Travelling with Cochlear Implants (8 Essential Items)

Hi! My name is Aidan Toominator from the Cochlear Implant Liife YouTube channel.

Today we're going to be looking at 'Traveling withCochlear Implants – the Eight Essential Items.

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It's time now to get started.

Let's dive right in! The first Travelling Essential, I'm going to look at is the Spare Coil Cable.

The Coil Cable is the bridgebetween the processor and the Cochlear Implant.

It's important to have the rightCoil Cable and to have a spare.

Your audiologist should be able to provide this.

Also, you can go to the manufacturers websites and purchase online and we'll have alook at that now.

Let's start off by looking at the Headpiece Cable forAdvanced Bionics.

Then we have Cochlear and they have the Nucleus Six Coil Cable andthen also Cochlear provide the Nucleus Seven Coil Cable too.

You've probably noticed that there are a lot of Coil Cables out there.

Just make sure youhave the correct replacement Coil Cable when you go on holiday.

Don't leave homewithout it.

More often than not, if your processor fails, it's down to your CoilCable failing first.

The second Travel Essential, I'm going to look at is the DryStore Unit and Dry Brick.

To combat moisture buildup in the Processor, I use the unit every night.

Every two months I replace the Dry Brick in the unit.

The unit is important because it helps to maintain the Processor performance.

Italso helps to reduce repairs and to ensure better sound quality.

It's for these reasons, it's an essential travel item.

If you're travelling, don't leave home without it.

My Third travel essential are Cochlear Implant Processor Batteries.

When Itravel, I always bring my Portable Charger.

I also bring these portablebatteries with me.

You've got this as a backup option.

Overall, it's a good idea tohave a Battery Strategy and have that in place before you go traveling.

The lastthing you want to happen is your Processor running out because of batteryproblems My Fourth Travelling Essential is the Ear Gear Processor protection.

Many climates are hot and humid and you will sweat a lot.

Ear Gear is a really good means of protecting your Processor from dirt and sweat.

Let's take a quicklook at it now and you can see it here but what I'm going to do is – I'll show you anexample of their website and how you put the Ear Gear on to the Processor.

Thisclip is from the 'Gears for Ear's website' .

com and this is the Ear Gearprotecting the Processor.

It''s very easy to put it on and it's a great product andhighly recommended for traveling purposes.

It's important to note, it isnot a waterproof solution but it is washable and it is durable.

The Ear Gear is idealfor when you're on holiday particularly for walking activities and sportingactivities.

It protects your Processor from moisture.

The Fifth Travel Accessories I'm going to focus on are to do with Fixation.

All three companies – theyprovide Fixation options.

This means that your Processor stays secure on your earand it doesn't fall off.

Let's take a look at the Fixation Options on theManufactures Website of MED-EL.

I've chosen the MED-EL website because they explain theFixation options really well.

Here you have five different options they canprovide.

Here's the Headband and the Headband, you can use it for sports.

They have aMellie Clip and this is ideal for children and you clip it to the clothing forsecurity and then the other end goes onto the Processor.

The Activity Hook – itslides over the Audio Processor and provides additional fixation around thebottom of the ear.

It's great that all the Manufactures provide a wealth of options.

I've got big ears so what I do is I use what's known as the 'Snug Fit.

' I put theprocessor through here, it clips into there and then I attach it on my ear likethis and it's a great solution.

I do sporting activities such as tennis, badminton, hiking.

I like to wear a headband.

This keeps my Processor very secure.

Explore the options available with your manufacturer.

Obviously, fixation is important.

The last thing you want is your Processor fallingoff.

The Sixth Travel Accessory I'm going to look at focuses on swimming solutions.

Wouldn't it be great to go traveling and to have the opportunity to swim and tobe able to hear people while swimming and the great thing is that all threemanufacturers have their own swimming accessories and I'm going to look atthis swimming solution provided by Cochlear which is the Aqua Plus and youplace this over your Processor and you go swimming and it's a waterproofsolution.

Let's have a look at their website.

You've got some videos you canplay to demonstrate the Aqua Plus.

The product itself, we can buy on the onlinestore known as the Cochlear Aqua Plus Kit.

There's also a frequently askedquestions page about the Aqua Plus if you're worried about using it in thewater.

Advanced Bionics offer a similar product called the Aqua Case Enclosure.

MED-EL offers the Water Wear for all their Processors.

All these products areadvertised as waterproof.

My recommendation is to try them at home first make surethere's no leaks and then from there you can take them traveling.

If you like togo swimming on holiday and communicate at the same time, it's an essentialpurchase.

The seventh Travel Accessory I'm going to look at are MicrophoneProtectors.

These are to protect the Sound Processors microphones from moisture.

You have to change these every three months or sooner than that – particularly if you'retraveling to a high humidity environment.

Let's have a look at some very quickexamples of Microphone Protectors.

Here's the MED-EL website and you can see thered cover here.

This is the Microphone Protector for the MED-EL Processor andthis is the Microphone Protector for the Cochlear Nucleus Seven Sound Processor.

When I travel, I always bring some spare Microphone Protectors.

They're importantbecause they can affect the quality of the sound from your Processor.

The eighth and final Travel Accessory I recommend is the Travel Case.

All three manufacturers, they provide their own kinds of travel cases.

There's a lot of options on their websites.

What I'm going to show you is a MED-EL Carry Case and I travel with this and it's incredibly useful.

I put all myaccessories in there and it's very organized and compact.

You can getreally organized and you can label things within it.

My overall tip is thatsometimes your Audiologists will have freebies so you can ask your Audiologist if they have any of these Accessorieswithout having to pay for them.

And that's it that's 'Traveling with Cochlear Implants -the Eight Essential Items' I hope you enjoyed the video if you have additionalcomments about 'Traveling with Cochlear Implants' – we have a comments section and we'd love to hear from you.

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