Activation and hearing Aid

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Muizen

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Last Tuesday my AB Neptune CI has been activated. I am at this point in time just hearing a lot of hissing noisy sounds and sounds in between the noise, that I can recognize. I can't understand words yet.
I wonder whether during the activation period it is recommended to wear or not to wear a hearing aid at the other ear?
Thanks for your advise!
Harry
 
Everyone is different if you need to understand people in a certain setting like work I'd use your HA as well as the CI but your audi should have let you know how they want you to wear your CI. You should practice at home with just the CI alone so that you can re-teach yourself how you hear with that side.
 
My audie encouraged me to wear my HA with my CI on too. But I do try to have my hearing aid turned off so I can practice listening with just the CI alone, but sometimes the tinnitus in my right ear will kick in and I need to turn my hearing aid back on to drown it out.

Definitely try to practice as much as you can with the CI alone, but if you really need to use the hearing aid, do so. Also keep in mind, if you wear both CI and HA at the same time at first, it might be confusing. When my CI was activated, my brain got confused trying to make sense of the new auditory input with the CI and also getting audio input from the HA too, but over time my brain was able to balance out/combine both auditory inputs and make all the sounds from both ears mesh.
 
Tinnitus attacks in the activation period

cdmeggers said:
My audie encouraged me to wear my HA with my CI on too. But I do try to have my hearing aid turned off so I can practice listening with just the CI alone, but sometimes the tinnitus in my right ear will kick in and I need to turn my hearing aid back on to drown it out.
Click to expand...

I have been activated last Tuesday, so it is far too soon to come to any conclusions regarding how this CI is going to functioning.
However last evening the sounds of the CI, started to hurt more and more, so I turned the volume down.
This night I had in my CI-ear, terrible tinnitus, building up in intensity to unbearable levels and then going down and starting over again and again.
Simulthaneously I got Meniére attacks in the CI-ear only.
This morning the tinnitus is gradually subsiding but I don't dare to switch on my CI.
Did somebody have this kind of activation problems too?
 
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My audi and surgeon both told me that the aggressive method seems to produce better results: Leave the HA out of your other ear 90% of the time.

By doing that, you are forcing your brain to adapt to the new CI sounds much faster, especially if you are out in the world trying to communicate with people. Worked for me, as I was able to start recognizing sounds after 4-6 weeks. As for pain, yes, you will feel pain for awhile, and keep going back for re-mapping often.

Just remember this: Your cochlea is receiving new signals and transmitting them to your brain, and even though your brain is receiving all these sounds, it is still sorting out the new stuff, and that process does wear you down. If the pain is too much, turn the CI off for a half hour every couple hours or so. Worked for me.
 
CI and HA in activation period

I went to see my audiologist in the Ear Group in Antwerp Belgium to discuss a.o. using both the CI that has been activated some days ago and the HA.
His advice is that it is best, certainly in the beginning of the activation period, to use the HA alongside the CI, because the HA will more or less "assist" the other ear with the CI to identify the sounds that are being heard.
I believe this to be logical given the intention to continue using both together in the future.

The Ear Group has a lot of experience after implanting more than 800 patients with a CI!
Harry
 
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