CI soon...CI friendly only please

R2D2 said:
That's great Stacie, I'm so thrilled for you, especially the bit with having a relaxed conversation with your hun. It's nice not to strain isn't it?
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Thanks, R2D2
It does feels nice not to strain as much, I'm looking forward to talking with him again, even with other people. For the last few years, I just feel more shy or nervous when it came to meeting new people, for fear of making a fool of myself by saying huh-uh to the wrong thing and getting bored after giving up on trying to figure out what they're saying lol.
Get back to my old self, maybe he'll wise up and marry me lol. If not, I'm still happy lol.

How's it going for you and when's your next mapping? Also what are you doing to help hear better?
Congrat again on your hook-up!
 
StacieLeigh said:
Thanks, R2D2
It does feels nice not to strain as much, I'm looking forward to talking with him again, even with other people. For the last few years, I just feel more shy or nervous when it came to meeting new people, for fear of making a fool of myself by saying huh-uh to the wrong thing and getting bored after giving up on trying to figure out what they're saying lol.
Get back to my old self, maybe he'll wise up and marry me lol. If not, I'm still happy lol.

How's it going for you and when's your next mapping? Also what are you doing to help hear better?
Congrat again on your hook-up!
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I'm going for my next mapping next week. I've decided for this week just to sit back and enjoy the new sounds and then next week after the map start listening to children's CDs together with the book.

Yep it's time for your hun to marry you. Bring him here and we'll sort him out!
 
neecy said:
I'm glad to know I'm not the only one - while I can still lipread to an extent, after a year of using my CI I'm not near as proficient as I once was. I think its just an example of "use it or lose it" and I'm relying less and less on lipreading, and more on what I can hear and understand.
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Yep, you are correct about use it or lose it. It is an effort for me to lipread. I think anyone who had used it for decades doesn't lose it altogther. It just one doesn't rely on it too much anymore but it comes out when you need it! The same is true if you grew up with another language but don't use it much anymore or at all.

To tell the truth, I'm not surprised that it happened...it was obvious from my first week of my CI that I would rely on my hearing more and more.
 
StacieLeigh said:
Hey all,

Things has been pretty great. I sat outside today and I was hearing something and could not figure it out for the longest time. Finally I got it, it was a bird, lol. Well not just a bird lol, it was a bunch of them. I sat outside for an hour just listening and finally I was able to know they were different birds, different calls. It sounded mechanical, but they were birds lol. I loved it!
I was never able to picked up birds' call with my HA, it was just so awesome lol. This thing (CI) never ceased to amaze me everyday.
I wear my HA and my CI while I watch t.v. during the evening time, it just sounds better. I even was able to picked up a parts of convo between everyone over the t.v., never been able to do that before. I still have a way to go, but mighty pleased with how far I've come this week.
It was a very good day, a very good week!
I'm even understanding better with one on one convo with my hun, first time in long time, we had a great discussion, he just kept talking and talking, I've stopped him a few time, but not as much as I used to lol. Our roomies just kept looking at us with a huge smile, I loved it.
Anyone ever noticed it's like survival instinct, wanting it to sound better, so you work harder? lol
Well, I better get going, it's pretty late and I got to get my butt to bed somehow, but my insomnia mind has something else planned lol.

Stacie
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Glad to hear things are going well for you... Yep, isn't it exhillarating to be able to keep up in conversation without being exhausted after a while?



R2D2 - Indeed sit back and enjoy your toy! :D
 
Stacieleigh - I see what you mean about the tinnitus - it must be really common after activation. I have a static/hissing type sound in the background.

Anyway I am continuing to enjoy new sounds such as hearing the birds outside the house from my computer room. They were Cockatoo birds having some sort of argument but I was excited anyway and went outside to listen to them. Other sounds I've been hearing is the sound of my daughter's detangling hair spray, which sounds so rich compared to my hearing aids. I even hear when I wipe the kitchen bench.

Voices - my husband sounds close to his normal self but I struggle with other male voices, women are much easier. My daughter is understandable but she sounds so mournful. My voice sounds like how I remember.

My batteries needed changing after only 2.5 days! Maybe that will change? How long do other peoples' batteries last for?
 
R2D2 said:
My batteries needed changing after only 2.5 days! Maybe that will change? How long do other peoples' batteries last for?
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Glad things are going great.

to answer your question. depends mine actually last about 4 or 5 days. I'm running on a lower hrtz, I believe that is one of the many things that effect how long batteries last. Of course I'm sure those who've been using their implants longer will be more knowlegable about battery life then me. :)
 
R2D2 said:
My batteries needed changing after only 2.5 days! Maybe that will change? How long do other peoples' batteries last for?
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3 days is average for me, but if I listen to a lot of music its around 2 days. I think that the amount of sound you listen to affects the rate of battery drain (which makes sense as more sound = more stimulus?)
 
