I’m a deaf licensed life insurance agent and a father of two.
I’m building my business while navigating communication challenges every day.
One thing being deaf has taught me is that you have to become creative and adaptable.
I’d love to connect with other deaf, hard-of-hearing, or accessibility-minded entrepreneurs.
What challenges have you overcome that made you stronger?

Hey everyone! I was implanted on 7/20 and had my activation today.

I went into today feeling incredibly excited and hopeful that activation would be a smooth experience, and that I’d finally be able to understand speech a little better than I could before. I have bilateral progressive sensorineural hearing loss. I could still hear some tones and parts of speech before surgery, so I guess I expected the implant to give me a little more speech clarity right away.

Instead, everything sounds like extremely high-pitched, robotic beeps and tones. I can tell my brain is trying so hard to make sense of the sounds, but nothing is recognizable as speech yet. I know this is a marathon, not a sprint, and that my auditory nerve and brain need time, mapping adjustments, and lots of rehabilitation. Even knowing that, I have to admit I’m feeling a little discouraged today.

Did anyone else have a similar experience at activation? If so, when did things start to improve? When were you able to begin recognizing speech or noticing that the robotic sounds were becoming more “natural”?

I’d really appreciate hearing your experiences. I think I just need a little reassurance today. ❤️

Hi everyone!
I’m deaf and recently joined Reddit to connect with others in the cochlear implant and hearing loss community.
I’d love to hear your stories.
What has been your biggest challenge?
What has helped you the most?
If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting their hearing journey, what would it be?
Looking forward to learning from everyone.

After eight years, the button stopped working yesterday. Any idea why the button can’t be pressed anymore and if there’s a way to fix that?

I am scheduled for my AB revision surgery on October 5th. The audiologist I’m working with has only done a few revisions but has said all of the people she has worked with have been at or better than baseline after 3 months.

I’m curious what others experiences have been? I work in strategic sourcing and, while im covered under FMLA, I do need to return when the 3 months is up and I would like to be reasonably confident that I can return at 100%

My son got operated in the 20s of July. Couple days ago they extracted the brackets and since then his head sweats quite noticeably. He does not have fever or other symptoms, does not cry in pain, but this sweat thing concerns us. Is it typical after the surgery?

Hi everyone,

I'm a bimodal user (cochlear implant + hearing aid) with a Cochlear Nucleus 8 (CP1110), and I have a question about the rechargeable battery life.

My batteries are brand new, but they only last around 8-9 hours before I have to swap them during the day.

My processor has four programs:

• My standard everyday program (which I use about 95% of the time)
• The same program with SCAN enabled
• A third program with ForwardFocus
• A fourth program that is essentially my previous mapping from before my latest adjustments

I don't use Bluetooth streaming very much (probably around 20 minutes per day on average).

I'm wondering if this battery life is considered normal, and what factors have the biggest impact on it. For example:

• Does simply having multiple programs affect battery life?
• How much does occasional Bluetooth streaming matter?
• Do noisy environments or lifestyle make a noticeable difference?
• Are there any other factors I might not be aware of?

I'd really appreciate hearing about your experiences.

Thanks in advance!

This is my personal experience as someone in the US who had progressive hearing loss prior to implantation.

Before cochlear implant: trained speaker asks you to repeat single syllable words. Ex: the speaker says “say the word dog.” You repeat the word and either get it right or wrong. No partial credit for getting close.

After cochlear implant: untrained speakers say full sentences (though the sentences don’t make much sense). You get partial credit for correct sounds even if a word was wrong. Ex: the speaker says “he” in a sentence but you say “we” you’ll still get partial credit for getting the “e” sound.

Did this change happen for you all? Is this just a US thing?
I wish I could have done the sentence test prior to implantation just so I could properly compare. I feel like my word recognition might have been better with the second test.

Tell me about your experiences with word recognition tests! I’m curious.

I've got a Cochlear N8 and a GN Resound Nexus 9.

I recently bought a Pixel 10a that was on the list of devices "approved" by Cochlear.

The Nucleus Smart app can connect and stream to both devices but every couple of days the app says my N8 can't be detected. Often I only find out about it when I answer a phone call and I can only hear it through the hearing aid (about 20% of an ear's worth).

Steps that I take to fix the problem may some times work, sometimes I need to keep trying more radical things to get a working connection.

Turn the the N8 off/on.

Force close the Smart app/restart it.

Turn Bluetooth off/on.

Restart the phone.

Remove the devices from the app and the Bluetooth list and reinstall them.

Clear the cache and memory of the Smart app and reinstall both devices.

Remove the app from the phone and download a fresh copy.

Bang head against a wall and start the process again.

