For those of you that are bilateral, what was your rehab like after the second implant. Did you rehab the new implant separately or simultaneous with the first implant?
I am bilateral.
The first implant took time, about 2 months to get any speech understanding. It was very frustrating at times.
3 months from the first implant I got the second implant. At activation I understood speech. It was robotic but I could hold a conversation with that newly activated implant.
I did not do anything special for the second implant rehabilitation wise. From testing at the audiologist the second implant caught up with the first implant within a month.
I hear equally with each implant. I can take either processor off and understand speech. I do hear much better with both on. I do have directionality.
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I’m hoping for the same results. My first was activated last April. Deaf in that ear about eight years. The implant in October will be done on my “better “ ear. I can hear but have near zero word recognition.
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There is actually some research on this: Optimizing Your Rehabilitation Journey: Focusing on Your Implanted Ear | Auribus Labs
It has been a year since you went bilateral if I am reading your post correctly.
How are you doing?
It’s actually been 7 months. I have to say two is definitely better than one. In August I was tested at my last mapping. My most recent implant (7 months), I was at 44% speech understanding. My left ear which was done April of 2022, was at 66%. When I had both processors on in the sound booth I was at 84% speech understanding.
The right ear sounded like chipmunks at first. Now it sounds more like a transistor radio. My right side is closer to normal as people I am familiar with sound close to what I remember them sounding like. Together the result is more than I could have imagined.
I just realized my post said October. That attempt was not successful as the electrodes could not be inserted far enough into the cochlea due to calcification. After doing a scan the surgeon said he found a way in and I was implanted again in March 2023 and activated in April.
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Thanks for getting back back with us.
I had forgot about the CI difficulties you dealt with.
It took me almost 2 years to get directionality from two implants. Listening to and finding birds out in the yard helped train me. I can now actually identify different birds. Pretty amazing.
Staying active in life will help improve your CI hearing, it has for me at least. Your listening understanding will continue to improve over time.
It sounds like you are very pleased with your CI’s, that is great news.
I’m very pleased with my CI’s at this point. Seems my second implant is progressing slower than my first even though it was supposed to be my “better” ear.
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Something you might try is take your first older processor off each day for a couple or 3 hours. This will force your brain to learn with the new CI.
This is basically how I trained my first CI, I took my hearing aid off and never put it back on the non implanted side within a week of activation. It was frustrating for a while but the CI learned.
You are right about that and I should probably do it. I find it hard to rely on just the new one with my new found hearing. I did the same with my hearing aid on the first implant but I never put it back on.
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