Rediscovering Sound with My Cochlear Implants

It was a routine and long overdue test to update the status of my lousy hearing. I’d worn hearing aids for about 15 years—the latest being the Kirkland Signature aids I’d gotten at Costco six years ago. Even while wearing them, I’d grown quite accustomed to not being able to hear my microwave beep or birds chirping in the yard. I was by now used to my normally mild-mannered wife seeming to yell at me when I’d ask her to repeat something. And so, in May of 2024, I found myself in the sound booth again. It seemed like a waste of time to me; I already KNEW that my hearing sucked. However, since I’d gone a few years without charting its progress, it seemed like the responsible thing to do, even if I was pretty sure it wouldn’t change anything.

“Why don’t you come on out and we’ll go over the results?”

The audiologist came into the booth, put the headphones on the wall hook, and told me I could put my hearing aids back in. As I retrieved them from my shirt pocket, she took one look at them in my hand and said in a tone that seemed a mix of both shock and excitement, “No… No, no. Come on over to my desk. We need to TALK!”

She now had my full attention as she showed me a graph of the test results, pointing at it with a pencil and staring straight into my eyes.

“You have severe loss in your right ear, and profound loss in your left,” she said. Then, she added with emphasis, “YOU are a candidate for a cochlear implant.”

Having made an appointment to meet with a surgeon, I began to teach myself everything that I could about cochlear implants: what they are, who they’re for, how the technology has developed, and—importantly—which platform is right for me. The more I learned, the more excited I became about the prospect of being able to interact with other people without anxiety and the feeling of being left out. If a CI could change that, I wanted one! 

To quickly summarize the next few months: I met with a surgeon, he referred me to an audiologist in his group for a formal evaluation, I was fit with "proper" hearing aids that I had to wear for several weeks of adaption before the formal evaluation, in accordance to my insurance rules. I found out that I qualified, I scheduled a surgery date, and was told to choose which cochlear implant I wanted. I asked for a recommendation and was instead handed about 20 pounds of literature about the three companies who offered the technology.

Then, it was time for me to go to school! I joined Facebook groups and discussion boards covering all three manufacturers, I had video chats with company representatives and current users, I watched a ton of YouTube videos, read white papers, and so on. After sifting through all of that, and waffling a bit between two of the three companies, I ultimately chose Advanced Bionics.

There are two main factors that weighed heavily on that decision. First, as an audio professional, I was drawn to the claim that Advanced Bionics could produce more pitch percepts, and something called ‘Current Steering.’ The more discreet pitches that I’d be able to perceive, I reasoned, the better the chance that my implant could give me something that resembled ‘normal hearing’. 

But the factor that sealed the deal for me was something that I put under the broad heading of ‘integration.’ I knew that I had one ear that was somewhat better and therefore more useful than the other, so I would likely be wearing a hearing aid in that ear. This is referred to as being ‘bi-modal.’ Also, I knew that in my life as it currently is, at least half of my world-of-sound would consist of video calls, streaming media, and things like that. I am no longer around crowds of people on a daily basis.

And this is where Advanced Bionics really came through for me.

My hearing aid could be paired to my Advanced Bionics Marvel processor. My phone and other devices ‘see’ this combination as a single unit. Program changes, volume changes, the balance between the two devices and the balance between streaming media and sounds of the outside world are all controlled from a single app. Streaming is in stereo, and the devices stay on the same page when I change programs or volume. On paper, it seemed a perfect level of integration.

 The combination of those two main factors is what made Advanced Bionics the obvious choice for me—as long as it worked as advertised.

Fast forward a few weeks, and I have now added electroacoustic stimulation to the mix. That’s to say I was fitted with an acoustic ear-hook that came in my Advanced Bionics kit bag. This takes low frequencies from my Marvel CI and amplifies them acoustically, like a hearing aid, and sends them into my ear canal. This works for me because my low-frequency hearing wasn’t as profoundly deficient as my higher-frequency hearing to begin with, and because it was determined that I’d retained just enough of it after surgery to make using one worthwhile. The combination of the acoustic ear-hook in my implanted ear and the Naída Link M hearing aid in my right ear have really brought my hearing world back to life in a big way. I meet friends for lunch without anxiety and converse easily with them. My wife is relieved to not have to repeat herself all the time, and told me the other day, “It’s nice to have you back!”

I hear birds, I hear the microwave, and I’m even beginning to enjoy music again. I CAN hear distinct, different pitches up and down the keyboard, and streaming phone calls, video calls, audiobooks, and music to both devices works as seamlessly as advertised.

It’s not perfect. This is not hearing like I remember it. It isn’t like Lasik surgery for your ears. Life with a cochlear implant is an ongoing process. But then I recall the sadness I felt as I surrendered my audio career—not because I couldn’t do the job, but rather because I couldn’t communicate with my friends. Even if getting THAT aspect of my hearing back is as good as it gets, I would do it again in a heartbeat.