(no subject)
Come with me for a quick stroll down memory lane of the Collective:
Version 1.0 = hearing aids
Version 2.0 = 1st CI processor (3G) in 2002
Version 3.0 = 2nd CI processor (Freedom) in 2005
After six weeks of battling with dolts at Aetna, I finally got pre-approval to replace my Freedom processors with Nucleus 5 sound processors that are newly available to be backward compatible with my 9-year old Nucleus 24 implants. Last month I met up with Allison Brower, my audiologist, to get my new processors mapped, and then put them on behind my ears. A new adventure begins!
We are Borg, version 4.0!
The new processors are thinner, more esthetically pleasing, and they seem sturdier than the Freedom. Allison indicated that she's seen fewer processor returns for repairs compared with their predecessors.
The hearing experience for the first few minutes was a flash back to my initial activation nine years prior: everything was shifted to high frequencies. That effect subsided over the course of a few minutes, but the effect was surprising. It's amazing how plastic our brains are. Allison went over the new maps, and checked for the default volume balance settings.
Then it was the introduction to the remote assistant, the device I had been salivating over since the Nucleus 5 processors were announced almost 2 years ago. Up until now with the Freedom processors, in order to switch programs, change the volume or sensitivity levels, or turn on/off the telecoil, I would have to fiddle around with tiny buttons on the processors, and press those goddamn buttons repeatedly until I got to the desired setting. Often I would have to take off the processor and examine the tiny LCD screen to see what setting I had ended up on.
Now with the remote assistant, I can jump to any program with one button, and visually inspect the volume, sensitivity and telecoil changes in real time on a colorful screen. Both processors are controlled simultaneously, but I also have the flexibility to adjust settings on one processor at a time.The remote has been my favorite part of the Nucleus 5 upgrade.
On the downside, the remote's user interface sucks big time: it is unintuitive, and it requires repeated clicking on one or more of eleven (?!) buttons to get to a desired setting. I'm disappointed that the connection between the remote and the processors uses wireless. I would love replace this additional device I need to carry around with me., but there ain't gonna be an iPhone app for that. Also, to my husband's chagrin, the processors can only be paired to one remote at a time, so he doesn't get to play god via a second remote.
I left the audiologist office, and went into work. Initially I didn't notice much apparent change in speech comprehension. Later that evening, relaxing on the sofa, I realized I was following the dialog for "Hot in Cleveland" much more than I ever have before!
A week later I had an amazing experience at a dinner party. I was standing around and chatting with friends over appetizers in a noisy room, and the processors' Everyday program was not working for me, with the sound levels in the room overwhelming me. I whipped out the remote, switched to the Noise program, and fiddled around with the settings. Based on past experience with the settings on my Freedom, my gut was to go with a medium volume and low sensitivity. The result was just "OK": the background noise was reduced, but the voices were whisper soft, and it was hard to follow conversations even with lipreading. After a few minutes of fiddling around with the settings, I settled on a low volume and high sensitivity settings, and then, lo and behold, it was perfect! The room noise was hushed, and yet I could easily follow a conversation with 3 people. I could not have done that experimentation with repeated pressing of buttons and lots of distracting beeps with the Freedom processors. I'm guessing that the Nucleus 5 vaunted sound-in-noise improvements was helping as well.
Another recent new experience has been with vocal music: listening to a dj Brian Maier's music (mostly house) on my iPod. I started out with the Music program -- which made music sound rich and smooth -- but not much changed from the Freedom in that I had no idea what was being sung, I then switched to the Noise to compare. All of sudden, I realized I was understanding some words in this song I had never heard before! "... I'm not going home. Oh, I'm not going home." I switched back to the the Music program, and replayed the same part of the song: the music quality was more pleasant than in the Noise (or Everyday) program, but the words were once again harder to understand, At least now I could understand a new song's message without having to read the lyrics! That's happened so few times in my life, and I'm hoping that I may one day achieve a goal of more easily following the words in new songs.
A month after receiving the Nucleus 5 processors, I went in for a hearing test. and speech comprehension of simple sentences in my right ear is up to 98%! Wowza! That's up from 15% with my hearing aid 9 years ago. Similarly comprehension in noise with both ears is up to 81%. Granted these are very simple sentences, but I'm pleased with how much speech I'm getting from the CIs. Telephone conference calls are still tough, and I'm guessing they will always be, but I hope over time to do better and better at them.
