I'm going through the candidacy process now - the audiologist cleared me, so now I just need to be cleared by the surgeon (which may not happen - but I'm hopeful). If it happens, I'll be implanted in May.
The surgeon I'm talking to works with Nucleus and AB, so I've been reading the material for the Freedom and the HiRes (assuming it's similar to what the Harmony will be when it's released), and it's all sort of confusing. If I understand correctly, there's really no way to know in advance which processing strategies a patient will prefer, so sound quality is out as a deciding factor. Nucleus claims that their product is far more reliable, but elsewhere I've read that those stats are based on old products, and the new ones are pretty similar in terms of reliability. And now AB's product is also water resistant/proof, so that's not a factor (boy, am I looking forward to not worrying about rain anymore!).
So for those posters here who have made this decision: how did you make that decision? What features of your CI are you happiest about, and which ones do you think could have been done better?
The surgeon I'm talking to works with Nucleus and AB, so I've been reading the material for the Freedom and the HiRes (assuming it's similar to what the Harmony will be when it's released), and it's all sort of confusing. If I understand correctly, there's really no way to know in advance which processing strategies a patient will prefer, so sound quality is out as a deciding factor. Nucleus claims that their product is far more reliable, but elsewhere I've read that those stats are based on old products, and the new ones are pretty similar in terms of reliability. And now AB's product is also water resistant/proof, so that's not a factor (boy, am I looking forward to not worrying about rain anymore!).
So for those posters here who have made this decision: how did you make that decision? What features of your CI are you happiest about, and which ones do you think could have been done better?