One of my readers asked me to comment on the battery life I was getting so I thought that would make a nice topic. For those of you who don’t know, I have the Advanced Bionics Auria. The internal pieces are a HiRes 90K receiver and a HiFocus array which is threaded through the cochlear. The 90K means the receiver is capable of processing 90,000 pieces of information per second. I think I read somewhere the human brain is capable of processing 150,000 pieces of information per second. The processing program is HiRes P but eventually I am going to upgrade to the new Fidelity 120.
Now for battery life…these are called PowerCels and come in two sizes – PowerCel Slim and PowerCel Plus. They are no bigger than the “Enter” key on your keyboard. The Slim gives me about 8 to 9 hours of usage whereas the Plus gives me at least 12 to 14 hours. This depends on how much I am hearing during the day – the more sound, the more power, the faster they run out. I have this little thingie that attaches to my key-chain and allows me to carry a spare. Since I have four – 2 Slim and 2 Plus, I rotate them. I also have a car adapter so that I can plug the charger into the cigarette lighter.
On the running front…I ran in the Canisius Chilly Challenge on Sunday – took 97th overall out of 329 and 2nd in the “Fatso” group (also known as the Clydesdale division). This grouping is for those who are 200 pounds and over. One of the Checkers members made fun of me noting that it was an easy way for me to win some metal. Thanks Herm…you better keep to the bike path cuz come this fall, you could very well be one of my many ‘dead rabbits’. My time was 23:46 which was OK considering I didn’t want to push myself and risk injury. And, I don’t think Diane is in the mood to type up some PR certificates this early in the season. At least, it was a good tune-up to one of Buffalo’s most famous races, the Shamrock Run 8K.
Well, time for dinner! Tomorrow night, I’ll be attending my first Buffalo Implant Group meeting and also be learning about bilateral implants. I’ll report back on that!