Raudrive, what does it mean “processing”? Thanx.
Raudrive sorry…I meant the meaning of “processors”? Thanks again.
The processors are the cochlear implant devices that are on the outside of the head like a hearing aid.
They pick up sound and communicate with the implant inside the head that sends electrical signals to the nerve that goes to the brain.
My simple description of CI.
Nelhop my surgeon did recommend me going bilateral. But I’ve decided to stay bimodal until/if I have a drop in my hearing. Then I’ll think about moving forward for bilateral CI. Rehab is a lot of hard work, and as we get older it does become more difficult…
Deaf_Piper my surgeon, too, is suggesting a second implant as well in a year’s time, which is how long I would have to wait for our public healthcare to cover it. However, I am loathe at this point to give up the considerable hearing I still have in the “good” ear. I have nothing to lose with the other, and everything to gain. But it scares me to lose whatever decent residual hearing I have if I go bilateral. My hearing aid still gives me pretty good hearing of environmental sound in the “good ear” , just poor speech recognition. Someday, I expect I will have to take that leap, but I will delay as long as I can.
@susanmarylynn Your surgery is 7/23? That’s my surgery 1 year implantversary. Things went great for me and they will for you too.
The nursing staff will probably give you a small plastic bag to place your eyeglasses and hearing aid into. They then hooked the bag to the hook on the pole that holds the IV bag. Shortly after I was awakened back in the room I was prepped for the surgery and sitting in a chair to earmt a snack and drink some juice, they gave me my glasses and hearing aid back. You are allowed to wear these things right after surgery, but be prepared to fidget wth the arm of the glasses ghat is on your implant side. You will have a bandage around your head like a head band and a dome like plastic protector with bandages underneath protecting the operated area. That domes area is where you will need to find a spot to lay the eyeglass arm. Everyone is different, but I had no pain, just soreness. You will receive scripts for at home meds. I had all mine filled, but didn’t use them all. My meds were a pain med, a steroid, anti nausea med, an antibiotic, and lorazepam (I think or something similar, which is normally used for anxiety disorder, but in this case, used to help you sleep). I only took the pain med a day, the steroid and antibiotic till finshed. Did not need the nausea or sleep meds. You will probably be in hospital total of 4 hours, 1 hour before to be prepped, an hour to two hours surgery, and 1 hour recovery. Seems long, but it isn’t surgery is a blink of an eye. You will get post op care and probably you follow up with the surgeon a week and a half later to check area and remove any stitches. At that time you will be released from the surgeons care to the audi to receive sound processor and get activated. That’s how it went for me, Iwould expect something similar unless Canada does something different.
Good luck, all will be fine!
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@debbie_o - Thank you so much, Debbie, for kindly taking the time to walk me through surgery day! Just 2 more sleeps - if I sleep at all the night before! I seriously think my biggest anxiety is navigating rush hour traffic to get to the hospital on time!
That is a neat coincidence that you were implanted on the same date a year ago! Your implantversay! I really appreciate knowing what is ahead of me on the big day.
I first heard of cochlear implants about 20 years ago, when my son-in-law’s little niece was implanted. She was just a toddler. She is now a lovely grown up young woman who loves her job working with seniors - and would totally understandand empathize with the challenges of hearing loss that inevitably comes with age. So nice how life’s circumstances can work out so well! Little did I know I would be one of those folks, just a little earlier than I imagined!
I am encouraged by your post. Cheers!
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I may not be able to decipher human speech, but I remain grateful that I can still hear birds! I can’t always determine where they are either, but I have fun trying to locate them. I must puzzle and amuse onlookers during my walks when I stop at the sound of Cardinals and look up and about into the trees. Those birds seem to like to tease and I am sure they can throw their voices! “Over hear!” “Nope, just kidding, over here!” “Ha, ha, fooled ya again!” We have a wren couple nesting for theie second brood this season on our cottage deck. They are very talkative, but I daresay they could expand their repertoire!
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@susanmarylynn When you feel up to it how your surgery went. No two surgeries are alike and I hope your experience went as well as mine did. I’m glad I could give you some encouragement. You need to rell me which implant you ended up with. I didn’t leave you with an impression everything would be rosy, just how things went with my procedure. I don want you to have confidence that you made the right decision. Make sure once you are activated that you take advantage of the technology with your new sound processor to practice your hearing with your implant.
For example, I have a TV streamer that streams the TV to both my hearing aid and sound processor/implant. Don’t use your aid, just your implant and find out how much of the speech you can hear and understand. If you need captioning to help you, that’s fine. Same thing with audio books, podcasts, etc. I’m fortunate that I can hear the TV without using my streamer , but it’s good to have if I do need it.
