u/Careless_Twist_307

I got my CI activated in my right ear (single-sided deafness case) last week and I'm struggling.

Two things are making rehab really hard and I'd love to hear from anyone who's dealt with anything similar.

Residual hearing in the implanted ear. I still have a fair amount of residual hearing in the implanted ear, and I think it's competing with the CI. I feel my brain currently doesn't have enough motivation to decode the electric signal. In a quiet room I can stream a podcast straight to the processor, follow the transcript, and match the CI sounds to the words. I've had some limited success with the most basic levels on an auditory training app too. But the moment I'm in a normal environment, the CI signal just collapses back into noise. For SSD cases what actually helped your brain start 'listening' to the CI signal in normal environments rather than prioritising natural hearing (both from good ear and/or residual in implanted ear)?
Very loud tinnitus drowning out the stimulation. My tinnitus is very severe / catastrophic (essentially the main reason for getting implanted), and right now the CI signal feels tiny by comparison — just faint metallic beeps that barely register against the gigantic roar of tinnitus. I know you're meant to work up to higher levels gradually, but I worry I'm starting so low that my brain has no reason to care about these beeps. Has anyone found stimulation levels needed to be pushed higher/faster for the signal to become meaningful /to achieve more tinnitus suppression?

Basically: if you had significant residual hearing and/or loud tinnitus going in, how did you get over the hump where the CI signal stops being "just more noise" and starts being useful info that your brain cares about in general settings rather just during training and rehab (which I'm trying to do at least an hour of every day)?

Any training routines, timelines, or mapping tips appreciated as I am feeling super overwhelmed and disappointed at the moment

Hey all!

I just got implanted today (here's me in the taxi home).

I wondered if anyone had a) hyperacusis before implantation and b) experienced an exacerbation or new hyperacusis or c) increased reactive tinnitus directly after surgery?

I am a bit of a unique case in that I did / do still have a decent amount of low frequency hearing on my implanted side before surgery. My doctor and I actually decided to go with implantation because of the growing literature showing it helps with tinnitus in a lot of cases. I had very severe / catastrophic bilateral tinnitus and moderate-ish hyperacusis going in.

The good news is I seem to have retained residual hearing!

The bad news is when I woke up my hyperacusis was off the scale, with the tinnitus in that ear reactive to noise. I can't remember this but my mum said as I was coming around from the general anaesthetic I kept just murmuring 'ear plugs' and 'ear defenders' and told my mum and the nurse to stop shouting even though they were talking quietly haha. It's calmed down a little bit but still pretty insane now I'm at home. Hopefully it continues to improve. Thinking I'm just going to stay in pretty quiet environments until activation...

I'd be interested to hear from any and all even partially relevant experiences as the surgeon couldn't think of many case studies from his clinical experience.

SSD implant with residual hearing + very loud tinnitus — how do I get my brain to engage with the CI signal?

Hyperacusis / reactive tinnitus post implantation??