<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
<p>Hi guys;</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>I have had my ci for probably about 4 and a half years now.</p>
<p>At first, when I would hear voices through it, some voices would
sound like a man and a women mixed together sort of, and the sound
was like I had a really bad ear infection.</p>
<p>Also, the sound was so new, that it sounded like my head was this
really big medal ball, and when my audi was giving me simple words
like hotdog, ice cream, bluebird, words like that, it almost
sounded like she had a little of a reverb, and like she was
singing the words, even though she wasn't really!when I was over
at my mom's house, and I was back in the bedroom, the ac was kind
of loud because the ac was just outside the room, so it got the
most air flow in the house, so the vent was only open just enough
for sufficient air to come through, so, I wanted to see what it
would sound like if I took my ci off with the ac on, so I did, and
it left a very metallic sound, very much like a digital sound
effect trailing off behind it.</p>
<p>Samantha on my iphone sounded like she was talking much higher
and quite monotoned at first untill I got more adjusted to the
implant, she sounds normal now.</p>
<p>Basically, it sounds very distorted at first, kind of like a
radio off the station, but that should clear up after some time,
the more you wear it, and use it, the quicker you ajust.</p>
<p>There is a grocery store in Texas called H E B and if you go into
huge ones like they have here in <br>
</p>
<p>Austin, it is really noisy, and even though I still have a ha, I
found I was unable to hear people that didn't know me, so, I had a
friend of mine go with me, and man, was it loud, but I said,
there's no point in putting off the oppertunity to get adjusted as
quickly as possible, so I just wore the ci, and just lived with
it.</p>
<p>When you have one of these, you or some else that has it might
notice, in the way of music, that notes sound very distorted and
soft almost like there out of your range to hear them.I have
advanced bionics, which was recommended to me since it supports
virtuil frequencies, it only has 16 electrodes, unlike cochlear
Americas, but, to my knowledge, ab is the only one that supports
this virtual frequency technology, basically, what they're doing,
is much like what ha manufactures do, but in the case of the ci's,
it's a little different.</p>
<p>So when you have a loss that's so severe, that ha's are not able
to accomidate the frequencies you need, they use this virtual
frequency cloning technology.</p>
<p>What this does, is takes frequencies that you're not able to
hear, and clones them to frequencies that you can here.</p>
<p>So, the a b ci's do something similar to that, they take
frequencies that they don't physically support, and copy them to
ones they do support, so the result is more of a range of hearing,
but you don't have to use that feature if you don't want to.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>It also has something called clear voice, this feature I should
say tries to provide releaf from unwanted noises, but in doing so,
it makes speech you're trying to hear kind of scratchy and muted,
and my audiologist told me that I'm not the only one that says
that, she has 4 other deaf-blind patients who also say the same
thing.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>I do have unpredictable sound localization issues, as my ears are
not balanced, and I'm actually in the process of having to get my
other ear implanted, as my hearing has gotten to the point that
the most powerful ha is only 5 percent stronger than the one I
have now, and I've had two audiologists tell me that they really
think I should consider it, so I'm trying to work through the twc
system to get it, but I don't know when it's gonna get aproved, as
they have a lot more loops and hoops to jump through to get it
approved.</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>I hope this has been helpfull, just everyone keep in mind, that
everyone has different experiences, so you might experience some
or all of the things I have should you decide to have this done.<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p>Gene<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 11/3/2019 6:49 PM, Chris Westbrook
via NFB-DB wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CA+6QrLg_VWs_MS_pecG14VgjHaL07KqR0t++ZO3xCsQA6R4ajQ@mail.gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div>I can imagine that would be a real mourning process. I have
had hearing and vision loss all my life, I could have gotten a
cochlear implant a long time ago but was too scared. Lol. So I
dont know what normal sounds like. I will say music sounds
really bad through the implant, but that might get better still,
I have been focusing more on practicing speech recognition than
music. So interesting that people can have such different
experiences. </div>
<div><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Nov 3, 2019 at 7:26
PM Showe Trela via NFB-DB <<a
href="mailto:nfb-db@nfbnet.org" moz-do-not-send="true">nfb-db@nfbnet.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="auto">Hello. I had a CI put in about a year and a
half ago and I personally am glad I have it, but don't use
it as much as I should. I got randomly sick a couple of
years ago and lost all my hearing in my right ear. I am
still going through a terible mourning process so I think
that is why I hate my CI so much. It didn't hurt at all
for me. I find the app pretty accessible. I hate how it
sounds because I still have normal hearing in my left ear
and my CI gives me a headache and I have to slow down
voiceover to understand my phone. Never had to do that
before... I still have lots of trouble localizing sound
even when I wear the darn thing. Like I said. I am still
mourning my hearing loss. Blindness is nothing to me
because I've been blind all my life but losing my hearing
was hard...
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Showe<br>
<br>
<div dir="ltr">Sent from my iPhone</div>
<div dir="ltr"><br>
<blockquote type="cite">On Nov 3, 2019, at 12:21 PM,
kara bohnenstiel via NFB-DB <<a
href="mailto:nfb-db@nfbnet.org" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">nfb-db@nfbnet.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"></div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<div dir="auto">
<div>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div dir="ltr">As the mother of a 14 year old who is
totally blind and on Nov 21 will receive the
surgery-- I would love to hear anyone's
experience... Here's one question: firstly, did
you wake up in a lot of pain from the surgery?
Glad to hear you are glad you did it, Chris!
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Best,</div>
<div>Kara</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Sun, Nov 3,
2019 at 1:58 PM Chris Westbrook via NFB-DB <<a
href="mailto:nfb-db@nfbnet.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">nfb-db@nfbnet.org</a>>
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px
0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid
rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">I thought it would be neat to
start a thread on cochlear implants. I have
been "activated" for almost three months now
and am glad I did it, but it has been a
challenging journey. Just curious what others'
experiences have ben. I am considering writing
an article for the braille monitor on my
experiences, as I feel that the broader blind
community needs to be more educated about the
experiences of some of us. I am also willing
ot answer any questions anyone may have. Look
forward to responses. Thanks and have a great
day.</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
NFB-DB mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:NFB-DB@nfbnet.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">NFB-DB@nfbnet.org</a><br>
<a
href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
<span>_______________________________________________</span><br>
<span>NFB-DB mailing list</span><br>
<span><a href="mailto:NFB-DB@nfbnet.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">NFB-DB@nfbnet.org</a></span><br>
<span><a
href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org</a></span><br>
</div>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
_______________________________________________<br>
NFB-DB mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:NFB-DB@nfbnet.org" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">NFB-DB@nfbnet.org</a><br>
<a
href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org"
rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<fieldset class="mimeAttachmentHeader"></fieldset>
<pre class="moz-quote-pre" wrap="">_______________________________________________
NFB-DB mailing list
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:NFB-DB@nfbnet.org">NFB-DB@nfbnet.org</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org">http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-db_nfbnet.org</a>
</pre>
</blockquote>
</body>
</html>