Cochlear has introduced the auto-telecoil feature: the telecoil becomes activated when sound comes through an induction field, such as a conversation on the phone, or sounds through a headset. This is handy when listening to the personal audio tour at the museum. It's not quite so fun when riding an electric bus, because the pantograph causes the telecoil to kick in, and all I hear is an extremely loud whine. The Nucleus 5 telecoil settings can no longer be individualized to each program; it's one setting for all four programs. That's a bummer, because for phone conversations I prefer a second Everyday program with 0 sensitivity and 100% telecoil (e.g., no sounds coming in through the microphones). This second Everyday program is separate from the Everyday program I use for... Everyday listening. The latter has 50/50 telcoil/microphones balance. So a program that is set up by default for optimal phone listening is no longer possible with the Nucleus 5. Hopefully it's just a software issue, and Cochlear will address it in a future update.
Rechargeable battery life is much, much improved: I'm now getting a day and a half from the rechargeables. This is compared to 12 to 14 hours with the Freedom rechargeable batteries. No more needing to swap out batteries before heading out to an evening event! Disposable battery life is not much different than before: the Nucleus 5 disposable battery cage only holds 2 batteries -- compared to 3 with the Freedom -- and the battery life is comparably shorter. Cochlear has apparently made great strides with the rechargeable battery technology.
Cochlear now provides a true stereo A/V cable for bilateral recipients, and I love it! It snaps on easily -- though I do have to take off the processors -- and it's small and easy to keep in my fanny pack.
On the downside, I have noticed that announcements over loudspeakers in noisy environments are harder to understand than before. Shortly after getting the Nucleus 5 processors, I went on a trip to Seattle, and I could not understand the flight attendants or pilot on the airplane PA system, whereas with the Freedom processors I had gotten to the point of understanding such announcements most of the time. Similarly I found myself not easily following announcements over loudspeakers in the noisy airport, and I still struggle with the impending train announcements in the San Francisco subway. Over the last month comprehension in such situations is getting better, but there's something definitely different with the Nucleus 5 speech processing strategies for those environments that's taking getting used to. This coming week I'm at a work conference, and it'll be interesting to see how I do at the keynotes and in the expo hall.
So, overall, the upgrade has been more than satisfactory. Since my older processors were going out of warranty and past their life expectancy, it was a good time to switch. The remote assistant is a big plus. Was it worth $11K, not all of it covered by insurance? Yes, because of the improved speech comprehension, though it seems it's going to take some time until I see how much I benefit in real world situations.
Version 1.0 = hearing aids
Version 2.0 = 1st CI processor (3G) in 2002
Version 3.0 = 2nd CI processor (Freedom) in 2005
After six weeks of battling with dolts at Aetna, I finally got pre-approval to replace my Freedom processors with Nucleus 5 sound processors that are newly available to be backward compatible with my 9-year old Nucleus 24 implants. Last month I met up with Allison Brower, my audiologist, to get my new processors mapped, and then put them on behind my ears. A new adventure begins!
We are Borg, version 4.0!
The new processors are thinner, more esthetically pleasing, and they seem sturdier than the Freedom. Allison indicated that she's seen fewer processor returns for repairs compared with their predecessors.
The hearing experience for the first few minutes was a flash back to my initial activation nine years prior: everything was shifted to high frequencies. That effect subsided over the course of a few minutes, but the effect was surprising. It's amazing how plastic our brains are. Allison went over the new maps, and checked for the default volume balance settings.
Then it was the introduction to the remote assistant, the device I had been salivating over since the Nucleus 5 processors were announced almost 2 years ago. Up until now with the Freedom processors, in order to switch programs, change the volume or sensitivity levels, or turn on/off the telecoil, I would have to fiddle around with tiny buttons on the processors, and press those goddamn buttons repeatedly until I got to the desired setting. Often I would have to take off the processor and examine the tiny LCD screen to see what setting I had ended up on.
Now with the remote assistant, I can jump to any program with one button, and visually inspect the volume, sensitivity and telecoil changes in real time on a colorful screen. Both processors are controlled simultaneously, but I also have the flexibility to adjust settings on one processor at a time.The remote has been my favorite part of the Nucleus 5 upgrade.
On the downside, the remote's user interface sucks big time: it is unintuitive, and it requires repeated clicking on one or more of eleven (?!) buttons to get to a desired setting. I'm disappointed that the connection between the remote and the processors uses wireless. I would love replace this additional device I need to carry around with me., but there ain't gonna be an iPhone app for that. Also, to my husband's chagrin, the processors can only be paired to one remote at a time, so he doesn't get to play god via a second remote.
I left the audiologist office, and went into work. Initially I didn't notice much apparent change in speech comprehension. Later that evening, relaxing on the sofa, I realized I was following the dialog for "Hot in Cleveland" much more than I ever have before!
