Search the Community

Hi All -- I was implanted in left ear early Jan and have been activated for about 2 weeks. My right ear has pretty bad SNL loss -- Low frequencies not terrible but no high frequencies. Everything I have seen described on other posts sounds familiar: Bloody nose, tinnitus, vertigo after surgery... but for me all pretty mild and largely gone now. My audi did an informal test at activation to test residual hearing in my left ear. Not sure the outcome -- I was supposed to get Sonnet EAS but they sent regular sonnet by mistake so they will swap my next visit which is this Wednesday. But it seems I'm pretty much deaf in the left ear now so not even sure I will use the EAS. I have to say after listening with a CI for two weeks I am kinda surprised I got along as well as I did with my hearing as bad as it was/is (my poor friends and family!) . My right ear and left ear started out as sort of two sound tracks that did not quite merge -- high frequencies on the CI left ear and low frequencies on the right ear. Over time these have merged and sound largely in sync now. The result is life changing for sure with respect to communicating with my family and friends. Music is definitely a challenge. As a professional jazz guitarist most of my life I can play stuff I have been playing for 30 years that I know like the back of my hand how it should sound and it is fascinating how the CI is trying to work out the overall sound. Lots of amazing new electronic beeps and buzzes. Perhaps the most exciting thing for me is that I can hear drums pretty clearly again: Cymbals, high-hat, snare, etc. . I love drums and when I listen to some tracks just being able to hear them in all their glory again is thrilling, despite the truly strange other sounds that just sound like squeals and such of the other instruments. This is not at all depressing to me as I was well prepared for this thanks to preparatory discussions from many of you 🙂 Anyway, I can see this is a long road, and I have not even done the first real mapping session yet, but even if nothing else changes it will have been worth it. I got a 2 for one deal so I have both a Sonnet and a Rondo 2. Tend to like the sonnet better for it's directional mics, but I switch between them for hours each and am getting used to the omni-directional mic in R2. I would think both would benefit from individual maps (my R2 is just my initial sonnet map copied over so far). My initial programs are just 4 different volume levels, and also I can adjust sensitivity. Any tips for what to put on the 4 different programs at my initial mapping session this week? I definitely want a music program with all the filters etc turned off...but any other ideas would be helpful.

Hello, My name is Tim McKenzie. I'm a musician (acoustic guitar) and was identified as an implant candidate 3 years ago. I wear two hearing aids and am now seriously considering a “one implant/one hearing aid” set-up. As part of the process of deciding whether to do this I’m extremely eager to connect with other musicians (acoustic guitarists, in particular) who may have a similar set-up, if any (i.e., one implant/one hearing aid). I am 66 and began wearing hearing aids, off and on, 15 years ago. It was then I learned that my hearing loss likely started as result of bacterial meningitis when I was a young teenager …from which, it was thought, I had managed to recover unscathed. Word is now that, in addition, the meningitis may have caused bone growth (ossification?) in my cochlea, perhaps rendering the CI option moot. A scan will be conducted to check this out. My speech recognition is poor (just under 20%), but if folks speak to me slowly, I find I am still able to converse face-to-face, one-on-one in a quiet situation. (Strangely, this is true even when the “mute” program on my hearing aids is active?) But, with the slightest background noise or more than one person talking at time, I’m pretty much out of luck. When playing music with others (an increasingly difficult situation) I need the hearing aids on in order to hear my own guitar, but then it can sound tiny, brash,sharp, etc. In addition to very noisy situations, I sometimes use the mute program on my hearing aids when playing my guitar alone because, with the residual hearing I do have, the sound is so much “warmer” and “natural” ...even without the mid- and high frequencies. I’ve read up on both the Cochlear Nucleus and the MED-EL Synchrony devices and find MED-EL’s emphasis on reaching further into the cochlea to enhance not only speech recognition but music appreciation to be compelling. My poor speech recognition is a tangible and isolating burden but, as I mentioned above, I am still able to “get by” if the situation is just right. It’s just that I don’t know that I could “get by” without being able to play music. I’m not tone deaf (in fact, I play at a fairly high level) so I’m encouraged to think that with one implant and one hearing aid (thus retaining the residual hearing in the aided ear) that I might still be able to enjoy some of the natural sound of music (and my own guitars in particular) while eventually becoming better able to recognize the spoken (or sung!) words of my grandchildren in particular …and everybody else. But I also have read enough to understand it may be naïve – unrealistic even - to hope for such an outcome. I will deeply appreciate any advice or experience any implanted musician - or anyone really in this forum, really - may be willing to share regarding their experience with hearing music. Thanks, Tim p.s. Happy Holidays!