Nucleus System 5- My Experience

Well, I finally got my new processors on Tuesday. When they say it takes 6-8 weeks to arrive, they're not kidding! I did get pretty impatient, but the important thing is that they did come. Here are some pictures... *sorry for the blurry quality. These were taken from my phone, since my sister decided to steal my camera, even though she has her own....sisters!*

On the left if my pink Freedom (the beige thing is the FM boot), on the right is my brown N5 with the pink cover.

Left---> Right Freedom, N5 with pink cover, N5 with blue cover.

Brown N5 on my head- side view. Please excuse the messy hair, I just put it up to take the picture :)

The remote...  I definitely think that's more of a personal preference thing. As someone who always has a cellphone in her pocket, it's no big deal for me to carry it around. It's pretty user-friendly once you take the time to figure out how to adjust all the settings. The only thing I wish they would add (possibly with future remote software upgrades?) is the option to have certain settings as "favorites" in the remote (similar to in a cell phone) that you adjust the most, making them quicker and more accessible to get to. Another thing is, it look like an Mp3 player. Or a cellphone. Or some combination of the two... What's the problem?

We're not allowed to use them in school, so I'm always completely afraid I'm going to get yelled at for having my "iPod" out in class, or even worse, have a teacher not listen to me and take it up. I don't adjust the settings too much, but I try to do it pretty discretely when I do- so far, so good.

AutoPhone- Would someone please enlighten me how the darn thing works? I know for a fact I have it, because my audiologist knew I wanted to try it out, and I saw her check off the little box for it. However, it's failed to come on every single time I've been on the phone (and I've used three phones- my cellphone, our landline, and my sister's cell). I  can hear better without T-coil than when I manually enable T-coil, so I don't mind it now working.. I just want to know if there's a way for it to work! My audiologist said it's voice activated, so the person on the other end has to have spoken for a few seconds before it detects it. No luck!

The view from behind- It's much, much thinner than the Freedom. I really like how I can make it stand out with the covers, or I can make it blend in completely. From the front, you really can't see any of it (my hair covers the earhook), unlike the Freedom, which was pretty bulky and noticeable from the front.

Battery Life- With the Freedoms, I barely got a full day of battery life, so I was worried that I wouldn't get very much out of the N5 (which use 1 less battery). The computer estimated that my right ear, which has a very strong map, would last 16 hours. It predicted my left ear, which has an even stronger map, would last 13 hours. Not quite a full day, but close enough. Yesterday was the first day I actually got to wear them all day (Tuesday- I didn't get them until my 9AM appt. Wednesday- I had French Honor Society inductions in the evening, and changed the batteries before  I went just in case, and Thursday I had a ton of reading to do and a very loud family, so the implants came off during my reading time). I put them on yesterday at about 8AM and I didn't get a single low-battery warning, even though I went to sleep at 12:30 AM. I'm pleasantly surprised that they actually appear to be lasting longer than my Freedoms did (weirdly enough, although partly due to my use of the FM boot on one Freedom). I know a lot of people really want the rechargables, but I never used them with my Freedoms, since they died during the school day, so I doubt I'll use the rechargeables for the N5 when they come out.

FM- There is not yet a boot released for the N5 for FM, so I have to use a neckloop with T-coil called the MyLink. While it's nice to have less on my ear, it's not exactly a fashion statement to walk around with a neckloop all day. I put the bottom part under my shirt, but I don't normally wear T-shirts, so a good portion is visible. I had to go a few days without the FM, and it made me realize there were come classes I really needed it for (French, my AP classes) but I also realized there were some that I could hear just fine without it. I think I may just "play it by ear" (heh..no pun intended) and only use the FM depending on what I'm doing in each class each day. When it's not in use, I can just take the FM off, so it's not a big deal.

Hearing- I was MAPped the same day I received the N5s, so my hearing is better than it was on Monday, but I don't know which I can attribute it to. I'll have to try out my Freedom again and see if I notice a difference, but I was told that, if I did, it would be pretty minimal. We'll see.

Funny story... I had taken off my FM neckloop in one of my classes, since we were just doing bookwork. The girl who sits next to me asked about it, and I lamented how I found it kind of annoying, but mentioned it was because I got new, smaller processors. I figured she's noticed since I'd worn my hair up the day before, but I lifted my hair up and pointed it out to show her anyway. "Ohhhh!" she exclaimed, "I was wondering why you hadn't wearing anything on your ears... I see it now!" 

White Fluff

My yard is filled with inches of white, fluffy snow. For those of you that don't know, I live in Texas.

The place where it's flat. and hot. And it's weird if you don't say "y'all" in everyday conversations.

