Megan L.

I am SO excited to meet all of your amazing people!

I’m registered for the 8th! 😁 are you attending @Mary Beth?

@Mary Beth  Awesome! 

I’m registered for the 8th! 😁 are you attending @Mary Beth?

It is free but we need to register.  It will be captioned.  I registered.
Here is the info:
 
You are invited to a virtual HEARPEERS meeting.
During this hour long webinar our MEDEL experts will be discussing listening practice and strategies to help during this time of facial coverings and masks. Many cochlear implant recipients rely on lip reading to help them understand speech and therefore may feel discouraged with their speech understanding during this time. However, there are programs and strategies that you can use to help you and I hope you are able to attend the virtual meeting.
Two dates are provided for your convenience, please note that the same topic will be discussed on each day, so you will only need to register once.
Upon registration, you will receive a separate email that will give you details about how to log on to the meeting.
 
If you happen to fall in the waitlist for a meeting time, you will receive an email from our events team once space has opened up to register you for the event.
 
 
You can register by clicking the link below.
July 8th – HearPeers Virtual Meet Up 5pm CST, 6pm EST
July 9th – HearPeers Virtual Meet Up 6pm PST, 7pm MST
 

@Ernie are you able to get your audiologist’s email? I email my Audi for appointments and if I’m experiencing any issues. It’s very been very helpful during this pandemic time

@Ernie no I don’t shave the spot where the magnet from the processor goes. It’s not necessary. I wiggle my magnet/processor so it has close contact to my skin. Since you’re so recent from surgery, it could be internal swelling. My surgeon told me it could take 6 months for the internal swelling to completely go down. Not sure if the same applies 4 years later. I would check with your audiologist about the processor not staying on your head. They would be able to advise if you need a stronger magnet if needed

Hi @Ernie! Welcome to the group 😁
Congrats on your CI. @Mary Beth has touched on some good points/solutions. I have really long, thick hair (now thanks to the pandemic) and when I put my sonnet or rondo on - I tilt my head and I slide the processor up as opposed to sliding down or straight on. If I don’t do it right, the processor doesn’t stick at all no matter what magnet strength 🤣  maybe a stronger magnet would help. My Audi was conservative and didn’t do the strongest magnet when I was first activated.

Hi @Ernie and welcome to HearPeers!
 
Congratulations on your new CI.
Have you discussed this with your audiologist?
It is still early weeks for you so you may have internal swelling still.
Which processor are you using?
Typical solutions include:
-discuss magnet strength with audiologist
-use a headband temporarily until this resolves 
 
There are processor specific options too.

Thanks @Megan L.!

So awesome @Mary Beth!! It’s amazing how the CI keeps surprising us 😁

Today I started listening to a new audiobook.  It struck me that one of the narrators sounded exactly like the narrator from a book I listened to years ago.  In fact, it was a book I listened to again while training my first CI over 5 years ago.  I searched online and it is the same narrator!  I remember when I couldn’t tell if a voice was male or female! Now I recognize voices of narrators from audiobooks!  I love listening with my CIs!

Tell us about your recent WOW moments!

Life as a deaf person in a world of face masks 
Check out reviews of various face masks with windows and face shields.
Join in and review the items you have tried.
What works best for us?
Tina Gonzales Childress, Carrie Spangler and I worked together and we really want to hear from you!
https://tinachildress.wordpress.com/2020/06/21/the-effects-of-face-shields-and-masks-with-clear-windows-on-people-who-are-deaf-hard-of-hearing/

UPDATED
Date for July!!!!!!
Sunday July 5 !!!!!!!!
9:30 New York time
We welcome more HP members!  Anyone else want to join in?
@Mary Beth YES
@Jewel YES
@Dave in Pittsburgh  YES
@Kirk S. YES
@Tracey_66 YES
@Kylie YES
@Mary Featherston YES
@Valentin YES
@Joan YES
@Nikki YES
@Megan L. YES
@Watersail MAYBE
@phobos512 YES
@Marion nancy YES
@Neil YES
 
