Instructions for Assembling a Water-Proof Cochlear Implant Processor
Warning Never do this — it will certainly invalidate your warranty. Do not complain to me if you do this and ruin your processor.
Use the "Connected Electronic Case" from Aquapaq — it can be ordered through REI and picked up at a local store.
In addition, you need a Sport Cable from Cochlear.
This cable connects the Sprint processor directly to the coil — not to the behind the ear microphone / cable junction.
Then take a lapel microphone, and put some plastic over it (like a tiny plastic bag) and seal with a tight rubber band — the lapel mic obviously plugs right into the processor. Using some silicone sealant, seal the sport cable and coil together (it might be wise to use an older coil).
The key item is this model Aquapac — it has a special seal that allows a couple wires to pass through, but still remain water tight. Be very careful closing this special seal — don't put the wires right next to each other, but separate them a bit to allow the seal to work around each one. The case really is designed for ONE wire to come out the seal, but TWO can be made to work. When threading two cables out the cable seal, my experience has show that there should be a small amount of separation between the cables. The seal work by tightly pinching a soft materiel (neoprene?) around the cable. If there are two cables right next to each other, the seal doesn't get a chance to form between them.
You can control the buttons of the processor through the bag, but that generally shouldn't be needed.
So there you have a waterproof processor, and a couple of cables — one with the mic, and one with the coil. You'll have to play around with how to keep everything secure.
You can use a Tune Belt to hold all the stuff, and then just have the user wear a surfer shirt for example to hold everything in place. You can clip the lapel mic to the collar of the surfer shirt, and loop the coil wire around the clip to keep it handy.
This approach works for the Nucleus series of processors from Cochlear — it may not be appropriate for other brands of cochlear implants.
Our experiences with a couple of years of using this technique are quite good. It's a bit of a pain to get everything hooked up, but the results are worth it. We've had very successful swimming lessons, days at the beach, and so on.
Update: apparently a similar setup is described in "Summertime . . . and the Livin is Easy" by Lydia Gregoret, Volta Voices, May/June 2004, Issue 11(3), page 27.
Categories: cochlear_implants