I go with the same thing with my hearing aid in hearing the birds and other sounds of nature. I can hear heavy rain on the roof and against the windows. I think how lucky I am to hear these things with my HA. If you use just your CI alone, you will need to relearn those sounds because they will sound different. After awhile, some voices will sound normal or close to normal, just not exactly the same, your brain will get used to it and adjust. It won’t all happen at once, it takes time. If you have questions, feel free to ask or you can message me or anyone else through the forum if you don’t want to post publicly. Follow your doctor’s advice, once you have the post op follow up and the stitches come out, your care will transition to your audi, unless you are having issues with the site of surgery or things are done differently in Canada. Good luck and blessings to you!
Well today was the big day!
You are probably groggy from the surgery but hope you are doing good.
Let us know how you are doing when you can.
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Hi Rick!
I had a pretty rough evening last night with nausea. Have not experienced that before after anaesthetic. By 10 pm I had actually started bringing up blood. Didn’t know if that was normal, so my concerned hubby phoned the hospital. The ENT on call figured it was blood that had made its way through the sinuses, but to go to my local emerg if it kept up. Strangely, that was the end of the vomitting. I was able to get some toast and tea down at 2 am, then finally took a Tylenol. My headache was worse than the pain from the surgical site, it’s quite tolerable. The headache was probably from lack of caffeine and the general stress of the day. We had an awful drive home as Covid restrictions have eased and the highways were clogged with cars heading for cottage country. Took us over twice as long to get home as it did to get there in the morning, that was smooth sailing, thankfully.
So, today I am taking it very slowly lest the dizziness bring on the nausea again. I’ll survive, but actually didn’t expect to feel so ill.
Everyone in the hospital was exceedingly kind.
Thanks for checking in.
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Hi Debbie -
Thanks again for all the info. I had to get dropped off at the front door by my hubby and go it alone, but it all worked pretty well. Everyone was very kind and understanding.
The phone became an issue even after my nurse labelled a bag for it and my glasses and hearing aids. When they came to bring me to the operating room, there was some balking and much discussion over being responsible for it. Finally the head nurse over ruled and okayed it, and someone was tasked with actually brining it back down to my locker during surgery!! Perhaps they should consider this and have some hospital issued tablets available for such situations!
I did not expect to feel so rough last evening. I have never before been sick from anaesthetic. Fortunately we made it home before I started vomitting. Holiday traffic was nuts and it took us over two hours of jerky jerky stop and go to get home, which certainly didn’t help . But I was violently sick through the evening until I was bringing up blood. My husband called the hospital and the ENT on call thought it was likely blood that made its way through the sinuses, but to head for emerg if it continued. Strangely, once that was out of my system I started to feel better. By 2 am I got down some toast and tea so I could take a Tylenol. Today very dizzy, so curled up with a blanket and allowing myself to be waited on! Pain is quite tolerable, as you experienced. Didn’t start the antibiotics until this morning, as I would have wasted them last evening.
Anyway I am glad it’s done, I’ll just have to ride out the after effects. I was rather optimistic about recovery based on previous day surgeries, but they weren’t as involved as this. Truthfully, they ought to at least keep patients in overnight, but our public health care system has to be frugal, and this is standard practice. I am grateful for it, though!
I truly appreciate your checking in with me. Susan
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I forgot to tell you that I am implanted wit the latest AB device which is now MRI compatible. I do like their processor, and it’s connectivity option and battery life are more attractive to me than Med- El, which the doctor had initially decided on. I took the chance an inquired if he had a definite reason for choosing one over the other and it turned out he used them interchangeably, for my type of hearing loss, unless a patient expresses a preference. I am normally shy to “challenge” experts, and I assured him that I would accept what he thought best, but I am glad I questioned it. He was quite happy to accommodate me.
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Hi Susan,
Congratulations on your CI surgery! You made it through the procedure! Don’t know if you can see but I’m doing a happy dance!
I’m not knowledgable about AB implants and processors, but I do know they are part of Sonova (Phonak) so you can sync the CI with a Phonak HA. My Cochlear implant syncs with ReSound. I have a ReSound Quattro 9 synced with my implant. Syncing means that I can hear phone calls and stream to both ears at the same time. While I’m fine with my CI set up, I still think, IMO, that Phonak has better, more detailed sound for me. I was disappointed when I had to return the M90’s I was in the process of buying when I found out they would not sync with the implant I was getting. Through the forum, I learned that the Costco KS9 was made by Phonak and pretty identical to the M90. So I bought a KS9 as a back-up although I switch back and forth. I just wanted a backup HA just in case I had a problem with the ReSound which has happened twice. If I need to use my phone when wearing the KS9, I just make the phone bluetooth to the KS9. There are others that don’t use the HA that syncs to their CI. I just happen to do both.