Google Meet is a free app.  Download it.  If you already have a Google account it may already be listed in your extras.
There is either (depending on device used) a CC button to select or 3 dots (...) that when you select the dots you will see the option to turn on captions.
About a week before the virtual chat, I will send out a group HP mail.  You can see the mail at the top of HP under the envelope icon.
Looking forward to the July chat!
Stay well everyone

Somewhat similar to this.  I have a coworker that I work closely with.  I tend to try to start conversations, when we're in our respective offices, with skype.  You know, I type, he types.  But Brian is a slow typist and he doesn't really like it.  Yesterday he called my office phone, and I knew it was him because we have caller ID.  So I answered and said, Brian, you KNOW I'm not that comfortable on the phone!  I never know if I will hear.
His response?  You CAN hear. 
I mean, sometimes he's wrong, but you know, mostly he's right.

Today two friends stopped by for a short socially distanced visit in our backyard.  Four people all wearing masks, sitting in chairs set up at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00 & 9:00 around a 12 foot circle.
Seems like some crazy CI research experiment.
I heard very well.
 
It blows my mind that before getting CIs, I couldn’t follow a conversation involving 4 people even if we were sitting around a small table.
 
I am very thankful for this gift of hearing from my bilateral CIs.

UPDATED
Date for July!!!!!!
Sunday July 5 !!!!!!!!
9:30 New York time
We welcome more HP members!  Anyone else want to join in?
@Mary Beth YES
@Jewel YES
@Dave in Pittsburgh  YES
@Kirk S. YES
@Tracey_66 YES
@Kylie YES
@Mary Featherston YES
@Valentin YES
@Joan YES
@Nikki YES
@Megan L. YES
 
@Watersail MAYBE
@phobos512 YES
@Marion nancy YES
 
Google Meet is a free app.  Download it.  If you already have a Google account it may already be listed in your extras.
There is either (depending on device used) a CC button to select or 3 dots (...) that when you select the dots you will see the option to turn on captions.
About a week before the virtual chat, I will send out a group HP mail.  You can see the mail at the top of HP under the envelope icon.
Looking forward to the July chat!
Stay well everyone.

@Mary Beth @Megan L. . I had expected my hearing with my  Rondo 2 to be low as only been activated since 29th May.
Umm it's a lot better than expected !!! 🎉😀
Unable to upload result as to big at 4 mb.........
Made me feel a bit better, as not having a very sympathetic specialist for rehabilitation.... Really downs everything. I'm curious how she will work out what's next when it comes to Mapping!!!!!
 
 

@Mary Beth
I have the feeling we’re all going to have a roller coaster ride with these face masks!! I went to Walmart the other day and understood everyone fine but when I went to the doctor’s office, the person taking my info had a slight accent and I needed her to repeat herself a few times and she kept turning her back to me to type. I’m not back to work yet but everyone knows I have a CI and we’re a tight team so we’ll figure it out if I can’t understand them 😆
@Tracey_66 Hope you made out well with your results!

UPDATED
Date for July!!!!!!
Sunday July 5 !!!!!!!!
9:30 New York time
We welcome more HP members!  Anyone else want to join in?
@Mary Beth YES
@Jewel YES
@Dave in Pittsburgh  YES
@Kirk S. YES
@Tracey_66 YES
@Kylie YES
@Mary Featherston YES
@Valentin YES
@Joan YES
@Nikki YES
@Megan L. YES
 
@Watersail MAYBE
@phobos512 YES
 
Google Meet is a free app.  Download it.  If you already have a Google account it may already be listed in your extras.
There is either (depending on device used) a CC button to select or 3 dots (...) that when you select the dots you will see the option to turn on captions.
About a week before the virtual chat, I will send out a group HP mail.  You can see the mail at the top of HP under the envelope icon.
Looking forward to the July chat!
Stay well everyone.

