Lei Posted May 20 Report Share Posted May 20 Hi all, Nice to meet you! I'm Lei, a 28 year old SSD patient who will be going in for surgery next week on 30th May 😊 Will admit I've been excessively reading through this forum in the lead up to this, haha. Just wanted to say thank you all for the many pearls of wisdom and reassurance scattered through past posts! I'm an audiologist but am not too familiar with programming cochlear implant systems as there's a separate program that sees those patients in NZ (where I live), so I'll be learning a lot too from the other side of the table. My hearing loss is congenital -- I've previously been offered implantation when I was younger but turned this down as I was a (silly) teenager scared off by surgery at the time. It helps that I have normal hearing in my other ear. One of the motivators for pursuing implantation now is that I see a lot of patients at work with similar audiograms who have sudden hearing losses in their better ear and eventually go down this route too with more urgency. Gets me very anxious each time so better to get onto it sooner than later, especially given the (life)long period of auditory deprivation to try mitigate 😅 Looking forward to chatting with everyone! Scott Murray, John Schulz and Kylie 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Mary Beth Posted May 20 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted May 20 Welcome to HearPeers @Lei and wishing you the best! My right ear was implanted after 24 years of no sound following a surgery for Ménière’s but it had heard to varying degrees before then. Aural rehab helped me a lot and it is an amazing CI ear. I hope you are as fortunate. I am a Teacher of the Deaf so I also had that “other side of the table” experience. It was eye opening in several ways Which processor did you choose? We still have an opening in our June GoogleMeet if you are interested in chatting with us directly. There are single sided deaf CI users active in those chats. If you are interested, follow this link and reply there. Lei 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Kylie Posted May 20 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted May 20 Hi @Lei Seems like a great idea to do it now, plenty of time to adjust in a non-urgent scenario. I am also SSD and have had great results since my surgery 5 years ago. No regrets. Loving stereo sound again! Lei, Mary Beth and Tim 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Tim Posted May 20 Members Report Share Posted May 20 Welcome @Lei Another SSD person. I was implanted and activated almost 1.5 years ago. Like Kylie, very happy with it. Looking forward to hearing about your progress in the future. Lei 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lei Posted May 20 Author Report Share Posted May 20 Thanks everyone 😊 really appreciate the support + reassurance! @Mary Beth that's awesome, it must be a great learning and teaching journey for both you and your students! I'm fortunate enough to be getting both a Sonnet 2 and Rondo 3. Hoping to use the Rondo more at work because I live in a mask and glasses (hospital-based) and have been very annoyed with the setup + CROS hearing aids, haha. Also keen for the Audiostream Adapter to be released in Australia but no word that I've heard yet... Also, thanks for the invite to the meetup! I may bow out for June but will try to snag a July spot if it goes ahead 😊 @Kylie and @Tim, hoping to join the choir and learn how to hear in stereo! I feel like my poor little brain is going to be very overwhelmed with rehab but luckily I have a decent amount of time off work to try get my balance (so to speak) before heading back into the fray. Mary Beth and Tim 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Kylie Posted May 20 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted May 20 I found it useful to tell everyone I worked closely with about my surgery and what strategies helped with my hearing at different points. They were unbelievably kind and helpful at every opportunity. I was glad I was open about it, from the start - it made it so much easier to ask for what I needed, and I was able to educate a lot of people along the way about deafness and implants. Same for family and friends in social situations too. Lei and Mary Beth 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lei Posted May 31 Author Report Share Posted May 31 Hey all, just a quick update that surgery has happened as of yesterday and activation is scheduled for the 11th 😊 Happily not feeling too painful at all (the nurses kept checking if I wanted the good stuff!) but feeling very blocked up on the operated side as expected. Originally it had normal thresholds at 250/500Hz so I'm hoping to have kept at least some of that hearing, but we'll see how that pans out haha. Can't wait for the blood/fluid etc to clear from the middle ear space and reveal the short-term result. Feels a bit surreal honestly! Tim, Kylie, NathalieM and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Mary Beth Posted May 31 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted May 31 Congratulations @Lei! Rest and get ready for the fun that begins at activation! Lei 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseanne Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 Hi I'm Roseanne and was activated 6 days ago in my right ear. My left ear has enough hearing for quiet conversations, but my Phonak hearing aid barely helps. I'm using it now for streaming on my IPhone mainly. When I put on radio talk shows or the TV (trying to follow news channels), etc, the Rondo 3 is very staticky, gravely, annoying, etc, etc, but together with my other ear I can make out at least some of the conversation. I guess that's good for a newbie? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseanne Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 Could those who use the Sonnet 2 please comment on how they like it? I'm concerned about how bulky it is especially with the AudeoStream cover and also about having to change the "Standard" size battery literally some time every afternoon! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseanne Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 Hi again.... just to add, I still have an option to choose between the Rondo 3 and the Sonnet 2. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Mary Beth Posted June 3 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted June 3 @Roseanne congratulations on your activation! Things improve very fast. It’s an amazing journey. You will find Rondo 3 and Sonnet 2 fans here. There are several members who have both. @Lauren @Tim Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 @Roseanne Yep - I have both and am bilateral. I went to a two processor clinic so I didn’t have to choose which one to get. I started out using the rechargeable batteries with Sonnet 2 as they were convenient at the time but have since ditched them for disposables. They last 2-3 days depending on how much streaming I do with the AudioStream covers. I have small ears plus wear glasses but don’t find the Sonnet 2s too bulky with the AudioStream covers on and those are the only covers I use (except on a recent trip I switched to the covers with Direct Audio Input plugins so I didn’t have to worry about Bluetooth connectivity). Everyone’s hearing journey is different, however I had weird audio at the beginning as well. I work with my audiologist and in more mappings it became more regular/normal audio. