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CI Rehabilitation after Activation

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This has been my problem. I am not tech savvy. i don’t use a cell phone. I know nothing about apps and streaming. Auditory rehab was never discussed with me prior to implant. If these things were brought up I would never have had it done. I thought all I had to do was wear it and my brain would acclimate to it.I know now I was never appropriate for this but no one took the time for a proper eval. I read how others were set up for auditory rehab from day of activation. I approached the audiologist after 8 months of no changes . Only then did she showed me sites for this.I didn’t even own an I Pad. I went out and got one but after 2 weeks of trying to navigate it I gave up. The DR has a center for pts to help with rehab. but it is in NYC and I am unable to get there.He promised to get his audiologist to set up a plan with mine on Staten Island but that never happened.Everyone assumes that everybody is up on technology. I suggested to my audiologist that an inservice about all of this training would be a great service for anyone thinking about getting an implant and this would give the Dr and audiologist an opportunity to see if the pt. is able and willing to commit.Right now I am frustrated with the lack of education prior as well as being left to my own to figure this out.

Kathy do you not have a family member, neighbors, or friends who can teach you how to use your iPad? it’s not difficult. Take your iPad to an Apple store and ask for help. I’m not IT savvy either, but I forced myself to learn when I was in my early 60’s. You went out and purchased an iPad please don’t just give up saying it’s all to difficult.

My iPad & iPhone have been my saving grace as far as rehab have been concerned.

In reply to @DWol999

Attached is the compatibility chart for Resound aids with the Cochlear Nucleus 7 and Kanso2 processors.
It looks like if you could program the compatible hearing aid with a Noahlink Wireless your audiologist would only need to click a button or two in the Cochlear Custom Sound Pro software to make things work.
Wouldn’t be free but it would get you going for around 6-7 hundred if your audiologist would help for a fee.

https://cdn1-originals.webdamdb.com/13512_118632903?cache=1612982010&response-content-disposition=inline;filename=MK604586-gu-bimodal-compatibility-guide.pdf&response-content-type=application/pdf&Policy=eyJTdGF0ZW1lbnQiOlt7IlJlc291cmNlIjoiaHR0cCo6Ly9jZG4xLW9yaWdpbmFscy53ZWJkYW1kYi5jb20vMTM1MTJfMTE4NjMyOTAzP2NhY2hlPTE2MTI5ODIwMTAmcmVzcG9uc2UtY29udGVudC1kaXNwb3NpdGlvbj1pbmxpbmU7ZmlsZW5hbWU9TUs2MDQ1ODYtZ3UtYmltb2RhbC1jb21wYXRpYmlsaXR5LWd1aWRlLnBkZiZyZXNwb25zZS1jb250ZW50LXR5cGU9YXBwbGljYXRpb24vcGRmIiwiQ29uZGl0aW9uIjp7IkRhdGVMZXNzVGhhbiI6eyJBV1M6RXBvY2hUaW1lIjoyMTQ3NDE0NDAwfX19XX0_&Signature=jKTJBNk1YYcJm05RwpceCjmq5-VGCNrBkPaP~WWjgJtmZiICASJkkuEQuopl9U2~RRBeo8BxyV2cUxB6WJ0Kw6f3mz5oD9EugJ0zSbOFjQPqMThJcKh~n-8HlCz1ATDvlDJXB8nK3WiXQVQyrtQOuQXpQADiGM64Cg0QOooIKxamAp~DxFabT5dXn57EwBht9KkB-9GTeX1ulyKLVML3kUDQZZ0X4pRW4tKv~LSdWJD15Nd3nZwc8AeEEkJS3hjb9s-LpEq5Es3mQKUfVAFmTa6ZmST4x994O7ExvbxURyXvHaai35YWGoUaX~x7TmOt1~xJY2rCL2diHnvingZYrQ__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAI2ASI2IOLRFF2RHA

In reply to @Raudrive

@Raudrive said:

The apps you provided might help him too. If he is the reading type of person what worked for you might be great for him too. I will ask him.

I talked to my friend yesterday about his hearing rehabilitation status.
He reported back that his wife thinks he is doing better but he can’t tell any difference. He is definitely trying harder than before.

He did share a Cochlear phone number that anyone can call. 800-458-4999
When you call there will be 3 choices to pick from. Words, sentences and a long story. The idea is to listen and see how well you understood the test. It’s pretty slick. Maybe @kathykillea04 could give this a try. No technology needed, just a phone and the call is free.

Glad you gave this a try.
I normally use Bluetooth to make phone calls but have made calls by placing the phone next to the processor. This surprisingly worked well. No, you do not need a smart phone for this.

I thought of you when I learned about this phone thing. It forces you to use only the implanted ear. I suspect your good ear is the reason your implanted ear has not picked up speech like it could. Somehow you need to use the only to learn speech with it.

Honestly 5 weeks is nothing in terms of learning how to hear through his . For me my hearing was actually worse for about 2 months following activation and working online with rehab sites made a huge difference. The key for me was to wear my CI all the time and learn how to understand the sounds I could now hear. 4 years later and my hearing continues to improve and my life is so much better and fulfilling bc of my CI.

@tsilvestre21 said:

Honestly 5 weeks is nothing in terms of learning how to hear through his CI.

I totally agree with you.

At 1.5 years my hearing also continues to improve. It’s all about practice for me. Whatever you want to hear better, practice it often. Things like music and understanding in noisy environments come to mind. My life has also changed because of . I didn’t realize how much of a hermit I had become over the years.

My friend started out so well at activation he expected more improvement than he got at 4 weeks. He had gotten frustrated.

