Hi everyone,
This is an update to my previous thread about my adventure with my vestibular schwannoma. I'm cross posting this from Reddit; my most recent previous thread here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/MonoHearing/comments/sz1c3d/update_after_surgery_for_my_unusual_acoustic/So, I got my implant activated at UCSD last Tuesday. What a crazy experience!! I have a Cochlear Americas N7 and Kanso 2.
I really tried to have "high hopes and low expectations" since there are so few people with SSD from an acoustic neuroma who have received a CI. And, of course, everybody's CI experience is really different.
I was prepared to hear nothing, or just beeps, or whatever. Well, when they turned it on I could understand speech immediately! My wife spoke to me from my deaf side and I turned my head in that direction in response and then started crying. I had regained sound localization! Holy cow!
So I'm headed back next week for the next mapping session and I know it is going to take some (a long) time to fully integrate the CI and good ear, but I'm really encouraged.
The sound quality is very "chipmunks"ish but seems to be improving each day. If I stream Bluetooth directly into the implant (e.g., audio book) I can follow 80% of what I hear provided the speech is not too fast. Some sounds are harder to distinguish and pitch is sort of messed up.
But all in all, this is a tremendous improvement in my quality of life. I'm, again, so grateful.
Update to follow next week
