Anatomy Base Fitting

[Dave in Pittsburgh]

I saw both my surgeon and audiologist in October for my yearly checkup and mapping I brought up the ABF both were in total support of me going for it.

My CI center has 3 surgeons and 2 audiologist who are all in favor of prior CI candidates of getting the CT scan.

i got the approval and go for my CT scan in January.

It seems to me this could be a real game changer for us especially for those who may be struggling with various sounds I truly feel this can be a great benefit for us.

 

 

[Mary Beth]

I look forward  to hearing about your experiences with anatomy based fitting.  Some established CI users love it right away.  Some adjust to it over time and prefer it.  Others prefer the default fitting they had been using before.  There is no way to know unless you jump in and try it for yourself.

wishing you the best @Dave in Pittsburgh

[Kilgary]

I switched at ABF about 8 months ago after about a year using and getting used to eSRT mapping. It was a massive difference. It brought out so much more complexity and detail in music for me. Unfortunately, it also made voices too deep. 6 months in, voices got better but were still too deep. My audiologist kept me on ABF but adjusted the frequency table up. She also updated my coding to FS4-P from FS4 and my clean setting mic to Omni (suggested by folks here). Now voices sound correct (comparing with my good ear) but I lost some fidelity in music.  With the default ABF map, I could clearly hear Mozart’s “Fur Elise” piano melody.  With my adjusted map, the piano melody is harder to make out.

I would note a few things:

1. I’m only 2 months in with my most recent adjustment and I’m starting to get some details in music back. The more I listen, the more I hear. 
2. My CT scan showed my array is inserted at 545 degrees. Med-el doesn’t recommend ABF for insertions less than 540 degrees. So, I just made the cut off. Their blog says they get “best results” with array insertions 630-720 degrees. So perhaps those with deeper insertions won’t hear the overly deep voices I experienced?
3. I’m just a couple weeks away from my 2 year anniversary of my activation (late Dec ‘22) so I’m not sure how much to attribute all the nuances I’m now hearing in music to my ABF map and how much to attribute to the span of time I’ve been using my CI and my brain ever so slowly interpreting music more clearly over time.