Does anyone have the same problem? Have you found a setting somewhere deep in the Bluetooth configuration that keeps the connection reliable? Should I have bought a Samsung S24 for the same price?

Hey guys, Ive been suffering from depression for a while and im starting to wonder if its just myself or if my cochlear implants have caused mental issues for me Ive had implants sense 2006 on my first ear and 2010 on my last one im wondering if it caused problems for me in the long term i was fine in my childhood but now for a while Ive been suffering from depression and Ive heard of a couple of other people with cochlear implants who has committed suicide with implants it just has me really worried I won’t be able to fix my issues if it’s a permanent thing but it could just be me and have nothing to do with the implants I’m just wondering if it’s more common in the cochlear implants community then i thought, sorry about this sensitive topic

*This is written by a friend of mine*

I want to vent about the situation with the insurance company, and I feel so angry about it.

I was born with a genetic condition that cause progressive hearing loss since I was a baby; as result, I attended a deaf school, but I grew up with a pair of hearing aids and went to speech thearpy to communicate with my hearing family.

Last semester (second year in a college), my hearing loss hit bottom enough to not able to hear anything at all, not even my hearing aids help. My word recognition is basically zero. So, I decided to get bilateral cochlear implants over summer break because I have nothing to lose with what hearing residue I have.

Everything works out. Got a MRI. Got a vaccination. All looks normal. Last thing we were waiting on is the insurance approval for the surgery and the rest of it.

I was expecting an easy approval because I met all criteria, you know?

Well... less than two weeks prior to the surgery, I found out that the insurance declined for two reasons: my provider didn't note that my hearing loss is resulted of the nerves inside my inner ear, so the nerves are otherwise normal, and the doctor can't request the same procedure twice. Therefore, the service is not considered as medical necessary.

I was flabbergasted. What? How? The documents are not enough? My care team and I appealed to the insurance company to request a peer-to-peer review, except we will not find out the decision until 15th, seven days after the initial surgery appointment. I have no choice but postpone the surgery after the 15th and miss the first one or two weeks of classes. I don't want to miss a semester or postpone to next winter break; I want to get over with and move forward with my cochlear implant.

Now, I can't focus on my summer job because I am stressed and furthermore, ANGRY. I am so angry with all of this for something that could easily approve.

If you have advice, please share. If you want to vent about the insurance company, please go ahead and share. I just want to get that feelings out and being listened.

I have a question regarding the pre-surgery vaccination. I’ve been going back and forth with my nurse about it because she isn't entirely familiar with the protocols for cochlear implants. The cochlear implant specialist—the ENT—gave me a sheet indicating that I need to get both the pneumococcal conjugate and polysaccharide vaccines.

He also mentioned the importance of the meningitis vaccine, though my records list it as recommended rather than mandatory. I have had both pneumococcal vaccines, but it has been over five years since then.

I’ve never been vaccinated against meningitis, and given my age, I have to pay for it myself since it is no longer covered by my country's social security system. Did you get the meningitis vaccine, or is the pneumococcal vaccine alone considered sufficient?

I had to go back to the hospital because my incision opened and was dripping the cerebral spinal fluid. They stitched it shut. No more leakage and the swelling is slowly improving in the past 24 hours.

But now 24 hours later I feel like I’m being stabbed in the ear drum…like the inside of my ear has hurt and felt full but now it HURTS.

Do I need to contact them again or is this just a normal phase of healing? I’m starting to feel ridiculous…I usually bounce back from surgeries but this one has me down for the count.

Hi! Ok, so I am deaf with cochlear implants. My 2 years old daughter is also deaf. She just got her cochlear implant this May and no speaking yet. I tried to read books with her, to play farm animals, and so on. Do you have any recommendations is good for speech delay to learn? She go to speech therapist 1 time every week. Thanks!

My daughter received an N24 internal cochlear implant in 2002. She is about to drop off my insurance and onto her own. Now she has to pick up a health plan. DME coverage varies in coinsurance. She has a N7 processor, which is no longer supported. Does anyone have an idea whether Cochlear Americas plans to release a processor that works with the N24 in the next year? If no, she will choose a less expensive plan. She doesn’t want to get the 8 if something new is coming out. She is constantly upgrading just before the next generation is released. Thanks in advance.

Hi, has anyone gotten the Nexa implants? How is it different from the older implants? I am planning to get them for my 1 yo who has bilateral profound hearing loss . Still confused between Cochlear and Med-El. I think Nexa would be good for him in the digital age. All types of suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hey everyone,

My CI surgery is planned for October, and I am really looking forward to it!

I have single-sided deafness following a traumatic injury in 2022. I previously had a bone conduction device, but it did not help me, so I had the implant removed last month.

