Envoy Acclaim® Cochlear Implant Update

Last week was my 9 month, optional, visit. When I was last at MUSC and discussing whether or not to go, it’s a 10 hour drive for me, I had decided to not go. Then I received a couple of queries from MUSC about whether I wanted to book the appointment, so I did.

Boy, am I glad I did.

Most of the time was taken up with me asking a lot of questions. I’d stay technical, trying to understand better how the ear and the implant device work. Trying to figure out where the limitations are – inherent in the design / engineering / what is humanly possible from a technological point of view.

One of the things that bothers me is the limited bass from the implant. I suspected, correctly, it’s largely because the bass frequencies are captured at the innermost point of the cochlear and it is difficult, if not impossible, to get the electrodes (probes) into that location. There are similar engineering challenges with the electrodes at the very outer edge which impacts the highest frequencies that can be “heard”. Add to that all the harmonics that are essentially missing and you have why the implant doesn’t, generally, sound “natural”, especially of there is no natural hearing left in the implanted ear. Which is my case.

Anyway, all the questions aside, we went through a re-calibration of the implant, which I don’t think changed much. There are 16 electrodes of which one, in my case number 15, is turned off because it was not providing any information to my brain. We were going to try and turn it back on, but keep the impulse lowest / off but for some reason that wasn’t possible. Apparently, even with the impulse set to minimum, it does impact some individual’s hearing to have them turned on, even if the setting on the electrode is effectively 0.

Well, we did a new program for my implant which I am now using full time although I do have my old program still installed.

This new program has added a new degree of clarity and eliminated some of the “duckishness” inherent with the implant. After the new program we went and did the sound field tests with words and sentences. My comprehension has risen to 62% from 52% in June for words and, if I remember correctly, from 67% to 72% (or 75%) for sentences – i.e. in context. Those results are just my implant results, left ear plugged.

Since coming home I have had a few conversations with people relying solely on the implant, i.e. not wearing my left hearing aid, which makes my brain depend a lot more on the implant on the right. Yesterday was a 10 minute conversation, outside, with the guy sealing my driveway. It was challenging due to his accent, primarily, but I probably managed to understand 90% without having to ask him to repeat himself. That was awesome.

I had to admit, at MUSC, that I had not spent a lot of time training, other than removing my left hearing aid when I am passive listening, or listening to things that aren’t important for me to understand (like politicians, news hosts etc.).

I have also made a renewed commitment to practice the piano for at least 30 minutes every morning. I am going to do this every single day to see if it has much impact on my hearing. I still play piano, guitar and bass, but I thought to really concentrate on scales on the piano to see what impact, if any, that has on my hearing.

I will post again when I have some news.

God bless.