CI in that ear. I am considering having that side implanted in the near future and may discuss that with my audi at my mapping this morning.

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#27

The hearing aid in your better ear can be confusing for some when trying to learn speech in the CI ear.
We each are very different how we learn. Some how you need to figure out what works best for you to learn speech with your CI. I personally watched old TV shows that I knew by heart using the Cochlear TV streamer directly to the CI only while using closed captions. That way I could read and hear while remembering words all at the same time. It worked great for me. You need to figure out what works for you.
Good luck

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#28

It’s disappointing that your rehab hasn’t worked out. I’m also deaf in one ear only. Had the cochlear implant done about 8 months after the sudden deafness (SSHL). The two ears sound completely different!

For my rehab, it was zero technology at the beginning. None whatsoever. It was my wife sitting across a table from me, with tables of words from the Adult Cochlear Implant Home-Based Auditory Training Manual Postlingual Hearing Loss available here. My good ear was covered with an earplug & headphone with white noise. Using the cochlear side only and looking away from her lips, I would listen to my wife who would read single words & say it back to her. She would show me the word if I got it wrong, and repeat the sound until I brain trained that word. This took us about 30-60 minutes per day, and we had planned this from before the surgery date by reducing my work hours to allow for this.

At the beginning, I got 0% correct. Gradually, this improved. I still can’t tell the different between M & N sounds in single words, and certain vowel sounds, but they work in a sentence context.

Later, we moved to pitch recognition using a piano. It was hopeless, until I had a hybrid component placed to use the residual low pitch hearing. That was great for a month or so, until that residual hearing suddenly disappeared. Lost all pitch recognition again now, despite further training & trying. Never mind, got the good ear still & as a result of not using the hybrid processor, the device is much simpler to manage.

I started streaming podcasts a couple of months later & it was hard. Now, I’m up to streaming certain podcasts at 150% speed (which I would normally listen to at 200% speed), but other podcasts which use background music behind the speech are at 100% speed or impossible. British, American, Australian, Scottish accents are fine. General African & Middle Eastern accents are very hard for me to understand. Irish accents I can’t even understand using my good ear!

Overall, it’s been a win. Hearing is not perfect; far from it! But it makes hearing easier than not having it, and prepares me in case the other ear ever decides to take a permanent holiday too. I’ve come to accept that I’ll never use the cochlear ear to listen to Rachmaninov again as the nuances of any classical music is impossible. Perhaps some rap might work, if I ever get into that!

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#29

Thank you for this bcarp! You found a way to make the training work, and your wife sounds amazing to help you so much!

#30

@bcarp I’m very happy for you that you have been able to make rehab work for you and your CI. Congratulations to you, and your wonderful wife for helping you.

I also ditched my hybrid EAS after I lost more residual at 15 month post CI.

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#31

I wish I had known about what you had done.It sounds great and that was something I could have done. I’ll try it but it is now almost 2yrs since activation. Good luck

#32

Kathy it’s never to late to start rehab. As someone else said you also have ESL classes on the computer.

#33

It’s been 15 months post activation as my only access to sound, and I think it’s been spectacular for the most part. Things are still evolving with lots of the finer details being filled in.

One of the things that has taken a while to come around is the sound of rain on the roof. For the most part of a year it was a rather unusual oscillating high pitched tinkling that had me wondering what this particular sound was on a number of occasions. But now it sounds pretty much like it used to.

In terms of listening to people, in a more ideal environment it’s great and so easy to do so. It’s fine in noisy environments too, though I do have to be particularly mindful of the clarity bubble - moving a couple of steps closer to the speaker can make all the difference. Listening fatigue isn’t an issue like it was pre-CI.

As far as scores go, the last time I was tested was 6 months in and if I remember correctly it was 82%, but haven’t been tested again since. Not really fussed by scores, but I do pay attention to how I’m really travelling in real-world listening.

I’m curious about this? Always looking for extra things that may help here and there. I do have a bit of an annoyance happening with what the N7 considers to be the threshold for switching from the speech program (which is great, I love it!) to the speech in noise program which just attenuates everything and is not helpful.

In all I’m pretty happy overall with how things are going for me!

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#34

Hmm, also wondering here. What is “cafe” program?

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#35

@bcarp from my understanding some AuD’s give a program/scan where you can hear better in noise and call it cafe. Some do programs/scans as a music program one where you are meant to be able to hear music better. It’s more a US phenomena and some European AuD’s

I asked my AuD in Melbourne about it in the early days she just looked at me blankly she didn’t have a clue. I only have one current scan.