Thanks for sharing.

Edited

@Raudrive: Good story: great point. I would just like to add that - after 6 years of mostly not wearing my badly-fitted Unitron North Moxi Fit 800 hearing aids - I had lost so much discriminant brain decoding ability that I wasn’t getting full benefits from my More3 hearing aids.

After reading @cvkemp 's narratives about speech recognition rehabilitation, I began to read along with my WaPo news app (it had a good reader) and anything else of a similar nature that I could find. My word recognition/speech comprehension improved greatly. I think it’s still improving over a year later with my More1s.

Bottom line - as Chuck and @hass5744 often point out - the aids only help, they don’t cure. And you have to participate and do your part even if you’re wearing and not .

My $0.02/FWIW

This last summer I got the Fire Tablet, it has a good text to speech generator and as I am reading my books I also listen to it. It has proven to help so much.

In reply to @kathykillea04

My 2 cents for the not tech savvy… I would recommend the use of a TV streamer. From there you can mute your TV and watch subtitled. No phone, Ipad, or other device would be needed to do this. You will need to pair, and figure out a few things, but once setup could be an easy way to isolate and train for the “not tech” people…
Kind regards

Thanks but I don’t have a TV streamer… It was one of the devices I returned to cochlear when I was unable to figure it out in the beginning.As I said previously all I thought i needed to do was wear the processor and I did 12-14 hrs a day. This is why I said I was never a candidate for this and I was never evaluated to see if I was appropriate for a . I was also told(by a cochlear audiologist) after the implant that there are others who do well even if they don’t utilize the training and accessories. I don’t believe this for a second.

@kathykillea04 said:

It was one of the devices I returned to cochlear when I was unable to figure it out in the beginning

That’s too bad.
If you could get your hands on one now, do you or someone you know be able to hook it up?
We could probably step by step you to get you going from here on the forum.

My audiologist gave me a mile long list of things to do for rehabilitation. I didn’t do any of them. I used the TV streamer only as described earlier. It worked great for me.

In reply to @joanhawsey

Hi Joan -

My first thought, on reading your post, is that communicating on the job IS actually doing rehab. Having received my first implant during Covid, and not working or going anywhere, I had little real world stimulation. I had to resort to adding background noise as I listened to speech exercises, which isn’t quite like the real thing. However, on the plus side, I had hours every day to stream audiobooks and podcasts and I think that was critical to my individual success. Speech sounds very normal to me now. I have just attended a second dinner party with the same group of 6, with lots of chatter and multiple conversations going on - though not with the clatter and music of a restaurant - and I did very well. However, after almost 5 hours of this on each occasion, I hit the wall from the auditory stimulation and abruptly, but politely, took my leave.

Every opportunity to hear is rehab, in my opinion. When I was raising kids, I used to consider everything a “teachable moment” - and that is how I have approached rehab - every sound is a “hearable moment”. When I am in the car, I put the radio on - something that was unbearable pre-implant - and I can now happily listen to talk shows, though music lyrics through the radio aren’t very understandable yet (8 months on). When I am cooking or washing up, I stream music or an audiobook. There are plenty of opportunities to to mult-task - download a book or some music for your morning or evening commute, it doesn’t have to just be a dedicated hour or two when you get home from work. You’ve be rehabbing all day! If you just want to flop in front of the TV with subtitles in the evenings, that’s rehab, too!

Thanks sinking for all of those thoughts. I do all of those streaming things anyway- books and podcasts while I walk and clean, NPR in my car….turned way up and I still can’t tell waht most are saying…. And figure work will get me interacting all day. I just returned from a local meeting with a Cochlear company rep who was also very encouraging. I had been set in but now I’m wondering. …. I’ll be so I’ll have to research Resound since it would steam with my .

Joan I have a GN Enzo 3D, it’s one of the older models from GN. It’s very easy to use once it’s setup on the mapping computer. All 3 devises (your aid, CI & IPhone) have to be “linked” on the computer then all “paired” as well. It’s a 2 step process or your aid won’t be in sync with your CI and won’t stream.

With GN aids the start up chimes are extremely annoying. They are like a school bell and keep on chiming 12 times before they stop. You can get your to “turn off” the chimes and you will only get one chime to let you know it’s working.

As far as rehab goes Joan, would you be able to stream on your commute to and fro work? Doing this would cut down on the time you allocate to rehab in the evening. Also doing it in small sessions won’t leave you exhausted from concentrating.

Good luck on your hearing journey…

Thanks- I seem to recall you had a Cochlear brand. My commute is about 4 minutes, so not much stream time. But honestly I could certainly listen to music in my office while I work much of the time. I think there are a few Resound conversations in here I can do some searching.

Just to add a little about accessories.
In the states Cochlear gives the patient a choice of 4 accessories with each implant. Comes with the implant/processor as part of the deal. Not sure about other countries.

Something else to add, the Cochlear Nucleus 7 and the Kanso 2 processors are compatible with Android and iPhones. No need for other devices to pair the phone to the processors. My Google Pixel phone works seamlessly with the N7 and K2 processors.

Something to think about while trying to figure out which brand implant/processor you want.

Rick,
Not sure about other countries.

We poor relations down under get absolutely nothing in the way of 4 gifts. A big fat ZILCH!!!
All we get is a implant/processor, a couple of spare microphone covers, 2 batteries of your choice. Disposable battery case and box of disposable batteries. Some ear hooks, a snug fit, and that’s about it. I had to buy my phone clip, if I needed mini mic or TV streamer if comes out of my pocket.

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