Since you didn’t know until your surgery which implant you were getting, I don’t know what your thoughts on a HA, if you planned on getting a new one for your other ear. I just happen to hear better out of my hearing ear with a Phonak aid and to me, that is an advsntage with an AB implant.
I’m sorry about the anesthesia. I forgot about that part. I don’t tolerate a general very well, but do okay with twilight. I have to tell the anesthesiologist everytime I have surgery. They put something in the anesthesia to combat the nausea. They also put a disc with medicine on it as well for this. My thoughts are everyone tolerates anesthesia better than I so I don’t go into it, but I guess I’m not the only one that gets sick from it. This time for this surgery, I had tge best anesthesiologist because I didn’t get sick at all. When that happens it is miserable. Next time you have any surgery, make sure you mention that you get sick with anesthesia. You should get something through the IV to stop or lessen the effects and tell them you want the disc on your ear lobe to help this.
If you still feel sick with nausea, if you weren’t given medicine to stop the nausea, tell the doctor you want s prescription for it. If you are having a hard time sleeping, get a script for that. I didn’t get sleeping meds, I got anti anxiety meds to calm me into sleep. Remember to stay on any antibiotivmcs and steriods until finished. If pain increases or things get uncomfortable, contact the doctor immediately. You shouldn’t suffer like that. Soreness is normal and will go away. You may not be able to sleep on the side you were operated on, but you will eventually, took me about six weeks.
Take it easy and continue to demand to be waited on! You will probably feel sleepy over the next few days, so rest!
It’s so kind of you, Debbie, to respond at length. I spent the night on the couch to ensure I stayed on my left side. I am a flip flop sleeper, so this is challenging - I hope I’m not six weeks on the couch, ha, ha. I still feel very wonky today, but getting some breakfast into me is helping. Hubby ran me a bath and I am cleaned up and comfy in my recliner. And here I will remain, phone at hand and a couple of novels, gravol and ginger ale. I am not used to being cared for, and I was pretty naive about recovery. I had actually expected to possibly visit our nearby cottage this wkd!
I appreciate your thoughts on, and experience with, Phonak hearing aids. I was very happy to get the AB implant for that reason. I was told I could still use my old HA but I have struggled along for so long, and I want to maximize my hearing opportunities and have a HA that works with the CI, no auxiliary BT device getting in the way (or spoiling the effect of any nice costume jewellery I might fancy wearing.) I used to be so outgoing and active and slowly have withdrawn because it’s just too hard to keep up. I am sure you know what I am talking about. I am approaching 65, with hopefully lots of good years ahead of me that I want to make the best of. So, no scrimping anymore, I will go for the matched HA and be totally up to date with the latest technology.
We’ve lived on the same street for 35 years, and for the last 25, we have joined with 3 neighbouring couples for regular dinner parties. We called ourselves. “The Belmont Fine Diners”, however over the last year most of us have been falling apart. One gal has had both knees done and a shoulder replacement, almost everyone is now wearing hearing aids and we think our supper club needs a name change: “Belmont Bionics”! Ya gotta just laugh sometimes, and goodness knows this Covid year has been short on amusement.
Well things are looking up and there’s lots to be grateful for. On that note I sign off. Cheers!
I was able to sleep on the implanted side in a couple days.
By the second or third day there was very little pain or discomfort. My second implant I did have a nausea issue about 5-6 days after the surgery, meds fixed that up. The first implant went vey well except the ride home. I was in pain until getting pain meds for that night. Then all was good.
Susan congratulations, that’s the worst part over now. I’m not at all familiar with AB either. I’m sorry you had a rough time with the nausea post op. I hope you have fully recovered from nausea now though.
Take it very easy over the next few days, it’s important to rest up and let the healing begin. You might feel like you are underwater in you CI ear, this will slowly resolve over the next 6-7 weeks. As will the swelling from around the surgical site.
Good luck on your journey, roll on activation day 
@Deaf_piper - thanks for the encouragement. I was a bit taken by surprise by the motion sickness, having never experienced that. But it isn’t like I wasn’t warned! I am slowly improving, with the help of gravol, but really just staying still, which is something I am not used to!!
Susan how are you going now? I hope everything is all good for you since your operation.
Hi Cheryl - take for checking in! Well a week on and I am still very “wonky”. Thankfully the throwing up ceased after the first evening. However I have forced myself to be up and about the house more, I even made a “seafood” dinner last night - clam chowder from a tin and toasted tuna melts, ha, ha!
We are going to our little summer cottage today as it is the beginning of our annual Civic Holiday weekend. I can lay around up there just as easily as at home. Pain is minimal, mostly an earache in the evening which I think is due to (gently) chewing dinner. So, I think I’m going to live.
I was a bit disconcerted when I double checked with the surgeon’s secretary about the confusing instructions around hair washing . She really discouraged it until my follow up to get the staples out - which is still 9 days away! Good thing I can hide away till then!