I woke up, and the grass was covered in a thin layer of snow. It hasn't stopped, and the past record of 1" of snow has been shattered. It's at least 4" and is predicted to get up to 7". How crazy is that!?

We still had to go to school. Every single other school district in the area closed. However, ours is infamous for having really bad judgement when it comes to bad weather days. It's supposed to completely freeze over tonight. Thankfully, not long after getting home, it was announced that school would be cancelled for tomorrow (Friday) giving us a 4 day weekend, since we already have Monday off. Awesome! My friends and I have been planning for this all week, and if the roads aren't too bad to drive on, we'll be seeing Valentine's Day tomorrow. I need this long weekend!

Pictures to come :)

Oh, and on the CI front..
I picked the brown processors. I sent in my backup brown Freedoms (I was very happy that we only had to send in the processors, not the controllers) and they should be shipping the N5s to my audiologist for mapping shortly. We were able to get some insurance coverage, with help from my center's insurance department. However, we're yet to be given an actual number on how much we'll have to pay out of pocket. Hopefully it will be a pleasant surprise, and not a shock!

Has anyone used the Bilateral Personal Audio Cable?

I ordered one, and received it a week or so ago. The weird thing was, one side (that you plug into your processor) was a good 3 inches longer than the other. I'm yet to understand the logic in that, and it's not like the length is adjustable. We called Cochlear, and they sent us another one to make sure the one we got wasn't defective. Nope, apparently they are intentionally making one side longer than the other...

So, if anyone has any idea why this is the case, feel free to share. And don't worry, I'll be posting more about the CART/School situation soon!

Countdowns and Ramblings

These are some things that I'm looking forward to for the next month or so...

Thanksgiving Break- 3 days
We're driving up to New Orleans to visit family over Thanksgiving. I'm ready for a much-need break! I'm thankful for a lot too, but that's another post. No, we won't be staying in the same hotel as last time!

Exams- 3 Weeks
err... no comment on this one. Hope I can catch at least a few hours of sleep a night! I am excited by the fact that we only have to go to school for half a day for all of exam week.

Winter Break- 4 weeks
I cannot believe that in a month I will have made it halfway through my first year of high school. (never mind the fact that the second semester is a lot longer..) I really want to do an update on what's going on at school, but so far nothing has really happened. There's been some "evaluations" (it would be a joke to actually call it that) to try to get some technology (any sort of real-time captioning for just a few of my classes) which ended with the verdict that I'm doing just fine. Then there was a meeting, and the verdict somehow changed to "maybe, but you'd have to change schools." This is the LAST thing I want to do, so for now we're planning on trying out something that I'm pretty sure has never been done in the classroom before. Look for an update once it's actually been tried out... whenever that may be.

Visit up North- 4 1/2 weeks
I'm super-excited to say that I'll be flying to IL to visit a friend who I haven't seen in nearly a year and a half. We first met at a convention and have continued to stay in touch starting the second I got to the airport! I'm pretty sure a day doesn't go by that we don't talk to each other. I've mentioned her once or twice, and she sometimes comments on here under "She Loves to Act." We have a lot in common and finally convinced our parents to let us visit each other. I get impatient every time I think about it! I'm also excited to see REAL snow (hopefully!) and see how people celebrate Christmas (I'm pretty sure this will be the first Christmas I don't spend in a movie theater and eat in a Chinese restaurant... If you're Jewish  you know what I'm talking about ;)) I still need to find a coat...

Nucleus System 5- Releases for Freedom recipients in a week and a 1/2
Freedom users and parents of users- will you be upgrading? If so, when? I more than likely will, but just want some other people's input on why they are or aren't planning to upgrade. There is no software (hearing)difference, so there's pretty much no chance of getting insurance coverage. There's a good chance that there will be software upgrades (for the N5) in two or so years, so insurance coverage may eventually be available, but who knows. I really like the fact that it's so much lighter, and I actually prefer the remote- if I'm having trouble changing to FM mode or something with my processor, I'd actually be able to see what I was doing! My second ear was implanted after March 2009, so we'll be getting an extra $1,000 back for that side with the Freedom trade-in if/when I choose to upgrade.

Thoughts?