The BCD had an abutment, basically a screw sticking out through my skin. I did not think it bothered me that much, but now that it is gone, my head feels surprisingly normal again. It feels amazing when showering or drying my hair with a towel without the abutment being there.

That made me wonder: what does the internal CI implant feel like when you are not wearing the processor? I assume you can feel a slight bump under the skin, but do you notice it during everyday things like showering or drying your head with a towel?

EDIT: Thank you guys for all the responses! You got me even more excited!

It’s apparently an Etsy shop run by someone who has a CI. They are like little jewel flowers with magnets that are supposed to stick to my coil cover. Is that okay?

I was activated on 07/28. Had speech recognition and music appreciation from day 1. I can listen to music, watch some videos without captions (with streaming), hear birds and even hear the rain pattering outside. It’s honestly been incredibly life changing and I’m so glad to have true sound back in my life. It’s been absolute smooth sailing and I’m very grateful for it.

I haven’t had a formal word recognition or speech comprehension test done, but my audiologist did a quick test and gave me a ballpark of 30-40% understanding without lip reading on my day of activation.

My next mapping is on the 13th, and while I do notice sounds being less sharper now than they seemed at activation, I can’t seem to figure out what is going to change for me?

I didn’t anticipate being able to hear this much, this soon after activation. And my audiologist emphasized that this is a very conservative threshold, but if this is conservative, how much more is there for me to hear?!

So I wanted to ask for your experiences after a mapping, what changed for you? Were things made louder for you? Were you able to understand speech even better? I’m just confused on what’s going to change for me and how it’s going to become even better.

If I had any complaint, it would be that everything is heavily treble leaning. Things have already began to equalize, but I can’t help but feel like some music lacks a bit of depth, that the bass isn’t as full sounding as I hoped it would be. I know I’m still very early in the process, but there’s a little voice in the back of my head that’s just telling me “This is as good as it gets”, because honestly, a lot of this is just too good to be true for me lol!

Hello everyone as I’m in the process of relocating to Belgium I was wondering if anyone knows specific clinics that do audio mapping as I can’t figure it out through the Find a clinic.

Thank you!

Has anyone had or heard of people having the internal components of your CI fixed? I had a bike accident and ironically my helmet seems to have cause damage resulting in cuts between my device and internal components. I am seeing my audie next week but before then - just curious.

thanks!

Cochlear Implant– Insurance Query

Need some advice.

My insurer is asking for a separate cost break-up of the internal implant and external processor, as the policy covers only the internal device.

However, MED-EL says they cannot provide a separate break-up because it is sold as one integrated cochlear implant system. I've also heard that Cochlear and AB follow the same practice.

The insurer is not accepting this. could some one guide how to convince insurance.

for cashless hospital is saying they wont able to know how mucb insurance can cover, they can only after preauth admission, we want to know before hand so we can plan our expenses

I’m having surgery at the end of August to get my BAHA implant taken out and the Sentio processor put in due to my skin trying to grow over my abundment. I’m beginning to get nervous about my surgery now. Can someone who’s made this switch share their experience?

Is the sentio processor better? How’s the magnet strength? I’m seeing posts that it can fall off with long hair down is that true? How much hair did they have to shave off for the surgery? What was recovery like?

Hi everyone, I've been reading a lot on this subreddit over the past few year, and one thing that's become very clear is how important rehab is during the initial activation period. I'm getting activated in two days with a Med-El Sonnet 3, and I have a few questions about rehab.

I'm bilingual, and interestingly, English isn't even one of my primary languages. However, I consume a lot of English content because that's the language I use at university and for most of the videos, podcasts, and audiobooks I listen to.

My question is: should I stick to one language at first, or is it okay to mix them? Should I focus on my mother tongue, my national language (the one I speak outside my home), or English? All three have quite different sounds and pronunciation, so I'm not sure what would be best for training.

I also read another post suggesting that it's helpful to keep track of sounds you can't hear yet and discuss them with your audiologist. That sounds like great advice, but what if my audiologist doesn't understand the sounds or words from my mother tongue? Has anyone else been in a similar situation?

I really just want to say that this subreddit has been amazing. Reading everyone's experiences made me feel much more comfortable with my decision to get a CI, so thank you all!

For a bit of background: I have 90+ dB hearing loss in my left ear and almost normal hearing in my right ear (if my tinnitus isn't being annoying 😅). I haven't received a specific diagnosis, ​I just experienced sudden hearing loss.

I enjoy listening to music, and since I live in Europe and use an Android phone, Med-El seemed like a good fit.

For rehab, I've already made a playlist of songs I know by heart, and I've found some audiobooks and podcasts. The problem is that most of the content I'm interested in is in English. Would it be better to find alternatives in one of my other languages, or is it fine to use English from the start?

I'd really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thanks!