Sunday morning I decided I would try to depend on my Acclaim cochlear implant entirely by removing my hearing aid from my left ear. This isn’t total dependence because in reality I can still get some audio information from my left ear even without the hearing aid, but it’s pretty close and I did not want to be completely deaf.
I am very pleased to be able to report that I was able to understand about 85% of the pastor’s message without having to resort to lip reading or reading the text on the screen. I think this is the first time I’ve been able to do this, certainly since the implant and probably for at least 10 years. I had not tried removing both hearing aids, when I had them, to see to what extent I could understand the speaker, but certainly yesterday I managed pretty well with just the implant.
I still had the chpimunk / Donald Duck effect “turned on”, but it did not seem to bother me as much or hamper my comprehension.
Then, last night, I found I was able to comprehend the dialogue on the TV without captions. I have a habit of removing my hearing aid when watching the TV to force me to depend on the implant but honestly this morning I don’t recall if I did that or not. I will have to check tonight or tomorrow or something.
This morning, after two weeks ago, I went to my small men’s Bible Study / breakfast and clearly was able to understand all of the conversation, to about 90%, despite the noise.
So all in all, these past 2 days have been very encouraging in terms of development and brain retraining. Every day seems a little better but the last 2 days were a significant improvement, so far as I can tell.
6 thoughts on “A Banner Day / Weekend”
Hi Robert – Appreciate the updates and enjoy reading your progress. I had CI surgery in spring 2024 with an AB processor. Time, advancements in AI and new technology will be our friend. For me background noises create diminished clarity, but when I wear noise cancelling headphones listening to streaming music, the tones, voices etc through the CI are fantastic. I am currently 64 yrs old and have a history of Meniere’s starting in my early 20’s (I was an Army Ranger with many concussions and around loud munitions). What started as unilateral has recently in the past 3 years transitioned too bilateral. I suspect at some point I will be wearing “stereo” CI’s. Curious and have a question for you. During surgery were they able to retain any natural hearing in your CI ear?
Hi John.
I too was in the military but I think my primary cause of deafness actually began later when I worked on a North Sea oil rig for a short period of time. I was stupid enough to go into the generator room which had 2 v24 turbo diesel generators, one of which was running at the time, without hearing protection. I was in there for about 15 minutes and actually noticed that it suddenly became quieter. Idiot.
Anyway, I looked at AB before I qualified for CI because we were living close to their headquarters in Santa Clarita.
When I was tested for my first reprogramming at the beginning of Feb. it was determined that I have no remaining natural hearing in my right ear. I’m not surprised, based on my understanding of the surgery. Unlike traditional CIs, like AB, the Acclaim places a sensor behind your eardrum. I would think that interferes with the malleus (attached to the tympanic membrane, incus (next in line) and stapes, although there seemed to be some expectation that some natural hearing could be retained by the team at MUSC.
I had hoped to retain some natural hearing but honestly, at this point I don’t care. What was left of my “natural” hearing is not a patch on what I now have with the CI.
I still have some distortion in my implant as it has not quite been 2 months since activation but just these past few days I’ve experienced a massive improvement in comprehension.
As for music, while the distortion remains, the actual sound / frequency response is just incredibly better than what I had before.
I am going to see if I can get the before and after graphs from my audiologist at MUSC and then I will create a post to explain them as I think that will help people understand what is going on.
Thank you for your reply and I am looking forward to being a small part of your journey from the sidelines
Hi Robert,
I am about two weeks behind you with my Acclaim Cochlear Implant from MUSC Charleston. Two days ago I had my one month adjustment and I can definitely tell an improvement in speech recognition.
It was suggested to me to try listening to TV with just the cochlear implant to force my brain rely on the implant. Right now things sound a good deal like Donald Duck but improving.
My profound hearing loss originated in the Navy. The VA was helpful in referring me to an ENT for the evaluations I needed for the Acclaim study.
Your posts are very very helpful. Thank you for your diligence in reporting your progress.
Hi Jim.
You are very welcome. I’ve been a little busy this week with peach orchard maintenance so a bit slow responding and posting my weekly update.
I am really happy with my implant. I did send some suggestions to Envoy, with respect to the charger, that I think would make it a lot more reliable and convenient. It is still a lot better than having to take the device off to charge, but I think it could be better still and also solve some of their cable fraying issues.
I am at the point now that for a lot of programming I no longer need the captions on on the TV, listening with my implant and without my left hearing aid. It’s hard, but I can comprehend most of what is being said, most of the time. Sometimes the comprehension isn’t there so I’ll put the hearing aid back in, but it is improving each week.
I am almost getting used to Donald filtering everthing, but I’d like him to go back to Disney sooner rather than later 🙂
God bless. I believe you are going to be very happy with the Acclaim.
Jim H., would you please post updates of anything noteworthy during your experience with the Acclaim on Reddit. Or if you have your own blog website please post the link so I can follow.
There’s also a FB group ‘Envoy Esteem and Acclaim patients group’ with 2 other Acclaim participants there if you’re interested.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/241235109304753/?ref=share&mibextid=NSMWBT