Quick intros

[Mike]

actually what I have found is natural no wind with the threshold setting at 10 db on left and 0 on tight 

[Mary Beth]

That’s interesting.  Natural is my least favorite mic setting.

[Mike]

ya I've tried them all I run natural the most and adaptive in meeting settings. I tried omni I read that it worked well for someone else but it seemed to fade out vocals and electric guitar bass was still good 

[Mary Beth]

It’s great that we have several options since we each seem to prefer or hear better with different settings.  I tried all of the Sonnet mic settings too.

For me, omni is best and I can just stay in omni and never switch out of it.  I like the access to sounds from all around. 

Adaptive is great in noise so once in awhile I switch to it in noise.

[Mary Featherston]

Same here, @Mary Beth - I use Omni most of the time and Adaptive when I'm out by the automated equipment at work.

[Mary Beth]

@Mary Featherston  Was it a Rondo 2 or Sonnet day today?  Smile

[Mary Featherston]

1 hour ago, Mary Beth said:

@Mary Featherston  Was it a Rondo 2 or Sonnet day today?  Smile

Sonnet today!  I noticed last night after I got done on the treadmill that it's not comfortable to sit in my chair - this is a big easy chair at the far end of the bedroom, and it's where my laptop lives and I tend to sit there for a while most days.  And the Rondo2s are thicker than the magnets on the Sonnets, and when I leaned my head on the chair back I'd bop 'em.

And I'm off till the 27th so there's some chair sitting going on (right now I'm working on digesting my lunch from India Palace, mmmmm)

[Mary Beth]

Enjoy your time off.

Headrests and backs of chairs can be problematic with one piece units.  It’s hard to beat the thinness of the BTE coils.

[Mike]

for me I went rondo 2s but wished I hadn't I went to a Christmas party with DJ. the night before same DJ with sonnets sounded great with rondo 2 I just wanted to leave. conversations were good but music was terrible 

[Mike]

I wish so bad I could get my hands on hardware and software to make my own changes. My aud has even said I would be one that would be able to use it. As i said before sound has been my whole life I've even spent time in recording studios cutting CDs. The part I struggle with the most with med el is the lack of interaction. The fine tuner is great however (and I'm sure it's easier for most) I have to remember all the settings and remember what setting I'm in. I'm not quite sure why that is. When I was going through the whole let's prove u are deaf thing lol my hearing aids had android app that I could work with and they were just cheap set as far as hearing aids go. The hard part is much like music an equalizer would be great for the ongoing change in sound around you. When a song changes quite often you find urself making changes to smooth out recording mistakes. That would be great for CIs as well. I havent tried any other CI so cant honestly say they are better or not but I do feel med el has made the best implant in the industry the synchrony is sweet and the effort they made to cover a wider range of tones is awesome. I just wish we could have more on the fly control 

[Mary Beth]

@Mike

I can see that you would have fun with the ability to control all those features/settings.

 

For me, I love putting my CIs on each morning and going about my day just hearing fine.  I don’t change settings.  I don’t need to carry the Fine Tuner.  I love the ease and simplicity.

 

Maybe you can participate in any of the many CI research opportunities.  You may find them interesting.

[Jennifer Tyler]

Hi! I’m Jennifer Tyler. My son, Ben, has cochlear implants. He has been implanted almost 3 years. We live in Tyler, TX, which is 2 hours East if  Dallas. He uses the Sonnet mostly. When swimming he uses the Rondo. 

 I am so proud of how hard he works to hear and speak. He is doing well has his hearing peers. He has recently asked to play piano and has started taking lessons!

[Dave in Pittsburgh]

That is great to hear.Keep giving giving him support and encouragement.

[Mary Beth]

@Jennifer Tyler

That is super!  I am sure Ben will love playing the piano!

[Marv]

Marv B

Northern Utah

Bilateral Cls;  both ears are Synchrony implants with flex 28 electrode:  Both ears use Sonnet processors

Both ears were implanted on Sept 25, 2018 and activated Oct 10, 2018

I enjoy music, (playing piano), gardening, reading, and family,  I have a 5 year old grandson in AZ who was implanted just 2 weeks ahead of me, 

I look forward to adjusting to where I can wear the processors without the howling, whistling, and whining they give me now (keeping telling me that will improve) and can enjoy music again.

I have my promotional Rondo 2's and will get them programmed next month.  May have Mike problem of trying to keep them on my head

[Mary Beth]

@Marv

It is cool that you had simultaneous bilateral implants.  There are not many HearPeers members who are adults that were bilaterally implanted simultaneously. How was your recovery?  Did you find it difficult to sleep since both sides were tender?

It is really special that you and your grandson are sharing this experience.

There are a lot of awesome suggestions for training our brains in our rehab topic.

The most helpful app for iPad at the beginning for me was CLIX.  Search the App Store for Advanced Bionics and it will show up.  It is free for all to use.

Wishing you the best.

[Dave in Pittsburgh]

Hello Marv, WOW two implants in one day that is awesome I too am bilateral but I had mine done about 16 months apart as I still had some hearing left in the good ear so I elected to wait.Many apps for  rehab Advance Bionics,Starkey Hearing has a nine one I really like.Rehab is very important. HP is here to help and let us know how you are doing.

Good Luck

[Marv]

I didn't have much problem with pain when getting implants simultaneously.  I took a pain killer before going to bed for 3 or 4 nights, after that I didn't take anymore pain medicine.  The biggest problem I had was dizziness and not being able to eat for several days due to the sedating then the dizziness.  After keeping me in the hospital overnight they let me go home after promising I wouldn't try to walk around without help for several days.  It was a week before I could get around pretty good on my own, and at the end of 2 weeks I would still get very dizzy for a minute in the morning when I first sat up in bed.  At the pre-op appointment my ENT had me go into his Audi for a simple little procedure that helped out a lot.  The crystals in your ears that control your balance can get stuck and need to be joggled loose.  I don't know if there is any one out there with that problem but if so it's easy and quick to fix.

Mary Beth, Thanks for the rehab suggestions

[Vinod]

I had my one ear CI  first programming appointment three days ago. I was given a bunch of stuff in a big Med EL bag. Audiologist explained me how to use all the stuff but it is difficult to memorize in a short time.  Though I was given some manuals as well but still will take time to get use to it.  They gave two speech processors. Sonnet # 002566 and Rondo 2 # 007999  and was told to use either depending on choice.  I was also told not to expect results immediately. It might take several weeks even a year.  Right now I can not hear any thing from the CI ear except some odd noise like background noise or machine noise. No conversational or speech at all. 

Can someone who has already gone through please help me to tell what I should be doing to train my ear.  The non operated ear still has a hearing aid which help me  some otherwise I will totally deaf.  My wife and daughter keep motivating me and talk to me face to face.  What is the best way to self train and reduce time to get results.

[Mary Beth]

Congratulations @Vinod on your activation.  Everyone’s journeys are different but we definitely can help each other along the way.  Look in our topic called REHAB.  There are many great suggestions for how we trained our brains to use the input from the CI.

Aural rehab helped me a lot.  I worked on it several hours every day.

wishing you the best.