Lotte's batteries are changed out every 3 days. Difficult for her to tell us what the quality of the sound is.
But like Neecy said: the more sound, the more the processor has to work, and power will be used accordingly.
Also, sometimes we had batches of bad batteries. Fresh out of the shop, but lasted 1 or 2 days.
 
R2D2 said:
...
My batteries needed changing after only 2.5 days! Maybe that will change? How long do other peoples' batteries last for?
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My batteries last about three days. I'm set to next to highest cycle per second (cps) which I can't remember what that was (I want to say 1800).

JAG is correct that the cps in which your CI is set to has more to do with the lifetime of your batteries. Some people use a lower speed cycle and others use a higher one. There are trade offs to everything...
 
sr171soars said:
My batteries last about three days. I'm set to next to highest cycle per second (cps) which I can't remember what that was (I want to say 1800).

JAG is correct that the cps in which your CI is set to has more to do with the lifetime of your batteries. Some people use a lower speed cycle and others use a higher one. There are trade offs to everything...
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So cycles per second has to do with the strength of the pulse required to stimulate your hearing nerve?

I must ask my audie what my cps is. I'm going back for my remap tomorrow.
 
R2D2 said:
So cycles per second has to do with the strength of the pulse required to stimulate your hearing nerve?

I must ask my audie what my cps is. I'm going back for my remap
tomorrow.
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Not the strength of the signal but the "refresh rate" in stimulating your cochlear nerve. There is an upper limit to how many times one's cochlear nerve can be stimulated before one' brain can't distinguish reasonably between each batch of signals. This is true for normal hearing has well (the whole ear is an amazing thing). So, they have found that with CI users...some prefer 900, 1200, 1800 and I think it can go as high as 2400. Very few individuals like 2400. Those that use 900 get much more battery life. Obviously, those who use 2400 really can drain the battery in less than two days. Hence my remark about trade offs. I tried 2400 as part of the study and it got too "grainy" for my liking.

Hope that helps...
 
sr171soars said:
Not the strength of the signal but the "refresh rate" in stimulating your cochlear nerve. There is an upper limit to how many times one's cochlear nerve can be stimulated before one' brain can't distinguish reasonably between each batch of signals. This is true for normal hearing has well (the whole ear is an amazing thing). So, they have found that with CI users...some prefer 900, 1200, 1800 and I think it can go as high as 2400. Very few individuals like 2400. Those that use 900 get much more battery life. Obviously, those who use 2400 really can drain the battery in less than two days. Hence my remark about trade offs. I tried 2400 as part of the study and it got too "grainy" for my liking.

Hope that helps...
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Thanks for explaining that...would you mind explaining what a refresh rate is? Does it relate to the number of pulses required per second? Sorry I really would like to understand this through and through. Unless there is a good weblink you know of?

I have a friend with a Freedom who said on her last program she went 5-8 days before changing batteries!
 
R2D2 said:
Thanks for explaining that...would you mind explaining what a refresh rate is? Does it relate to the number of pulses required per second? Sorry I really would like to understand this through and through. Unless there is a good weblink you know of?

I have a friend with a Freedom who said on her last program she went 5-8 days before changing batteries!
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Yes, the number of pulses per second. Your cochlear nerve has to send the signals to the brain but while it is like an "electrical wire" there are limits to how many it can transmit which is dictated by biology (I'm no scientist but I do know that fact). I know it can handle a higher rate than 2400 but the real problem is how well your brain can process them which is the more important aspect. So, a refresh rate is (if you will) a batching of a signal in cycles per seconds. It simply means that in each cycle there is a complicate signal being sent to the brain. The brain by receiving these signals "transforms" them into what you call hearing (the brain is one remarkable signal processor - mathematically known as fourier transformation) on a real time basis. If it gets too many signals, the quality of "output" (aka hearing) degrades.
 
sr171soars said:
Yes, the number of pulses per second. Your cochlear nerve has to send the signals to the brain but while it is like an "electrical wire" there are limits to how many it can transmit which is dictated by biology (I'm no scientist but I do know that fact). I know it can handle a higher rate than 2400 but the real problem is how well your brain can process them which is the more important aspect. So, a refresh rate is (if you will) a batching of a signal in cycles per seconds. It simply means that in each cycle there is a complicate signal being sent to the brain. The brain by receiving these signals "transforms" them into what you call hearing (the brain is one remarkable signal processor - mathematically known as fourier transformation) on a real time basis. If it gets too many signals, the quality of "output" (aka hearing) degrades.
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Okay, thanks that makes sense. So someone with better developed hearing has a brain that is more capable of handling a faster cps?
 
R2D2 said:
Okay, thanks that makes sense. So someone with better developed hearing has a brain that is more capable of handling a faster cps?
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Yes, you can sort of say that but with one caviat.... It is not necessarily tied to intelligence but rather how one's brain is wired. Just wanted to prevent some misunderstandings that can arise over that statement... ;)

A better way to put this is that some people are wired to hear regardless of hearing loss. It probably explains why some people like me do so well with hearing in general and in particular with spoken language.

