Despite this website being quiet, I would like to assure you that we are still a very active group, and since Covid have resumed social events for cochlear implant users and candidates several times a year. 

We regularly host CI socials in Bristol, Weston super Mare, Taunton, Exeter, and Plymouth, and would like to return to Bath if anyone has ideas for a suitable venue. 

I hope that no one is using this website as their main information source for CI South West socials - if you would like to be on our email notification list for socials please email us at cisouthwest@yahoo.co.uk  

You are also welcome to ask questions via email which we can answer personally, or share in our Facebook group and report back to you with the group's answers.  

If you are on Facebook please do join our group there even if you rarely use FB.  You will then automatically be invited to all of our socials, and can also ask questions or share information there whenever you feel like it. 

Very best wishes, 

Katherine, Dave, and Tom

CI South West

 I wanted to wish everyone in our group the very best for a happier and healthier New Year in 2021!

It is hard to believe we actually had two in-person CI socials in 2020 - one in Exeter in January and one in Bristol on 29th February - they both seem so long ago!

Who knows when we will be able to meet up again, but if anyone would like to do an online Facebook chat, let me know and I can set one up on a day and time that works for you.

Take care and stay healthy everyone!

Should you let your CI battery go flat before recharging? No, and here's why

An excerpt from the New York Times explaining why lithium rechargeable batteries should be kept "topped up" rather than letting them drain before recharging:

Tech Myth 2: A battery should be at zero before you recharge it

The idea that you should always completely discharge a battery before charging it up again has legitimate origins, but it doesn’t apply to current technology. Years ago, when nickel–metal hydride (NiMH) and nickel-cadmium (NiCad) batteries were common, they suffered from an issue called “battery memory”: Unless the battery was completely spent before being recharged, it would “remember” how much power it had used and only charge back up that amount. If done repeatedly over time, the battery would never charge totally again.

Fortunately, the lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery that’s probably in your phone or laptop right now doesn’t suffer from this issue, at least not in any significant way. In fact, with Li-ion batteries, you can actually do more harm than good by letting them die before charging them again, because they have a limited number of charge “cycles” (meaning times you can completely discharge and recharge them) before batteries start to hold less overall power.

Luckily, according to Battery University, the solution is pretty simple: Charge your devices from time to time before they fully die. These so-called shallow discharges mean you don’t use a full charge cycle every time you top off your phone after carrying it for a few hours or plug in your laptop after working on the couch for the afternoon. In reality, the biggest enemy of modern batteries is temperature. The cooler you can keep your battery, either while charging it or while it’s in use, the more you can prolong its life.

Travel

CI South West member and frequent traveller Serena Cant has provided us with lots of useful information regarding disabled/deaf discounts for train, coach, and bus travel plus additional accessibility info - visit this page for more: http://cisouthwest.blogspot.co.uk/p/travel-deaf-people-are-entitled-to.html

New CI South West general flyer

We have a new CI South West general flyer ... please feel free to print out copies and distribute as you see fit ... local audiology units, deaf clubs, other group gatherings, anything you can think of! For a .pdf copy email cisouthwest@yahoo.co.uk and we'll send you a copy of the file.
Many thanks.

Updated CI comparison chart

Just discovered that this CI comparison chart has recently been updated (May 2016)... it may be helpful for those of you currently deciding which CI to get (don't worry if you don't understand everything, most people don't! :-) :)) 

Visit this page, then click on "comparison chart" to download the .pdf file:
https://cochlearimplanthelp.com/cochlear-implant-comparison-chart/

CI Battery Recall

FYI if you use disposable CI/HA batteries:

MEDICAL DEVICE ALERT - from MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products regulatory Agency)
All ZeniPower mercury free hearing aid and cochlear implant batteries - low risk of batteries exploding during use or if depleted.

Do not use batteries with a best before date of '08-2018' and '09-2018'. This date is on the outer blister packaging.

For more information: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ya8jrbnirqvqykb/MDA-2016-003_final[1]%20Zhuhai%20Zhi%20Li%20Battery%20Co%20Ltd.pdf?dl=0