I went with the Advanced Bionics because their CI 'talks' to their Phonak HA - meaning a lot less work for me. I'm 81 and worried about doing it at my age but so thankful I did. I can now enjoy - and hear - family gatherings. And the family have been wonderful in supporting me! They also help with my retraining, making sure I get out and about, especially to noisy places, they talk to me on the phone a lot (the iPhone streams which is wonderful). From 3 months of activation I can now understand a lot of the dialog on TV movies (I had given up watching movies). There are programs for training that you can use on computer and phone. Using audio books is great as well (I use the ebook and turn on audio so brain hears and sees at the same time). I listen to music a lot, especially all my old favorites that the brain tends to remember. Bill has the TV on a lot. What you don't want is silence.

Wishing you the very best.
Surgery was very easy as was recovery. Followed doctor's orders. I had a few weeks of finding it difficult to sleep because of the one ear being the side I always liked to sleep on (took a Tylenol for those few weeks at night and worked great). During the day I really wasn't aware of it.