I see it has been a month since I last posted an update. Time flies when I am working in the orchard every day !
I am still very happy with the Acclaim, completely embedded, cochlear implant. I continue to make a habit of turning off, or removing, my left hearing aid on a daily basis to force my brain to cope with the implant. I have no doubt my comprehension without my hearing aid, i.e. with the implant alone, is improving.
What I find weird is that sometimes someone will say something and it sounds quite “normal”, then it reverts to the “implant tone” of speech through bubbles and has quite a treble tone (compared to my left ear which has no real hearing above 3.5khz.
I have tried all kinds of volume settings and I find now that my “profile 3”, which is the max volume setting, is the best without any manual changes to the volume. I have, however, set the sensitivity down a little as it reduces environmental / ambient noise a little. Comprehension in a noisy environment is still quite challenging, not very different from hearing aids, but a little better.
I am not sure if my left ear is losing more hearing, or if my left hearing aid is not functioning as it was, or even if my brain is now relying on the implant more, but I notice, particularly when listening to music, that things sound a bit more treble than they did a few weeks ago.
All in all, I am very pleased. The dog bark still sounds quackish, but also more doggy. The birds sound great and most environmental sounds are very recognizable.
Playing the piano and / or guitar or bass or harmonica all sound much better than before and I think even better than they did when the implant was first activated. That’s true as long as I have my left hearing aid on. Without my hearing aid on, which is providing a lot of bass, music sounds recognizable, if I know the tune, but otherwise takes some work and mostly wouldn’t be enjoyable for any length of time.
Using my cell phone, and my IP phone, I can understand people very much better than with two hearing aids, but I do tend to use my cell phone with speaker on as holding it to my ear, left or right, is nowhere near as comprehensible as having both ears working on the speech.
A week from Wednesday, June 24th, I am going for my next re-programming and check. Also orchard sales will have begun so I will have more time to spend on ear training than I have while getting prepared for orchard sales.
I still keep the implant on 24/7 so am charging the evening of every 3rd day by which time my battery is usually around 17%. When battery life reduces to 24 hours or so I will likely turn off the device at night but I don’t see that happening for at least another 3 to 5 years.