Yippee! I got my surgery date this afternoon - I will get a cochlear implant (Advanced Bionics' Harmony) on the right side at noon-ish on May 30th.

I also have finally worked out the FM system issue. It seems that my implant isn't compatible with the Oticon Lexis (I don't think the Nucleus Freedom is compatible with the Lexis, either), so I'll be upgrading to a Smartlink. Insurance will probably cover it. I hope. Anyway, I think I have a Jabra Bluetooth adapter lying around here somewhere. Not sure where I picked it up, but it's from back when cell phones didn't have BT built in, so I should probably see if it's compatible with my phone, and if I can pair it with the Smartlink.

I'm still waiting to hear back from Phonak on whether the Smartlink supports the A2DP profile. A2DP is basically a standard that is optimized for audio sources that are higher quality than your phone. If it is, then when OS X 10.5 comes out later this year, I should be able to pair the Smartlink and my laptop to listen to iTunes and watch movies like I do now, but without the extra cables. (Right now, it goes laptop-cable-Lexis FM-fm signal-hearing aid; if the Smartlink supports A2DP, then it could go laptop-Bluetooth signal-Smartlink-fm signal-hearing aid. Same number of hops, but fewer physical items to deal with.)