Haven’t updated in a while because there hasn’t been much to say, but this week I had my first mapping in a year — I’d been putting it off due to the pandemic.
My word and sentence recognition scores are the same as last year. I got in the low 70s on individual words, in the 80s on phonemes, and 96% on sentences in quiet — I really do best with context. Background noise was more of a problem, but it’s not like I’ve had many opportunities to get out and be social this last year.
I will admit that I was a little disappointed that my individual word score didn’t improve, but my audiologist was happy with it, especially since I did so well on sentences, and I suppose she’s right — it’s not like people are saying random words to me out of the blue. I guess I’d just hoped that it would be clearer after a year and a half.
If I had to describe how voices sound to me, I’d say that everyone sounds like they’re on the phone — so they’re recognizable and understandable, but the quality is not quite as good as before I started losing my hearing. Don’t get me wrong; I am still very, very grateful that I can hear at all, because as I’ve said before, comparing the CI to my normal hearing is pointless. If I compare it to what I would have without the implant, there’s no contest — I’d rather be able to hear imperfectly than hardly at all.
Music still sounds kind of like a badly-tuned radio, and certain notes are discordant and not what they should be. During this week’s mapping, I asked for some tweaks to my streaming-only program in the hopes of making music sound better, but it didn’t really help much, and as a side-effect, TV streaming now kind of sucks — non-speech sounds are much louder and can sometimes make me jump. I plan to give it a couple weeks and see if I get used to it; if not, I’ll go in and get her to put the old program back.
Meanwhile, I’ve been seeing a ton of marketing buzz around AB’s upcoming new Marvel processor, and I will admit that some of the features seem pretty cool. For example, it will have built-in Bluetooth streaming with no need for an accessory. Same goes for connectivity with the Roger Select microphone — my current processor requires a receiver to use the Roger, but the new one has it built in. And it will have a phone app that will show the battery life (my Q90 will start beeping when the battery is low, but there’s no way to tell how low) and allow you to adjust the mic/aux balance on the fly, which would mean I wouldn’t even need a special streaming-only program.
So, there’s definitely some pretty exciting stuff there. Of course, since I just got mine a year and a half ago, there’s no way that my insurance will pay for a new processor, so my current plan is to wait a few months for patients to start getting the Marvel, and see what people who don’t work for AB have to say about it, especially those who are upgrading from older models since they can say how it compares. If I like what I hear, I’ll go get evaluated to see if my right ear qualifies for a CI; if so, then I’ll consider going bilateral, in which case I’ll get two processors and I can use the Q90s as backups. If it’s not approved for the right ear, I might decide to pay out-of-pocket for the new processor. But before any of that, I want to give them time to work out any bugs (because new technology almost always has bugs) and see if it’s worth the money.
I’m still not 100% sure I’m psychologically ready to go bilateral, even if I’m approved. With no hearing aid or CI processor, I’m about a half-step above functionally deaf: I can hear loud sounds with my non-implanted ear (the implanted one has no natural hearing at all — it’s dead without the CI), and I can hear when people are talking in the same room as me, but I can’t understand much of what they’re saying unless they’re really close to my ear and speaking very slowly and clearly — and even then it’s hit or miss. So yeah, almost deaf. But when I go to sleep at night and I’m not wearing my processor and hearing aid, if there were a really loud sound like the smoke alarm going off, I would most likely hear it and wake up. The thought of not having that little bit of hearing, as pitiful as it is, is kind of scary — as is being 100% reliant on technology in order to hear. Of course now I’m more like 95% reliant, so I’m not sure it’s that big a difference, especially since my husband can hear and I trust him to wake me up in an emergency.
Well, since I don’t plan to do anything until I’ve decided whether the Marvel is worth getting, I have some time to think about it.
Hi Tina — I can relate to this post on your blog. I had my CI (right ear) surgery October, 25, 2019. On November 11th I was activated so I am also 1 yr 5 months post activation. In my AB kit I got the HiRes Slim J Electrode implant (MRI T-3 Compatible) and one Q90 Processor, two Roger 17’s, one CI Connect, two Head Pieces, two cables, two T-mics, two 170 batteries, a dryer, a quad charger and a Roger Select. It wasn’t until I had completed the implant process that I was made aware that some clinics are considered One Processor or Two Processor Clinics, which obviously affects the accessories you can get. By then my audiologist had ordered all those accessories, really without consulting with me. But I probably would have agreed with her decision because I really didn’t know much about all that stuff at that point anyway.
Since the introduction of the Marvel M90 Processor and all the wonderful comments I’ve been reading, I have been exploring (up to a point) the possibility of getting my left ear implanted and the M90 Processor for that and hopefully a replacement M90 for my older Q90 which does not yet qualify for a replacement. I haven’t had my left ear tested recently for the CI but when I had my first CI the surgeon asked me which ear I wanted done, which tells me at that point both ears qualified.
I have been using an Oticon Opn HA in my left ear which has been quite successful and helps me tremendously with discerning musical sounds and speech. Between these two different hearing devices, I use several technologies, which can be cumbersome but worth it regardless.
And since I’m fairly happy with how the Oticon and CI are working out and I have serious reservations about getting my left ear implanted because I don’t ear music much at all with my CI right ear at this point. My speech recognition with the CI has improved drastically and with the help of the Roger Select for my computer and the AB ComPilot for the TV I do quiet well. I never hear anything in stereo.
Music has been important for me during my entire life. I was an instrumental music teacher and conducted an advanced high school concert band for most of my career of 33 years and since retiring I have been ushering for our local symphony orchestra for seven or eight years. After the CI the ushering came to a halt and I have not been able to get back to enjoying music much at all since.
Before the M90 appeared on the scene I was planning on getting the Phonak Q90 Naida Link HA to connect with the Q90 SP. I just found out, through my new audi, that the accessories like the Q90 Naida Link HA will be available only for about a year from now and if I want to do that I should go ahead and do get it. What bothers me is because I got the Q90 SP near the end of it’s existence I will not be qualified for a M90 replacement for 5 years from the date of the implant. Well, since I’m now 85, that puts me nearer to the end of MY existence!!! And I would like to enjoy the last few years of my existence enjoying as much of the newest technologies as possible! So for me it’s now or never. And unfortunately, I can afford the pay for the M90 SP outright.
We all have variations on the same theme with this CI stuff. Thankfully, many posts I read on the AB Forum have been helpful, including yours. I’m glad you have time left to wait for the results of the M90 experiences from users. I feel I don’t have that time, but who knows maybe I do!