Have been working on my getanearful app for android. Added a lot more training for people who have just started out.
https://sourceforge.net/projects/getanearful/
The objective is to provide self training for those with android phones who cannot access the internet easily.
I have also added medelmagic which uses the 2 matrices that are published in the Med-El rehab documentation, also includes the Ling 6 sound test.
(select files and touch on medelmagic.apk)
I have also added references which contain a lot of (for Me) interesting sites and articles for CI people.
Getanearful is still going to have more added in the near future, waiting for input from 2 professionals working with me.
Peter
 
 

@Glenda
At activation - I heard my Audi’s voice (who is a man) but not my own voice or my mom’s. My Audi’s voice sounded like a smurf the entire visit. Over the course of an hour mine and my mom’s absence of voice turned into ringing which would last the entire day and be gone the next. The best thing about my activation - I heard music and listened to it the entire ride home 😁 however there were no voices!!! I will never forget what Maroon 5’s “Sugar” sounded like without their voices 😂 My aural rehab 2-3 hours a day helped tremendously with word discrimination. The rehab was time consuming and frustrating at times but worth every second. It’s a journey, a very interesting one, and very rewarding! 
 
@Renachelw welcome back! I too just returned to HPs 🥳

Always great to see people back!

@Glenda
At activation - I heard my Audi’s voice (who is a man) but not my own voice or my mom’s. My Audi’s voice sounded like a smurf the entire visit. Over the course of an hour mine and my mom’s absence of voice turned into ringing which would last the entire day and be gone the next. The best thing about my activation - I heard music and listened to it the entire ride home 😁 however there were no voices!!! I will never forget what Maroon 5’s “Sugar” sounded like without their voices 😂 My aural rehab 2-3 hours a day helped tremendously with word discrimination. The rehab was time consuming and frustrating at times but worth every second. It’s a journey, a very interesting one, and very rewarding! 
 
@Renachelw welcome back! I too just returned to HPs 🥳

Hi Everyone, I'm back here
I'm not sure where I've left off here, but I got implanted 2 years ago on my right side and it is awesome. I got implanted with Cochlear and not Medel tho, so I can't really speak about my experience with Medel. 
Anyway it's really good. Much better than any hearing aid I ever used. I am hearing very well, almost normally. Would say above 90% for speech. Sometimes I can even hear lyrics to songs I listen for the first time, and also TV shows without closed captioning. Cinemas are still a little difficult tho. Maybe it's the surrounding. 
As for whether I could hear instantly after switch on, at first everyone sounded squeaky and there were alien sounds. But I rmb trying not to look at my audiologist and could make out few words back then on the same day. After a few hours, I could recognise more words. It's not the same for everyone tho. Have been told mine was rly fast. Maybe it's because I'm young too? 😅  Was hearing and understanding speech within the week or so.
But of course, in early days, there were still problems like differentiating male and female voices over audio. Its much better now but certain high pitch singers can still get me confused at times. Another problem was kids. Kids are still a little difficult to hear, but have been told by hearing people that sometimes it's that way for them as well. They can't really hear kids and mostly just guess what they're saying? 🤷🏻‍♀️ Then there's also the difficulty in using landline phones. It's a lot harder than using handphones for calls. Although I can stream calls from my mobile to my CI with a streamer, I still use a flathead earpiece to stick onto my processor (mines single unit, smth like the Rondo.) I can also hear quite well if I hold the phone to my processor like normal. Just that accuracy is not 100% and if the background is noisy it's still very difficult. 
Anyway, before panicking, best to check with your doctor if you're a candidate for CIs first. Some people might not even be able to do the CI depending on the scans/condition. Best to check to avoid any potential disappointment. 
Overall, I have no regrets doing the CI and it has made my life a lot better. Dating is now possible too 😅 
All the best, I hope this works out for you too