I am sitting in the peach orchard sales “office”, an amish built shed that I’ve added insulation, a steel door, electricity, lighting, minisplit and lapboard to, plus wifi etc…in the middle of a thunderstorm. Heavy thunderstorm with heavy rain on the roof, which I can hear clearly, with my implant.
The wind tore through here and I dread to think what it has done to some of the trees, but I’m not in charge of the weather so what will be will be.
I am amazed at the new found clarity I have. It seems every day or two there is a noticeable improvement in the clarity of what I can hear and comprehend. I am very happy with what I am experiencing. It is so much better than two hearing aids…except for when there are multiple people speaking in close proximity, and at that point it isn’t a lot different to hearing aids. Then again, I am sure if I turned the sensitivity down it would help but right now I just prefer the way it is.
Recently I had to go to Home Depot to pick up a bunch of 2x4s to prop up the overloaded trees and discovered, on the way, that my hearing aid was not working because I had forgotten to charge it the night before. Well, I had no choice but to continue to HD and function the best I could. I was very happy to find that I had no problem understanding the staff that I spoke to, relying pretty much entirely on the Acclaim implant.
Consequently, I have spent more time without my hearing aid and I am amazed at how well I can cope. I do prefer to add the hearing aid because my left ear provides more bass so it “fills out” the sound, but I can manage quite well without it. That is very encouraging as I was concerned a month or so ago that I may not be able to comprehend a conversation should I lose the hearing in my left ear altogether.
I remain ecstatic about the Acclaim despite the fact that I continue to forget to charge it and find myself walking around with the charger in the morning more often than I’d like. I don’t get comments from anyone so that’s not the issue, but because I am fairly active I worry about the coil slipping and not charging so I check regularly to make sure the coils are in place.
4 thoughts on “Envoy Acclaim® Cochlear Implant Update”
Very encouraging to hear of your continuous improvement with the implant. Do you think they could potentially improve the bass sound in the future with improvements to the electrode or programming? Have you talk with the audiologist or the company about it?
Hi William.
I am not sure about the bass sound. If I were to guess I’d say it’s to do with the microphone / sensor limitations, but it also could be the placement of the electrodes.
My understanding is that the higher frequencies are captured nearer the entry to the cochlear “horn” and so it’s relatively easy to get the electrodes positioned there to stimulate the nerve(s).
I talked to the audiologist about it briefly but did not ask directly if there was any effort to provide lower-end hearing. I do know all of the “traditional” implants have similar limitations with no bass.
Right now, cochlear implant companies are focusing on conversational comprehension and most of that is in the 2 – 4K range I think. I forge the human speech range but it is around there.
There is also a lot of research / experimentation going on with stem cell repair attempts and I read somewhere a while back that the Chinese were experimenting with implants that had many more electrodes / probes but I don’t expect to be alive when either of those technologies come to fruition 🙂
That’s really encouraging, thank you for chronicling your journey. I will consider this in the future when it comes out! I don’t see regeneration being available in my lifetime either and this gives me hope.
Hi JW.
Thanks. It will be interesting to see what impact AI has on the development of regenerative treatment but I suspect that it will greatly advance the implant technology before regenerative technology becomes available (if ever).