With four adult children and three young grandchildren, bimodal cochlear implant recipient Marty knows the importance and joy of staying connected with family.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic made travel difficult and dangerous, Marty and her husband had two or three vacations a year with their son Christopher and his young family in the United Kingdom. And, although they were previously babysitting their locally based grandchildren twice a week and visiting family on weekends, they have also been physically separated from them since the restrictions started.
‘Our family is very close,’ says Marty. ‘Now we communicate regularly by FaceTime and Zoom.’ For planned chat sessions, Marty has found it easier to stream the whole conversation directly to the Cochlear™ Nucleus® 7 Sound Processor on her right ear and the hearing aid on her left via the Nucleus Smart App on her iPhone. Other family members can then join the chat on their own phones. Being able to automatically pair both devices to stream phone calls and music was the main reason Marty upgraded her hearing aid to the ReSound ENZO 3D™ earlier this year.
Marty loves to spend time virtually with her five-year-old grandson and his younger sister, singing songs, reading books and playing rhyming and alphabet games.
‘My Nucleus 7 is especially important in hearing what they have to say,’ says Marty. Recently she was playing a ‘name the colour’ game via FaceTime with her three-year-old granddaughter. ‘Amusingly, she would whisper the colour back to me and, with direct streaming to my right ear, I could hear her whisper. It was very funny!’
Marty also uses the Nucleus Smart App to check the statistics in the Hearing Tracker and look at her normal settings. ‘I feel it is important to see how much time I spend in a speech-listening environment,’ says Marty. ‘And I like to make sure my processor is at its optimum volume.’ The app also allows her to check the battery status of her sound processor in preparation for a 90-minute video call.
Recently, Marty found the hearing in her left ear had significantly deteriorated to a point where her hearing aid no longer helps. She now qualifies in her country to get a second cochlear implant and another Nucleus 7 or Kanso® 2 Sound Processor, as soon as her surgeon can schedule the surgery.
With this reduced hearing, Marty has found herself relying more on the direct streaming capability of her Nucleus 7 Sound Processor to hear conversation clearly.
‘I always stream my phone conversations with family and friends,’ says Marty. ‘Direct streaming to my Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is absolutely the best way to hear phone conversations, especially with the new loss in my left ear.’
Returning to good hearing in both ears, Marty says, will also help with balance and directional identification of sound – both important to Marty for hearing mealtime conversation and for walking safely on nature trails.
‘I am a big fan of using all the tools in one’s toolbox – so, I say, we have two ears, let’s use them,’ says Marty. ‘I strongly recommend enhancing one’s hearing in both ears if possible. It has definitely been good for me to be bimodal these past eight years and, with my second implant surgery later this year, I look forward to hearing bilaterally.’
How might Nucleus 7 or Kanso 2 help you connect with family and friends?
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The Cochlear Nucleus 7 and Kanso 2 Sound Processors are compatible with Apple and Android devices. For compatibility information and devices visit www.cochlear.com/compatibility and www.resound.com/compatibility
Android is a trademark of Google LLC. Google Play is a trademark of Google LLC.
Apple, FaceTime, iPhone are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
ReSound and ENZO 3D are trademarks of GN Hearing A/S.
