Daniel the Stranger

Things are going well @Mary Beth I can't complain, I'm really happy with my CIs. Communication at work has improved heaps and I'm not scared anymore to interact with students and staff. I don't forget that this is a long process, my Audiologist can't believe how patient and positive am I.

Well I'm 1 year with my first CI and 6 months with my second. I still don't know where the sounds come from.

I think this has been under the radar for some time now? Cochlear has been working on this https://www.cochlear.com/intl/about/media-centre/cochlear-announces-next-phase-in-development No idea how it is going to work though.

In my case I don't want to have anything to do with disposable batteries 😂 I used them for 35 years or so... not anymore, glad to use rechargeable batteries. I survived my trip to New Zealand last December using the rechargeable ones. Just pop them into the charger each night and of you go in the morning.

Cool, just one day more! All the best.

Fantastic, I wish you the best, hope your surgery goes smooth and painless like mine. Please keep us posted. You can PM anytime if you have questions.

Same as @Mary Featherston I wait for them to beep. Depends on where I am or what I'm doing, I swap them after a couple of beeps. Sometimes I forget, then when they go flat I curse myself for forgetting... It annoys me really when they go flat and I'm doing something or watching TV lol.

I can understand what my boss talks over the phone in Spanish... he doesn't know it 😂 I can understand what my wife says to our cat in the lounge next to our bedroom. (Yes, our cat likes to chat) I enjoy music more and more everyday during my daily commute.

I took a week off from both surgeries. It would be fantastic to have the surgery on a Friday so you have 2 days more of recovery. My first one was on Friday but my second one was on Wednesday.

Thanks for your kind words @Mary Featherston, sometimes I wonder why people say I'm boring as we don't do much on weekends lol. I'm usually very tired on weekends, and perhaps this is why maybe I haven't done proper rehab since both CI activation. I'm mentally exhausted not because of the new implants but because I need to make more effort in my day to day job to be able to communicate with my coworkers. I can go to the gym after work but I don't want to do Rehab, go figure! I know at some point I will need to go to the public library and grab some ESL books with multimedia to practice the English language again. Don't get me wrong, I'm still very happy with the way things are going with my CI and in that short period of time my communication has improved a lot. And music has been a blessing, I can tell you that I used to call my dad daily during my driving to work but now I only do it twice a week... I want to listen to music!

Hi @Joseph English is my second language. I was first implanted 8 months ago and second implanted 3 months ago. My understanding of Spanish has improved a lot, I can talk much better on the phone and I have made progress understanding speech in music. I think I still have a long way to go. However with English the story is very different. I'm going to give more time (1 year with both sides) to make sure whether I have to go back to school to practice my listening and speaking skills. The conclusion I''m getting from this experience is that the English language I was taught while using my hearing aids was very different to the one I'm hearing with the implants. So in other words, I think I have to relearn my listening and my speaking as if I was a new English student. I have to say that English sounds much better with the implants. I have felt progress at my workplace but I feel they are still very small steps. Thanks @Mary Featherston for calling, writing these kind of experiences is helpful to give it a thought on what to do to improve our hearing.

I think he is talking about walking-through metal detectors.

On my trip to New Zealand last December, the guy at Melbourne Airport took me to a new machine similar to the metal detector, he told me that was a new machine for people with Heart Pacemakers and Cochlear Implants. There were not interference at all once in that machine.

@Kylie, it is possible that they didn't give you a choice because you are going with Medicare? If so, I'm surprised that they didn't force you to go with Cochlear as it is an Australian company.

@Kylie, let us know how did it go. Good Luck.