ABF Experiences after long term use of different map

[Kilgary]

So, I’ve seen a couple people post about their ABF experiences but didn’t see one that exactly matches mine. 

I was implanted in December 2022 - Flex26 array - full insertion. SSD - my right ear is still pretty good.  Activated end of December.  I plateaued about 8 months in. 80% speech recognition but I wasn’t enjoying music much. I could hear bass and drums really well but higher tones like piano or female vocals sounded unpleasant. In July 2023, my audiologist switched to an eSRT map. Things started to sound more natural to me - but I still couldn’t discriminate higher tones. A lot of piano keys would sound like the same note over and over.

In January of this year, my surgeon approved a second CT scan so I could try out ABF.  In March, my audiologist gave me 2x programs:

1. ABF OC - which sounded really WEIRD to me.  Everyone’s voices sounded multiple octaves too low.

2. ABF SG - My audiologist explained this was a “split the difference” map between full ABF and my previous eSRT map.  Things sounded mostly normal - with voices maybe a half semi-tone too low.

I used the second map for the full month of March and then switched over to the first (full ABF) map the start of this month.  While the program is tolerable, everything still sounds too low.  I do feel like I’m getting a little more frequency discrimination.  I can finally hear every oboe note for the theme from “The Good Place”!  The problem: women’s voices sound so deep (almost like a man) and I can no longer hold a phone conversation with my wife over AudioLink (which I did from 6 months - 15 months).  So, I have questions for folks who had traditional maps for 1 year+ and then switched to ABF:

1. Did you have a similar experience to me (everything sounding too deep)?

2. Did your brain eventually adapt so the full ABF map sounds “natural”?

3. How long did it take?

I don’t want to give up.  I really want to be able to enjoy music again through my CI, but it would be SO EASY to go with the “split the difference” program and hear things relatively normally again and call it a day.

 

[Tim]

Interesting that you had the two different ABF programs at the same time to try. 

I effectively just had the "split the difference" ABF. In my case, the "pure ABF" would have disabled two of my electrodes and that just seems wrong to lose that extra resolution. 

A Med-El rep was in attendance for my ABF as it was my clinic's first or second.  Perhaps also because I was getting a reputation for asking questions.  🙂

I don't remember if they did a new electrode map after doing the ABF in August.  It felt pretty hurried in that appointment.  In September (5 weeks later) my word recognition was still terrible despite going very hard core into rehab as if it was a new activation. 

We ran out out of time to do much more than a map and booth test in September.  Scheduled a followup for a few weeks later and it was still pretty poor but improved.  We reverted to the original frequency allocation and 5 minutes later in a booth test I had a much better word recognition than I had ever had before on my CI. 

In the end, I gave it two full months. 

The result is that I didn't feel like I really lost time in my rehab and it was a useful effort to have tried. 

I can't remember off-hand exactly how I would characterize things - more muddied and distorted I think. 

[Kilgary]

Tim, maybe it did something to help your brain get to another level with your old map? Thanks for your reply. Bummer it didn’t work out for you but I completely get not wanting to lose resolution. I think I have full resolution (my audiologist certainly didn’t mention turning anything off) just don’t want women’s voices to sound like men!

[Lauren]

I was the first in my state (USA) to get ABF. 

I was originally implanted in my left in June 2021, activated same. Then implanted in my right and re-implanted left November 2022, activated same. June 2023 I got ABF after again advocating for myself and despite some first time hiccups got both ABFs done same month. 

At the time I was 7 months acclimated to my MAP at the time so it totally reset me for one month. The second month it settled down and let me acclimate. By month three my scores thankfully improved. I stuck with it only because of the sound clarity I got while in the quiet Audiologist office. Eventually real life caught up to that. I’ve been happy since. My last appointment we made zero changed for the very first time because I wasn’t sure if anything was needed. 

[John F]

1st implant was in...2021?  2nd implant 2023.  Had been using regular mapping unsuccessfully during all that time.  MedEl person created a Hybrid ABF back in December.  It's worked out mostly fine, however in need of small tweaks to make real world scenarios a bit clearer which have been proven to be a hurdle and all that soap opera stuff.

 

I can say, after that December ABF map, everybody sounded like Barry White and felt like an episode of Ally McBeal.  It took about 3 weeks, maybe a month for voices to finally even out.  Your brain is very elastic and will adjust.  It's also exactly like starting over from activation.  You need to retrain, and do your daily therapy listening to podcasts, streaming, etc... just like being activated. 

 

Personally, I'd never use AudioLink as the quality is just overwhelmingly bad but YMMV.  I tend to use my AudioStream when talking on the phone, or if I'm too tired and don't feel like connecting everything, grab a pair of headphones.

[Kilgary]

1 hour ago, John F said:

I can say, after that December ABF map, everybody sounded like Barry White and felt like an episode of Ally McBeal.  It took about 3 weeks, maybe a month for voices to finally even out.  Your brain is very elastic and will adjust.  It's also exactly like starting over from activation.  You need to retrain, and do your daily therapy listening to podcasts, streaming, etc... just like being activated. 

Barry White is a great description!  That is exactly how things sound to me in week 2 of the full ABF map.  It's not like I'm totally starting over - voices are certainly clearer vs when I first got activated and I can hear things like individual acoustic guitar strings like never before, but I've noticed some things that feel like starting over from scratch.  Example - when the Beatles sing harmonies, they JUST started to sound normal.  Now their harmonies are a big, scratchy mess - very similar to the first time I tried listening to music around 3 months post-activation.  It is encouraging to see a couple people have been able to successfully adapt after using traditional maps for a long period of time.  I'm not giving up on this.  I'm back to streaming "The Good Place" without captions and can understand about 90% of the dialogue.  One character has a deep, whispery voice and has been hard to make out without captions.  

[Rob Gellner]

I had the ABF from my 1 week to my 1 month and thing’s definitely sounded bass heavy and Barry Whitish. My Audi tried the FS4 or FS4p program and my ability to hear speech drastically improved.  Things still sound on the low side middle c and down on the piano sound as they should and drums found great. About two octaves above middle c a lot of notes sound the same. I would describe things as muffled in the mid range. It’s like my ear hasn’t popped from a plane ride or im Congested and my ear is plugged. Certain orchestral pieces sound ok but i Am still missing a lot of music information. I’m in week 6 post activation so i Am happy with my progress so far and hope things keep improving.  Just thought I would share my experience