Cochlear Processor Equipment

Alright. After Malachi was activated, our audiologist gave us this monster of a case:

It's huge people. The picture just doesn't do it justice. I thought I would explain all of the "equipment stuff" that came with Malachi's Nucleus 5 processor because I honestly had no idea what to expect, and my mind was kind of blown by everything you need!

The "extra pieces" are the coils, ear hooks, wires, and magnets that are small pieces and tend to get the most use and are lost most often. We also have different sizes of ear hooks to grow with him as his ear get bigger.  The white cases are the original cases the processor, coil, remote assistant came in. We have euro adapters for the remote assistant and rechargeable batteries in the event that we travel outside the US. 

The "Cedis" white box is full of drying packets for the traveling case. I actually forgot to get a picture of the traveling case. I'll explain what they are for later. I have a headset (ear buds) that I can plug into the processor to make sure the microphones are working properly. We are only using rechargeable batteries right now, but we do have extra zinc air batteries. You use two per processor. They are like super hearing aid batteries. The audiologist told us if we used regular hearing aid batteries they would only last about an hour. Last is the pocket to hold all the accessories and batteries.

These are all the manuals for the remote assistant and processor.

Now the fun stuff. These are all the little accessories. The blue covers are kind of fun. We have two of them because cochlear gives you two processors per ear in case one fails, you then have a back up. Below those is the processor with the snug fit piece and coil/magnet attached to it. The coil is what connects to the internal implant and turns it on. The processor has the microphones on top and takes in the sound and processes the sound into electrodes to be sent through the wire, into the coil and then into the implant inside Malachi's ear. The snug fit piece helps keep the processor on Malachi's ear when he is rolling around. It's also helpful for older kids that are running around and/or playing sports. There are three types of batteries. The regular rechargeable, the compact rechargeable (that is what we currently have on Malachi because it's smaller and not as heavy), and the zinc air batteries with cover. I haven't completely mastered the remote assistant, but it's nice to be able to check the status of Malachi's processor without taking it off his ear. It kind of looks like a iPod lol. The tool is a little pick that I use to turn small dials and nobs on the processor to lock the the batteries into place so he can't take it apart.

Finally, on the left is the rechargeable battery device. I can also plug the remote assistant into this to charge. Oh and did I mention that the remote assistant charging cable is a USB? Yes, I can charge it and plug it into my computer. Crazy. The Zephyr is a dehydrator of sorts. Inside is a packet of special chemicals. It plugs in and at night I put the processor inside and turn it on. It removes any moister build up. It lengthens the life of the processor by doing this. 

Cochlear actually forgot to send Malachi's back up processor, but luckily we haven't needed it! They expedited it to the audiologist next day, but then she has been gone for two weeks because she got married! 

It's quite the crazy set up and from what I understand, we'll be getting the same stuff for the right ear. Also of note: This is what the case looks like after I thoroughly dejunked it and threw out all the extra boxes and papers that we not necessary. 

If you have any questions, let me know and I will write a post answering anything I missed :)

Nucleus 5 Voluntary Recall

Friday September 16th, just 9 days after Malachi had received his first cochlear implant I received what felt like a devastating email from Cochlear. It read:

"As a valued member of the Cochlear™ Community, we would like to thank you for partnering with Cochlear for your hearing journey, and supporting others in the Community. You may have recently learned of the Cochlear Limited voluntary recall of the Nucleus® CI500 series cochlear implant. We would like to provide you the latest information regarding this announcement, and assure that you, or your child, can continue to safely hear and use your cochlear implant system."

I simply was shocked beyond believe. How in the world was this possible?

This is the announcement at www.cochlearcares.com:

"Cochlear Limited is undertaking a voluntary recall of the unimplanted Cochlear Nucleus CI500 cochlear implant range.

While less than 1% of CI512 implants have failed since launch in 2009 , Cochlear has identified a recent increase in the number of Nucleus CI512 implant failures.   In an abundance of caution and with our recipients in mind, Cochlear has issued a voluntary recall of the Nucleus CI500 range of cochlear implants while it further investigates the issue.

No implants outside the Cochlear Nucleus CI500 range are affected by this voluntary recall including Nucleus Freedom implants which remain available.

The Nucleus 5 external devices (Nucleus CP810 Sound Processor) and any previous generation sound processors are not affected by this recall.

It is important to note that all existing Nucleus CI512 implant recipients can continue to use their system as normal. 

If a Nucleus CI512 failure occurs, the implant safely shuts down.  In the event of a failure, recipients can be re-implanted with the Nucleus Freedom implant range which remains available.  Nucleus Freedom is fully compatible with the Nucleus 5 Sound Processor System which is not affected by this recall. 

For people considering a cochlear implant, Cochlear recommends the use of the Nucleus Freedom range of Cochlear implants which are fully compatible with the Nucleus 5 sound processor system.  This combination of Nucleus Freedom and Nucleus 5 sound processor system does not sacrifice any of the performance benefits of the Nucleus 5 processor system."

So what are we going to do? The following Monday I contacted Malachi's audiologist. She had only briefly heard about it a day before we did and at that point didn't know anymore than us. Basically, what will happen for Malachi is that he will still get his external processor Nucleus 5 (the part that looks sort of like a hearing aid) for his left ear. But when it comes time (Oct 12) to implant his right ear, he won't get the Nucleus 5 internal implant. They will give him the Freedom which is the Nucleus 5's predecessor. It's still a fantastic implant and will work with the Nucleus 5 external processor. So inside his head he'll have two different but very similar internal implants. But on the outside he will have two Nucleus 5 external processors. I hope that makes sense to everyone :)

At first I cried and cried. I so upset. But since then I have calmed down and realized this is one of the risks we were willing to take. The processor still has a 99% of succeeding. Really the only difference between the Freedom and Nucleus 5 was the size, but i think the Nucleus is something like 25% smaller. Not extremely noticeable. I'll keep you updated as we learn more. :)