Oh! Well thank you for that. So you didn’t even have an MRI for your first implant?
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Correct, I did not get a MRI for cochlear implant surgery.
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It’s common to get a CAT scan for possible CI surgery in the UK as well. CAT scan is part of the assessment.
Raudrive and @Zebras that’s interesting. My ENT doctor sent me for both CT and MRI, the results of which she forwarded to the Cochlear clinic along with her referral. I have been told by the clinic that I will be getting yet another CT scan in a few weeks. I should probably question the need for another, given I just had one in January. The less radiation exposure the better. But glad to know that you two didn’t even require an MRI, so I know that might not be a requirement for a second implant. Thanks.
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Okay, that’s very encouraging, to know that you could hear on the phone speaker. I hate being dependent on a BT device, which only gives me poor results.
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A little update that some might find interesting.
For the past 20 or so years I have mixed up sugar water for the hummingbirds, spring, summer and fall. Up until this year I have never heard them. The CI’s have made that possible.
Here in central Texas we have mostly the black chin hummers. When I lived on the Texas coast we saw mostly the ruby throated hummers. A Rufus now and then.
They are absolutely loud, constantly chirping.
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I had to have both CT & MRI pre CI implant surgery. An awful lot of surgeons like to check on the bony structures that the CAT shows them. And the MRI shows the ENT that the nerves are all where they are meant to be. So that during surgery they have no unexpected surprises.
@Raudrive yesterday I had a complete day without aid or processor. It was a beautiful Autumn day here, our back door is less than 15meters to the parkland. The trees are home to every bit of wild bird life, from the raucous cockatoo to the tiny sparrow. When you get several cockatoos squawking it’s loud, then add in the rest of the bird life it’s exceptionally loud. The peace and quiet was just heaven.
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Just got home from audiologist appointment.
My right ear was implanted in October of 2020 and my left ear in January of 2021.
Test results:
Left in quiet 87% sentence understanding.
Right in quiet 84% sentence understanding.
Both ears in noise 66% sentence understanding. (this was my first ever hearing test in noise)
My test numbers don’t do justice to how much better I am hearing.
Getting a little better all the time. Maybe my next appointment in 6 months will get me into the 90’s.
Can even hold a telephone call conversation without Bluetooth, impressive for me. Still have a tuff time with TV without Bluetooth streaming, working on this.
A few adjustments were made to lessen soft sounds because I can hear clocks, locusts etc at a hundred yards. Hopefully this will help the wind noise I deal with outside too.
It was a good office visit.
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That’s an understatement. It was an awesome visit. I’m so happy for you!
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Amazing! I know you were struggling a lot before the implants. I’m so happy for you!!!
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Rick they are wonderful scores considering you are still doing rehab, well I hope you are I should say.
Trying to do a full hearing test with white noise is really tough. Especially when they vary the loudness of the white noise. Well that’s what they did to me at my half way mark. Congrats on such great scores. Onward and upward for you.
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Thank you Sheryl.
I hoped my sentence understanding in quiet would have been in the 90’s, maybe my next visit. One thing about it, I see room for improvement but am very happy with the CI’s. The sentence test in noise was challenging. I just don’t get into noisy places anymore or rarely do. Not getting any practice!
Just now I have unpaired the N7 processors from my Google Pixel 3 phone and paired the K2 processors. Had to remove the Nucleus Smart app and re-install it to make the swap. Sure wish both sets of processors would pair to the app. Enjoying the K2 processors but have learned to like the N7’s too.
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I shouldn’t say this but……I have never really done any rehab. Never did any of the practice stuff my audiologist recommended. Did do a little of the “Bring on the beat” app.
Just paid attention to my wife!
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This is wonderful to hear! I am just in awe at the lifechanging technology of cochlear implants. Hearing in noise is challenging for even those who are not hearing challenged. It’s a strange time to be adjusting to implants when we are all avoiding those situations where we have to cope in loud social situations. When I listen to ted talks or audio books on my laptop as part of rehab, I take my cell phone and put some competing “relaxation” music on speaker to simulate a noisier environment than I am currently living in. It’s a bit irritating, but I am hoping it helps!
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I just got home from visiting my son and his family. My grandson is 19 months old and trying to put words together. I could understand him pretty good, not perfect but good.
We went to a friend of my son’s birthday party. About 25 people and music going all the time. I did pretty good considering. Had difficulty some times. Had a great time, played some corn hole too. Lots of fun.
Overall it’s like you said. We are hearing better and better.
CI is pretty amazing.
I hope you continue to hear better as well.
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Wanted to share a recently noted hearing improvement.
Over the past couple weeks I have noticed hearing directionality. It’s improving a bunch.
Able to find birds, insects and my wife making noise.
Next month, October, will be one year since my first implant. The second will be in January.
And music is getting a little better.
For those interested, I rarely make changes on the Cochlear Nucleus app. Have a few times but put things back. Must be the Deep Neural Network and 12 million sound scenes, it’s true.
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Rick that is great news for you. With you being bilateral you have directionality over me. Being Bimodal it’s much more difficult to pick direction. I can hear the birds (sometimes I wish I couldn’t they are so noisy) and struggle to tell you where they are unless I can see them.
I also don’t open my nucleus smart app, I don’t have a need to adjust anything once it’s set correctly.
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So I am the outlier here, I use the app to adjust sensitivity quite a bit. I found that up a couple of points makes conversations outdoors easier, and a couple of points down makes is better for concentrating at the office (or a couple points up if I want in on the gossip).
I also use the mini mic for my computer at work and the app is the easiest way to it
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You mentioned using the Sensitivity adjustment in past posts. My audiologist also recommended me trying this setting. I have tried it after reading your posts. It is an amazing adjustment that really changes what you hear and understand. When my wife is in the kitchen with pots and pans make very loud noise I used this setting to mellow out that kitchen noise, it really works well. Since then I am slowly learning to adjust to these sounds without making Sensitivity adjustments. It really affects my speech understanding.
I can see if speech understanding does not get as high of percentage as desired this Sensitivity setting could probably be raised a little to sharpen sounds to improve speech understanding. Just a thought.
I don’t use it much indoors, except when I want quiet in the office, but I find it helps a lot outdoors. For instance yesterday I was doing an evaluation on one of my subordinates while he was teaching a class. Part of this was a discussion on a piece of equipment outside. So I was able to stand behind the class and be unobtrusive but still hear everything he said.
It also helps hearing my wife when we are doing yard work without being right on top of each other, except when I need to move closer so she can understand me.
And I can now sit anywhere in a classroom and still understand.
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