I’m a late deafened man approaching retirement who spent almost 20 years dealing with slow progressive hearing loss until my audi finally told me she had no more powerful hearing aids, that my insurance no longer covered HA, but that I seemed to be a candidate for CI. I’m now a bilateral CI user having the right ear implanted on 08/29/13 and the left ear done on 04/04/14. My success is been life changing for me, considering I was reduced to surviving on what I could understand by lip reading alone. I focus on using the features of my Naidas, and I’m working on including more accessories to the mix. I enjoy participating in research studies to promote the further advancement of the technology, and I’m passionate about letting people know that there is hope to better their communication with cochlear implants. I proudly wear my processors as a beacon and am open to conversation with anyone who is curious. Although I don’t spend much time now with listening therapy, since everyday use provides continual opportunities, I initially invested a lot of time using CLIX and then Angel Sounds. My qualification levels of 95-100db and 6-10% speech comprehension scores are now raised to 15-20db and mid-high 90s%. I no longer rely on lip reading but don’t avoid it when available; however, I can now understand conversations that originate from directions that are not in front of me. Going bilateral also helped improved the quality of the sound I recognized and has helped me to appreciate music much more.