Update: Er...intelligence does play a role in understanding language and of course the more one is intelligence the easier to understand the non sequiturs, idioms, and non spoken implications and etc...
 
sr171soars said:
Yes, you can sort of say that but with one caviat.... It is not necessarily tied to intelligence but rather how one's brain is wired. Just wanted to prevent some misunderstandings that can arise over that statement... ;)

A better way to put this is that some people are wired to hear regardless of hearing loss. It probably explains why some people like me do so well with hearing in general and in particular with spoken language.

Update: Er...intelligence does play a role in understanding language and of course the more one is intelligence the easier to understand the non sequiturs, idioms, and non spoken implications and etc...
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Heh heh I understood you perfectly. It's nothing to do with intelligence but more about more hearing neurons in the brain having been formed from an early age and therefore those neurons can handle more information at any given time.
 
R2D2 said:
Heh heh I understood you perfectly. It's nothing to do with intelligence but more about more hearing neurons in the brain having been formed from an early age and therefore those neurons can handle more information at any given time.
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You got it!!! :D

I have often wondered why I have done so well with a HA and now a CI. I have always been HOH and therefore have not heard everything like Neecy had at one time (normal hearing up to 9 or 12?). She was able to developed her "hearing" neurons far better than I ever could have done with my limited input (stimulus). Yet, we both have very similar hookups where we just started with a bang! My theory is that my brain is using both what developed in the neurons (maybe as we have been discussing great wiring! :D) and combined with intelligence providing me with the ability to put it together. Another way of saying this is that my brain is getting enough discrete information and pluging in the gaps to make it work for me. Now, I have more information via the CI that it really can take hold of it and run with it.

To clarify another aspect about battery life. You can drain it faster the "noiser" the environment. Your processor is a little computer and the more it processes, the more power it requires...so as some have said like Neecy that listening to lots of music will shorten battery life. On the average though, it is the cps (signal cycles per second) that dictates battery life.
 
sr171soars said:
Not the strength of the signal but the "refresh rate" in stimulating your cochlear nerve. There is an upper limit to how many times one's cochlear nerve can be stimulated before one' brain can't distinguish reasonably between each batch of signals. This is true for normal hearing has well (the whole ear is an amazing thing). So, they have found that with CI users...some prefer 900, 1200, 1800 and I think it can go as high as 2400. Very few individuals like 2400. Those that use 900 get much more battery life. Obviously, those who use 2400 really can drain the battery in less than two days. Hence my remark about trade offs. I tried 2400 as part of the study and it got too "grainy" for my liking.

Hope that helps...
Click to expand...


I actually run at 750hrtz. I've got one slot programed at 900, I go in for mapping this week and will have her adjust the volume up I think, speech doesn't seem loud enough and put ADRO on it, it is to noisy for my liking. I like adro over autosensitivity and the free program. (no need to overwhelm my brain it was overwhelmed with the HA's)

I think the freedom might go a low a 500 but I'm not really sure of that so don't quote me on that. :) . I have read on one a message board for people with cochlear implants that for some reason most prefer a lower rate, while AB users perfer using higher ones. Not sure why. :dunno:
 
This refresh rate you're talking about...is there a visual equivalent of that phenomenon? I wonder because it seems related to the "refresh rate" of a monitor. Some people seem not to be bothered by it, but if a computer monitor is set on a 60 Hz cycle the strobing is bad enough that it's uncomfortable to look at, and to be totally OK I have to have a monitor at as high a rate as it's capable of going. Are these related or two totally separate systems?
 
Thanks for the info, right now my batteries life is 1 1/2 to 2 days, so yeah that does drive me nuts sometime.
A month to go for my second mapping, can't wait!
I went riding on the bike trail yesterday, 14 miles, it was so awesome, because I rode through there many times before and never knew it was that noisy lol. A factory nearby, really loud, didn't know they even made noises! The bikes' wheels on the rocks and riding through little puddles, noisy. lol
I listened to different birds, and even frogs, since it was an late evening ride. A bat flew in front of me! Almost wreck, but I kept my cool lol!
Coming back, we had to ride through this long tunnel, but apparently, the lights in it goes off at nine! I walked it, lol. I have no sense of direction in pitch black lol. Thankfully my hun's bro had lights on his bike, but it was soooo foggy inside, made it look even scarier! lol I thought I heard him say "the lights going to die" I took off running with my bike, trying to come out on the other side as fast as possible, all the while thinking "did he really say that?". Finally I got out of there, and took a breather and asked did he really say that, yup! lol
Next time, I'll be back at the tunnel 10 mins before the lights goes out lol.
Happy 4th Everyone!
Stacie
 
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