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseanne Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 The deal here is you get to choose between 3 standard batteries of you get 5 years of free disposable batteries. I guess you’re right better to change them every 2-3 days than every day. What do you think of your Rondo 3 as far as static from hair, how do you wear a hat and also a bike helmet? Right now anything that touches it is terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseanne Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 Also how is the Direct Audio Input plugin used and what for? Thx for helping. 😊 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lauren Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 @Roseanne That’s just what comes in the initial surgery kit/backpack. It doesn’t lock you into using only that. Spendy, but if you want you can purchase additional stuff from Med-El. Not sure about the Canada store, @Anthony Canada can probably help there, but I’m able to buy from the US Webstore when I need things. I have short hair so I’m not much help there. Even short hair touching the mics doesn’t bother me though. I don’t wear hates. For biking I find the Sonnet 2 better as the coil is thinner and there’s different ways to wear the Sonnet 2 so it doesn’t go flying. Direct Audio Input (DAI) lets you plug your Sonnet 2s (and Rondo 3s but I haven’t tried that yet) directly into a device. For the plane I didn’t want to fight my phone/tablet for connection so I just used my Sonnet 2s plugged directly into my iPad using the 90/10 Mix cable and enjoyed watching stuff with no distractions. The 90/10 cable means that the Sonnet 2 mics were mostly shut off (cut down to 10%) and 90% of my audio was only what was playing on my iPad. With AudioStream you can’t change the microphone mix ratio, it’s always 50/50 so you’ll always hear things around you. Others use Bluetooth over ear headphones and that works for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Canada Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 I only use the Rondo 3 so I don’t have personal knowledge of the Sonnet 2. It is worth noting that the audiostream (BT adapter) for Sonnet currently exists but it hasn’t been approved for the Rondo in Canada yet. If you go with the Sonnet and you want to use audiostream you might be limited on battery size. I like my Rondo but wind noise is fairly noticeable since the microphone sits unprotected on my head (short hair). I don’t have things normally touching my processor so I don’t have the sound on mic noise issue. As my rehab progresses more sounds become clear, early on complex sound environments did create garbled sounds. For hats, because of the position of my implant I can’t wear a normal hat with my Rondo 3 – I think I will need to modify the brim for that. I haven’t tried wearing helmets but I do use a set of headphones over my Rondo and they work great. The only static the headphones produce is when they nudge the processor causing it to not sit over the implant like it should. That nudging the processor around only happens when I’m very active. From the MedEl (Union) Canada store a card of 5 batteries is $5 and a carton of 300 is $198.75. Some of this might be covered by your provincial health care. It looks like the standard and max batteries (not counting covers) are $175 each. Kim (or whoever your MedEl rep is) should be able to give you a digital pamphlet with the cost of various items. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseanne Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 Lauren. Oh no I didn’t know that about AudeoStream only doing 50/50. So outside noise will interfere with the direct music or phone calls. Wireless headphones would be good but not with the Rondo! DIA seems the way to go. Thanks for that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseanne Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 Anthony what do you use the headphones for/with? Do they sit over the Rondo at an angle? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Mary Beth Posted June 3 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted June 3 @Roseanne direct audio input for Rondo 3 is possible but not often used because it requires cabling them to the mini battery pack (which isn’t very small). When the AudioStream adapter is available in Canada for Rondo 3, I bet it will be a preferred connectivity option for many. It does allow the audiologist to set a streamed audio only option (unlike AudioStream for Sonnet). There are flat stereo speaker headband options that work well in the meantime. CozyPhones uses a plug in cable to the sound source and CozyBands uses a BT wireless connection to the sound source. Some Rondo users can use typical headphones but I am not one of them. The headphones knock off my Rondos when I move. A few Rondo users are using the soundbar systems that rest on your shoulders. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roseanne Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 Hi MaryBeth. That’s really good about the new Rondo AudioStream. I was told it’ll be in Canada soon (whatever that means). Do the Cozy headbands sit over the Rondo 3 and over your other ear? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anthony Canada Posted June 3 Report Share Posted June 3 @Roseanne I use the Skullcandy ANC 2 I think they are still on sale from Costco. I've tried other brands including JBL and I found other brands did not have enough padding to accommodate my Rondo 3. They sit on my head with one over the Rondo 3 and the other side on my ear (without using my hearing aid to prevent feedback). I find they fit well and stay in place with only minimal repositioning while I'm doing things like gardening or exercising. From a passerby it looks like I just have one off my ear so that I can hear on that side. The things I looked for in the headphones were: thick padding, some noise cancelling, wireless, padding at the top and a smooth swivel where the earpiece meets the headband. Mary Beth 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Mary Beth Posted June 3 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted June 3 @Roseanne yes the actual flat speakers are adjustable within the headband Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Mary Beth Posted June 3 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted June 3 @Anthony Canada I think my problem using standard headphones with Rondo is that both left and right sides need to be positioned over each Rondo. Having one side positioned over an ear probably makes things more secure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HearPeers Heroes Mary Beth Posted June 3 HearPeers Heroes Report Share Posted June 3 @Roseanne check this captioned video out Roseanne 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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