Just a Minor Annoyance

As you probably already know, I have Freedom processors by Cochlear. Picking out a brand is an extremely hard decision, and there really is no "right" choice. No matter what they say, one brand is not going to give you better hearing than another. Even people who have a different brand of implant in each ear are not a reliable source of knowing, because as you should have learned from my other blog posts, no two ears are alike! Some brands have better track records on reliability, which is what influenced my decision. One of my closest friends with a CI has a different brand, and we occasionally talk about our envies in each other's implants. She was implanted many years ago with a Clarion, and while the company has come out with a BTE, it just doesn't work for her since the battery only lasts a couple of hours. So she uses a bodyworn processor. She often gets jealous when I start talking about walking in the rain, or running through random people's sprinklers when I walk my dog. Her processor can't get wet at all. I get jealous that she doesn't have to deal with a bulky processor constantly falling off of her ear(s)! We both hear really well, and are both happy with what we have, we just wish that both of our companies would come out with completely waterproof processors! Everyone is different, and what is right for one may not be right for another (which is why you shouldn't bash other implant brands or try to shove your personal brand down someone else's throat!--just sayin') I have been more than happy with my Freedoms, and really feel like I made the right choice(for me!)

The great thing about the Freedoms is that they have two battery options- disposables and rechargeable. I started out on both sides using rechargeable, but it turns out that I am a power junkie. My MAPS require a LOT of power, plus I have thick hair which means it takes a little more power to transmit the sound through to the implant. On my first side the rechargeable only last 6 hours, which just does not work for me. I could be in the middle of a playing test in orchestra, or listening to an important class discussion, and it was just inconvenience to have to change them. That's why I use disposables, which usually last me a full day, unless I get up really early and stay up late or in an excessively loud environment (whenever we have pep rallies, my batteries die as soon as I get home from school). I've become a pro at changing batteries quickly and can change them in a matter of seconds. I go through a pack a day (of batteries, not anything else!) with having two ears, so being able to change them quickly when I get a bad batch of batteries, or when they die without reason is important to me.


So what's my point, you're wondering?


Not too long ago the little cover over where I plug in the accessory cables and FM got ripped off of the controller on my old side. It was probably due to me trying the FM at a camp for kids with hearing loss that I recently attended, and the FM just does not work with my old side (whole 'nother post with more details coming soon), which was discovered after many times of taking the FM boot in and out of the accessory plug-in thingy (what's it called?!) and replacing it with the normal battery rack. Combine that with me listening to my iPod for 10 hours each way on our road trip to New Orleans, that probably wore the poor little rubber cover out! This kind of thing is a pretty rare occurrence, but thankfully Cochlear was able to ship me another controller in just 2 days, even though the one I had was technically still working, and I had a back-up.


The problem? The new controller arrived, and I inspected it. I noticed the battery rack looked a little different. I took out the one from my left side and compared them.

The one on the left is the new battery rack that was just shipped to me, and the one on the right is the kind I'm used to having. Please excuse my lack of photography skills and my deodorant in the background . :)

The main difference I noticed was the gold strip was now just a straight line instead of turning at the top, and the little battery outlines were changed from black to gold. I figured it was just cosmetic, until I went to put batteries in. It felt odd, like I was putting them in backwards, and you really had to push to get the battery in. I figured it just took some getting used to.

The next morning I went to go change my batteries. I started with the right side. I pushed the two top batteries out with little issue, just had to push them a little bit harder than usual. Then I got to the bottom battery. I could not, for the life of me, get this thing out! I pushed and I pushed, and it would not budge! I then resorted to using every object I could think of to try to get it out, to no avail. Finally, I handed it to my mom and pouted. After spending a couple of minutes, she was finally able to get it out using her long, acrylic nails. The end result? A waste of ten minutes, the loss of my battery-changing independence and the ruining of my brand-new hot pink manicure (I say this at the risk of sounding shallow. Really, I'm not!)

It's become pretty much the same routine every morning. Try, fail, resort to random household objects, fail yet again, make my mom do it. It seems that the gold strip is not the only difference.


The one on the left is new, the one on the right is the original kind. Don't see a difference? On the old ones, the bottom battery always stuck out. It wasn't because it was broken, that's just how they're made. On the new kind, it seems they've decided to forgo this, and it has caused me some serious battery-changing issues!

Today was the first day I managed to get the bottom battery out on my own. It took a while, but I did it. I think I may just use some old battery racks I have if this doesn't get any easier.


Just a tiny annoyance compared to the joy I get from hearing the world around me. Today I heard what sounded like an Ice Cream Truck for the first time! A little battery trouble is nothing compared to the delight I get from hearing a friend whisper a secret in my ear, or foiling my dog's plan of trying to sneak up behind me with his nails clacking on the floor with each step. The pleasure of listening to and making music always brings me joy, and I will forever be grateful to Cochlear and everyone involved in my journey through bionic hearing. Even if they had to go and change something that was working just fine before! (Cochlear, are you listening?!)