AB's Got a New Processor!

Most of you have probably already heard about this news. Advanced Bionics has produced a sleeker processor, that is currently available in Europe. Upon FDA approval (which is likely), it'll be available in the US around this summer. Here's a brochure of it:

If you're looking at the processors on the right side, the new one is the middle white one. The current one is the left, and the right tan one is actually today's hearing aids. Most of the information just seems to point out that the new processor is much slimmer, which will be a breathe of fresh air to all of our ears. Yet, there has been more information that it will have wireless capabilities for things like using a bluetooth, hearing the TV directly and so on. So it'll also have the option of hand held remotes to control those things. I don't know if they will cost extra or be insurance covered, however.

Either way, I have to wait until October 2015 to get this upgrade. Quite lame, but that's how insurance rolls. And by then, it might be even smaller!

2013 Update

It's been 5 months since my last post. I'm sure I've had something to say a few times, but forgot  to write about it. For the time being, I can just update on my implant.

It's going as well as it has been for the past year. I do, however, feel I need another mapping, some more tweaks, to increase high frequencies. Some things are starting to sound a bit low to me. Yet, I still feel it might simply be due to ClearVoice, which did that when I was switched to it. In some ways, I've found it a nice program, in other ways, I've found it to be more limiting than I want my cochlear experience to be. I'm not sure if there's any middle ground around it yet.

I still have my days where I go the whole day without wearing the implant. Sometimes I just don't care to hear the TV, or the doorbell, or the dogs playing. But what can I say? It was my life prior to the implant and it's still a part of me to have complete silence. Plus, I always imagine the day when the implant could fail or break and I'd have to go weeks without it, anyway.