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Approved for Cochlear - starting to get anxious

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I started the testing a month or so ago to see if I was a candidate for Cochlear. was good (although the size of my jugluar bulb was larger and very close to cochler - dr said not a problem just means a “little more drilling”…eek). Audi evail was not long since even with the programmed hearing aid, with my right ear masked I couldn’t make out any of the sentences. Not even a word. I could “hear” that there was a sound but that was it. After like 10 minutes she stopped and said there was no reason to put me through the full testing. Presurgical tests all good. At the time of starting the ct/preop pieces surgical date was set for 10/12. Insurance authorization just came through today so my surgery for cochlear will be on Wed.

Starting to get a little anxious. What if the “extra drilling” causes more pain? (My dr doesn’t believe/prescribe pain meds just use advil/tylenol.) What if I am one that can’t adjust to it/learn to hear? What if the processor is uncomfortable? So many what if’s.

Trying to talk myself “down”. What do I have to lose? Clearly that ear is profound, close to the bottom. Will never regain anything so if I can’t hear with a cochlear did I actually lose anything.

Just realizing in 5 days by this time I will have had the surgery and back home for about 6 hrs. It’s a lot. Wish me luck!

(Going with Cochlear Americas; the new Nucleus 8 nexa)

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@nicmger We wish you a successful surgery, an easeful recovery, and a whole new world of hearing on the other end!! Who wouldn’t be anxious? But best to look forward to a brighter future in better hearing. Keep us posted.

Btw, is your doctor completely opposed to pain meds if you need them??

She does not believe that they are needed. Hopefully she is right! If it is too bad on Wed night I will reach out first thing on Thurs morning to her and ask for assistance.

Sending you thoughts of support.

I can’t imagine this situation. I have no advice. But on the other side, I hope you say, “Thank you, science.”

Congratulations.

The journey begins.

Did your audiologist talk about rehabilitation? You might need to just use the during rehab. It will force the brain to learn with CI.

I am excited for you getting the new Nexa implant system.

Please keep us updated on your CI.

Yes, audiologist said that she give me rehab direction. Topline she said that she would want at least an hour/day with direct stream of audio/books to the to train. Also some times she will want me to have a plug in the right ear. But she also said that she encouraged me to be out in as many situations as possible for training. That is all topline, once everything gets turned on I will have more details. Appreciate the kind words!!

Congratulations to you, now your new hearing journey starts. I don’t think there’s one of the community here on the forum that wasn’t nervous
going into the CI procedure. I know I was a nervous wreck.
Rehab and audiobooks, your local library has a free app for audiobooks. You need an electronic membership card. Somewhere within the CI group you will find a thread on rehab- what worked best for members. Everyone is different in what works best for them. Like @Raudrive I’m jealous of you getting the new Nexa array.
Good luck to you on your new journey. Let us know how you are getting on.

It was on my “to do” list but you reminded me. Went and got my library card today. I look on the site (libby) and saw a lot of audio books. But not necessarily read long. Am I supposed to find ones that show the pages/words and are audio?
Obviously I will get more info after activation from my audi but want to be prepared and get started.

I will keep everyone posted.

THANK YOU for your note. I will likely be a ball of nerves for the next few days until I get to the hospital on Wed morning. Then it’s game time.

With regard to the Libby audiobooks, you borrow the hard copy from the library. It’s hard following as sometimes the written word isn’t exactly the same as the audio version. Audiobooks maybe easier left until you do understand speech, the same with podcasts. I had a different app I don’t know Libby. Does it have captions available on the app? Perhaps ring the library if you can’t see any mentions of captions. Good luck.

Yes I was just playing around with it. The audiobook doesn’t have captions; if you open the book and audiobook at the same time in theory it shows the words but they don’t sync up. The word highlights lag the voice. I will see what the audi recommends as well. I have captions on my phone for tiktok, youtube etc. Also videos. Thank you.

This is the thread deaf_piper mentioned about rehabilitation.

Maybe it will be helpful for you once you get activated.

CI Rehabilitation after Activation
An old friend of mine contacted me a couple months ago about CI. Today he and his wife came by to visit, haven’t seen him in probably 15-20 years. He wears the Cochlear Nucleus 7 on one ear, was activated about 5 weeks ago. At activation he had almost 20% word understanding, pretty amazing. At his 4 week mappings he learned his word understanding has not improved much. He wanted to talk to me about this. As it turns out he has not been doing his rehabilitation with his CI like he should. He a…

Thank you! I think I had read that post. Some of the apps I could not find (perhaps not on android). But I have downloaded Hereoes; English Ear; Hearbat so far. I couldnt find the cochlear copilot in android.
Also found one that is not released yet but is in testing mode by searching Cochlear Implants. I used my bad ear with my hearing aid (bluetooth). Level 1 just words no background noise, I got all of the words. This app offers option for same with light and high background noise. I tried it with light and I couldn’t get anything. Then did the same level with the sound playing on my phone using my good ear and got all of them (wanted to make sure that it was a hearing thing vs bad app). LOL That was definitely enlightening as to why there are times I “think” my left ear is pulling in sounds/words even though tests don’t back it up. For my bad ear to get anything it has to be in a controled environment with absolutely no competing sound and volume way up. But I got the apps. I just have to be like the successful ones here and ensure that I do my rehab.
My audi absolutely stressed the importance of it and how it is the piece that is critical to success.

Did you read the entire thread about rehabilitation? 170 something posts.

I for one do not like to read. The audiobooks and similar rehabilitation just frustrated me. You will have to figure out what works best for you. Thankfully you have some great help and experience coming from this form.

Once you have gained speech understanding don’t forget music rehab if you enjoy music. Music appreciation after is a very tough gig. I worked my way through “bring back the beat” Talk about a boring app it took me a couple of months to get to the end of it. @Raudrive worked through it as well. I don’t know if other VI users did though.
What I found helped me with music was just listening to music on the radio and Spotify. As I had retired I found it easy to have music playing most of the day. I didn’t stream music though just listened aurally. I broke the music up with streaming audiobooks and podcasts. I was lucky I didn’t have to have a book to read from as I listened to audiobooks. Even today I still have music going quietly most of the day from Spotify.

In reply to @nicmger

In addition to Libby/Overdrive, our library system has Hoopla Digital, which offers audiobooks, ebooks, and movies/tv shows. I assume movies/tv would be captioned. You can ask your library about Hoopla Digital as well as Libby.

QUESTION: This might sound naive, but is there such a thing as a phonics-based audio training series, like you have phonics-based reading programs in some primary schools? Just curious, after reading this thread. What I mean is, instead of audio stories containing sentences of random words and sounds, you’d have short audio stories or articles that each noticeably focus on a certain group of phonemes, maybe even with each story in the series building on the phonemes presented in the previous stories? Just a thought. I’m wondering if there is any advantage to that when trying to come up to speed if you are a new wearer.

In reply to @stl-user

Yes I have access to Hoopla as well. I found a couple of apps Hearbat and Engish Ear which are not necessarily phonics based but similiar to teaching the alphabet/reading. Word - say it. I have been testing with my bad and good ear in advance. LOL

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