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New here — wrote about my accident and CI journey

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Hi all,

Quick intro: I had a bad fall in 2016 (fractured skull, spinal injury, coma) that left me with significant hearing loss on one side. Got implanted with a Nucleus 6 back then — nine years with it now, and I’m looking at upgrading to a Nucleus 8 soon.

I’ve been writing about the whole experience on a blog — the accident itself, day-to-day stuff with the implant (mapping, sound processing weirdness, thinking through the upgrade), and just general life with it. Mostly in Spanish, but there’s an English section too — heads up that English isn’t my first language, so bear with me on the phrasing.

If anyone’s curious: Javier — Blog11

(I used to help polish the English in this post, since it’s not my first language.)

Happy to talk shop here — processor comparisons, what people’s experience has been going from Nucleus 6 to 8, or anything else. Also curious to hear how others have navigated similar decisions.

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Welcome to the forum.

You have had a very tough journey to get where you are today. Congratulations! I read a lot of your blog

You will notice a difference between your N6 to N8. I will be interested in what differences you notice between the two processors.

Thanks — you have no idea how much it means to hear that someone outside my family actually connected with the blog.

Timing couldn’t be better, actually — I get the N8 tomorrow. I’ll be curious to notice the differences myself once I’m switched over, and I’ll share how it goes on my blog, so keep an eye out :eyes:.

@Bimodal_user upgraded from the 6 to the 8. He has done well with the 8.

We have some good experience on the forum. We may be able to help you as you might be able to help us.

@Mack1 went from the 6 to the 7. He is knowledgeable about his experiences and may join in.

@Deaf_piper and I have been at it for a while but not a 6 timewise. Most of the members are very helpful and support each other here.

Thanks a lot for connecting me with @Bimodal_user and @Mack1 , that’s exactly the kind of comparison I was hoping to hear about.

Quick update too: I got switched to the N8 today. Honestly wasn’t expecting this big of a jump — the clarity is on a completely different level from the 6. Voices sound sharper, less “processed,” and I’m picking up details in speech I used to just miss entirely. Background noise feels more separated from voices too, instead of blending into one wall of sound.

Still early days and I know the brain needs time to adjust to new mapping, but first impressions: night and day difference. I wrote up the full switch-over experience in more detail here if anyone wants the longer version: From N6 to N82

Curious if this matches what you all experienced with your own upgrades, or if the “wow” factor faded after the first week or two. I’ll be curious to hear how the jump from 6 to 7 felt for Mack1 versus what I’m about to go through adjusting to the 8.

Appreciate the warm welcome, this is a great community.

Edited

I don’t know how good is your hearing in your non-implanted ear, but relatively good hearing in that ear is my case. That made me much more difficult to assess differences between N6 vs. N8.

I’ve got N8 near the end of 2024, so I can’t say if my better hearing is due to the new sound processor or overall progress in rehabilitation. I can confirm one thing for sure - rehabilitation is easier, because I don’t need any intermediary device in streaming. However, I expect firmware upgrade sooner for getting Bluetooth feature - that will make sound processor more efficient energetically and will give more range.

Thanks for sharing that — makes sense that with decent hearing in your non-implanted ear it’s harder to isolate what’s coming from the processor itself vs. rehab progress over time.

Should’ve been clearer in my intro: I actually lost hearing in both ears, I’m just implanted on the right side. The left ear has nothing — full deafness there. So for me the N6→N8 comparison is a cleaner before/after, since I don’t have residual natural hearing muddying the picture on either side.

I’m actually weighing whether to get implanted on the left side too at some point. Would be curious if anyone here has gone bilateral later on (not simultaneous) — how that adjustment period compared to the first implant, and whether it’s worth it this many years out.

Appreciate the note on too. Right now I’m stuck with “Made for iPhone/Android” connectivity only — no generic Bluetooth, so I can’t pair it with something like my Windows PC directly. Is that one of the things LE Audio is supposed to fix, or is that a separate limitation that’ll still be there even after the update?

@DonToc said:

Appreciate the note on BT LE Audio too. Right now I’m stuck with “Made for iPhone/Android” connectivity only — no generic Bluetooth, so I can’t pair it with something like my Windows PC directly. Is that one of the things LE Audio is supposed to fix, or is that a separate limitation that’ll still be there even after the update?

Newer hardware and software are supporting and in some cases. More PCs, TVs, etc. To stream to your ears for now, you’ll need an intermediate device to connect to the source and then do the mfi/asha equivalent to your ears.

WH

In reply to @DonToc

@DonToc said:

I’m actually weighing whether to get implanted on the left side too at some point.

@DonToc said:

and whether it’s worth it this many years out

Shortly - yes. hearing is invaluable. You shouldn’t think about implanting a second ear for that long. Why hesitation despite for I what I’ve read you still have some difficulties?

@DonToc said:

so I can’t pair it with something like my Windows PC directly. Is that one of the things LE Audio is supposed to fix, or is that a separate limitation that’ll still be there even after the update?

As @WhiteHat said, you should have Cochlear Phone Bluetooth Clip, which is somewhat expensive.

LE audio could fix that, provided that the laptop supports Bluetooth or you buy the appropriate USB accessory like FlooGo FMA.

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