Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Any Advanced Bionics Experts out there?

The other day Noah was playing on the bed and his magnet came off. If it falls forward down his chest he is able to replace it himself, and that is just what he did, except that because he was rolling around it fell forward on the left side (the unactivated side). Here's the weird thing... his processor beeps if it doesn't make a connection, but it didn't beep. Something didn't look quite right but as I was doing other things (in and out of the room) it took me about 10 minutes to figure out what. He wasn't acting like he couldn't hear (if the cable comes loose or the battery dies he'll grab at it and take off/replace the magnet again and again as if hoping to reboot himself), but he also wasn't really responding to sound (I tried the ling 6 after I figured out the issue). So did he just activate himself? I called the audiologist and all they said was "don't worry". I'm not worried, just confused. What's up with that? Also, since that time I've caught him on 3 separate occasions trying to put his magnet on the other side. Anybody have any experience with something like that? I don't know whether he's just interested to learn that he has a magnet on both sides of his head, or if he's actually getting sound from it. But why didn't it beep?!

3 comments:

Kim said...

Howdy

Your son has one device activated and just had bilateral surgery and the other ear is getting ready for activation if I am reading things correctly.

Advanced Bionics CI has a neat feature that a device is programed with a particular internal (this is a feature an audiologist can activate from what I understand).

If that feature is activated - the magnets can stick on either side but will only work on one side.

Maps will be different for each ear. So putting a wrong processor on the wrong ear - will work but sound weird and not recommended as the values could be too high and lead a child to not want to wear a device due to the loudness. Nothing hurtful will occur just things won't be correct

Hope this helps

Kim - AB user for 15 years
also a mom of two preemies that are growing up too quickly!
www.hearingjourney.com

Jennifer said...

Kim is SO on the ball! Yes, the magnets can stick to either side, but the processor has to match up to the internal component to work. My right processor doesn't work on my left ear and vice versa. If I accidentally put it on the wrong ear I just get silence :). No worries!
When is Noah's activation date?
Have you ever been to HearingJourney? If you have time, it is a FANTASTIC message board. There are several moms with younger kids on there that you might enjoy connecting to. I am over there all the time but only post when the spirit moves me (I have been so busy!)

acey said...

I'm glad I found this! I can't find your email address...