Part 7 - Dinah’s Cochlear Implant Journey

Adding a Hearing Aid

NHS cochlear implants (CI) are fitted on one side only in adults. For the majority, they will be offered an NHS aid to complement the CI and add sound awareness on the other side - although a lot of people choose to manage just with one CI.

If you've been wearing private aids for many years, going back to an NHS version can be a little grim. Given that you're likely a Power aid user you'll likely have a large aid and a large earmould with thick tubing. Tubal distortion will give a rough sound compared to the finesse of a receiver and wire, as well as looking rather clunky.

What's the point of having a daughter who's an audiologist if you're going to have a huge, clunky aid? None! Nor do I want my mum to have such a device when she could be advertising my best work(!). Enter the generous folk at GN Resound, who make the corresponding aid (called the Nexia) for Dinah's brand of implant. They provided a Nexia 7 Rechargeable micro-RITE aid and I set it up last week.

Resound Nexia Micro RIE Aid

Bimodal Fitting

The main benefit of a CI and an aid (what's called a bimodal fitting - two types of devices on one person) is that you can hear phone calls and music etc on both sides. Stereo sound gives a big advantage in both sound quality and word recognition.

We fitted the aid, and Dinah immediately began to perceive sound as coming from both sides. She can tell that the implant and the aid are different, and I wondered if this would be confusing for her brain to process.

Over the course of the appointment you could see she was adapting well, we tried listening to music to see if she could recognise and appreciate the Beach Boys. Her verdict was:

When I've got both devices on, there's definitely a richness of sound that I don't get with the implant on it's own.

When Dinah takes off the implant processor, (hearing only with the left hearing aid), suddenly everything goes quiet. The bimodal effect is synergistic - it's a completely different effect with both devices than either gives on its own.

Later in the week, audiologist colleagues at the Yorkshire Auditory Implant Service paired the aid with the implant. Dinah sees herself using the Nexia aid for:

1. Phone calls

2. TV and Music - when she wants additional richness of sound

3. Conversations with her remote microphone

For now though she is concentrating on her rehab with the implant and will mostly use the CI alone day to day.

Part 8 - Epilogue - will follow in a few months time. We plan to revisit Dinah when she has 9 months of wear, to see if there are more gains to come.

#dinahsjourney