A week later I had an amazing experience at a dinner party. I was standing around and chatting with friends over appetizers in a noisy room, and the processors' Everyday program was not working for me, with the sound levels in the room overwhelming me. I whipped out the remote, switched to the Noise program, and fiddled around with the settings. Based on past experience with the settings on my Freedom, my gut was to go with a medium volume and low sensitivity. The result was just "OK": the background noise was reduced, but the voices were whisper soft, and it was hard to follow conversations even with lipreading. After a few minutes of fiddling around with the settings, I settled on a low volume and high sensitivity settings, and then, lo and behold, it was perfect! The room noise was hushed, and yet I could easily follow a conversation with 3 people. I could not have done that experimentation with repeated pressing of buttons and lots of distracting beeps with the Freedom processors. I'm guessing that the Nucleus 5 vaunted sound-in-noise improvements was helping as well.
Another recent new experience has been with vocal music: listening to a dj Brian Maier's music (mostly house) on my iPod. I started out with the Music program -- which made music sound rich and smooth -- but not much changed from the Freedom in that I had no idea what was being sung, I then switched to the Noise to compare. All of sudden, I realized I was understanding some words in this song I had never heard before! "... I'm not going home. Oh, I'm not going home." I switched back to the the Music program, and replayed the same part of the song: the music quality was more pleasant than in the Noise (or Everyday) program, but the words were once again harder to understand, At least now I could understand a new song's message without having to read the lyrics! That's happened so few times in my life, and I'm hoping that I may one day achieve a goal of more easily following the words in new songs.
A month after receiving the Nucleus 5 processors, I went in for a hearing test. and speech comprehension of simple sentences in my right ear is up to 98%! Wowza! That's up from 15% with my hearing aid 9 years ago. Similarly comprehension in noise with both ears is up to 81%. Granted these are very simple sentences, but I'm pleased with how much speech I'm getting from the CIs. Telephone conference calls are still tough, and I'm guessing they will always be, but I hope over time to do better and better at them.
Cochlear has introduced the auto-telecoil feature: the telecoil becomes activated when sound comes through an induction field, such as a conversation on the phone, or sounds through a headset. This is handy when listening to the personal audio tour at the museum. It's not quite so fun when riding an electric bus, because the pantograph causes the telecoil to kick in, and all I hear is an extremely loud whine. The Nucleus 5 telecoil settings can no longer be individualized to each program; it's one setting for all four programs. That's a bummer, because for phone conversations I prefer a second Everyday program with 0 sensitivity and 100% telecoil (e.g., no sounds coming in through the microphones). This second Everyday program is separate from the Everyday program I use for... Everyday listening. The latter has 50/50 telcoil/microphones balance. So a program that is set up by default for optimal phone listening is no longer possible with the Nucleus 5. Hopefully it's just a software issue, and Cochlear will address it in a future update.
Rechargeable battery life is much, much improved: I'm now getting a day and a half from the rechargeables. This is compared to 12 to 14 hours with the Freedom rechargeable batteries. No more needing to swap out batteries before heading out to an evening event! Disposable battery life is not much different than before: the Nucleus 5 disposable battery cage only holds 2 batteries -- compared to 3 with the Freedom -- and the battery life is comparably shorter. Cochlear has apparently made great strides with the rechargeable battery technology.
Cochlear now provides a true stereo A/V cable for bilateral recipients, and I love it! It snaps on easily -- though I do have to take off the processors -- and it's small and easy to keep in my fanny pack.
On the downside, I have noticed that announcements over loudspeakers in noisy environments are harder to understand than before. Shortly after getting the Nucleus 5 processors, I went on a trip to Seattle, and I could not understand the flight attendants or pilot on the airplane PA system, whereas with the Freedom processors I had gotten to the point of understanding such announcements most of the time. Similarly I found myself not easily following announcements over loudspeakers in the noisy airport, and I still struggle with the impending train announcements in the San Francisco subway. Over the last month comprehension in such situations is getting better, but there's something definitely different with the Nucleus 5 speech processing strategies for those environments that's taking getting used to. This coming week I'm at a work conference, and it'll be interesting to see how I do at the keynotes and in the expo hall.
So, overall, the upgrade has been more than satisfactory. Since my older processors were going out of warranty and past their life expectancy, it was a good time to switch. The remote assistant is a big plus. Was it worth $11K, not all of it covered by insurance? Yes, because of the improved speech comprehension, though it seems it's going to take some time until I see how much I benefit in real world situations.