An internal question

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faire_jour

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So I started thinking about the thing that is inside of Miss Kat today, and I have some questions for people with CI's.

Can you feel the implant? Are you always aware of it? when you first recieved it, was it strange? Could you feel what they had done internally? (I don't mean that there was something there, but that they had cut the bone and stuff) Can you feel it in your ear? What does it feel like when it turns on? I know you can hear with it, but is there any other feeling or stimulation?

I am just trying to wrap my head around what it feel like to be her.
 
faire_jour,
It has been less than three months since my CI surgery, as you may remember. A few days after Miss Kats. This is what I have felt during the past few months. First week or so, pain, but not unbearable. Numbness in the skin around the incision as well as part of my tongue. The pain quickly went away, for the most part, but I still have a twinge now and then when I roll over onto the side that is implanted. It is at the incision site, not where the implant is. I don't feel that at all. Most of the numbness has gone as well. I don't know the implant is there unless I think about it or touch it. I also don't feel anything in my ear any more. I did the first few weeks, but that was dried blood and it absorbed back into the body.
Once in a while, if a sound gets too loud, I feel a slight tingle in my scalp, but it is just that a tingle. No pain at all. The internal part has been the easiest to adjust to. I still have moments where the processor drives me batty as it doesn't "sit" just right. But, a trick from LadyS helps a lot. I turn the earhook in just a bit and that works great.
I hope that helps???
 
I like your questions!

I'll be quite candid as I'm always curious about CIs and how they felt.

WBHarley is a member here and bless her heart! She let me touch her CI area and where the implant is. I asked her a lot of questions and she was honest.

I truly appreciate how you think as a parent and as a person. :hug:
 
faire_jour said:
So I started thinking about the thing that is inside of Miss Kat today, and I have some questions for people with CI's.

Can you feel the implant? Are you always aware of it? when you first recieved it, was it strange? Could you feel what they had done internally? (I don't mean that there was something there, but that they had cut the bone and stuff) Can you feel it in your ear? What does it feel like when it turns on? I know you can hear with it, but is there any other feeling or stimulation?

I am just trying to wrap my head around what it feel like to be her.
Click to expand...

Can I FEEL the implant without touching it? No. Can I feel it outside of my skull, yes (sometimes I feel like it should have been counter sunk much more, but then if they did that it would go to my brain. People do find it a bit weird though, but it's nice for them to feel it.

No, I can't feel it at all, the electrodes and all that. It "sounds" like I just have my hearing aids on. I think it's because the inner ear does not have "feeling" nerve ends like on your skin. It's like "can you feel the food traveling down your intestines"..you can't feel it.

Honestly, it doesn't "feel" like anything. It feels like i have my hearing aids on. Once in a while, I do have the conscious feeling of the magnet. It's mainly because sometimes if I put my hair up, I have to "weaken/loosen" the magnet, while if I have it down I have to tighten it. Or if I have it on all day long, I can start to feel the magnet pressing on the sides of my head.

When I turn it on, I just hear a rush of sounds. It's like going from an absolute silent room to a room with a bunch of noises. Try going from a sound booth to suddenly outside with a bunch of chatter. This is specifically why a lot of children do not like having it on the first thing in the morning because their brain and ears were "rested" for many hours, then suddenly the nerves wakes up.

Sorry for the long post...:)
 
the only way in which i feel my ci's is by touching them. it's a small bump on the side of my head just above my ears. other than that, i don't even realize that i have implants in my head. i don't feel anything -- although lately i have whenever i heard any sound with my ci's, but that was *only* due to dizziness. i now have much, much softer maps with 6 high frequency electrodes on each ci turned off, so everything i hear is very comfortable and not painful at all.
 
I don't feel my implant at all..sometimes like LadyS mentioned, I can feel were the magnet is acutely..lately it was much more prominent so I started thinkin that I might need to lower the magnet strength.

but , no the internal implant doesn't bother me at all..my friends can feel the implant in my skull and don't like it much..lol!
 
I cannot feel the implant at all apart if i touch it. My dad touched it the other day and found it quite surprising how big it is!! I have very thin skin and the implant is quite promient. i can outline the implant/magnet but can't find the electrodes.

The only time i actually felt the signals was when i was switched on for the first time and nearly passed out! since then those 4 electrodes were turned off.. been great since.
 
I cannot feel my implant unless i touch it but i can also feel bump if i touch that also!

sometimes i have to touch my ear to make sure iv got my implant on because i cant feel it on my ear lol!
 
charlotte,

the same thing happened to me during my first ci activation. instead of hearing them, i felt all of the high frequency sounds. it was a very strange sensation.

coincidentally, the same thing happened to me recently when 12 of my electrodes were turned off. my ci audi conducted an electrode sweep to determine which frequencies were causing my dizziness and whenever she played high frequency sounds, i felt a vibration immediately followed by dizziness and lightheadedness. the same thing occurred whenever she played low and middle frequencies. they sounded extremely loud to me, so all of them were turned down several notches.
 
faire_jour said:
So I started thinking about the thing that is inside of Miss Kat today, and I have some questions for people with CI's.

Can you feel the implant? Are you always aware of it? when you first recieved it, was it strange? Could you feel what they had done internally? (I don't mean that there was something there, but that they had cut the bone and stuff) Can you feel it in your ear? What does it feel like when it turns on? I know you can hear with it, but is there any other feeling or stimulation?

I am just trying to wrap my head around what it feel like to be her.
Click to expand...

I can touch the implant, but feel it no. My daughter likes to touch it. She likes to give implant rubs, to "make my hearing better."
 
Hear Again said:
charlotte,

the same thing happened to me during my first ci activation. instead of hearing them, i felt all of the high frequency sounds. it was a very strange sensation.

coincidentally, the same thing happened to me recently when 12 of my electrodes were turned off. my ci audi conducted an electrode sweep to determine which frequencies were causing my dizziness and whenever she played high frequency sounds, i felt a vibration immediately followed by dizziness and lightheadedness. the same thing occurred whenever she played low and middle frequencies. they sounded extremely loud to me, so all of them were turned down several notches.
Click to expand...

Hey Lisa, these describes almost excat what i had experinced. It was really high and i was feeling those sensation at the temple of my head as if it feels like dizziness and passing out, tried for first few days i got very distressed and the sounds was kept very low until at my 1 month post switch on I asked them if they could find if there's anything wrong with the implant, the report (NRT) from my operation and xray (the day after my implant operation) looked fine so they did sweeping test, i was able to point out which one was causing the problem, it was few electrodes that was causing the problems not the whole implant (i was relieved as i didn't really want re implantation). It was electrode 10 to 14 (not sure excatly which but it's in the middle) that caused the problem, since then i was able to use the ci to it's full. I was told the troubled electrodes might be too close to my nerve. But who knows.

I would want to see if i can have those "Switched off 4" back on.

Be very interested to hear from you on what you CT scan had said.... and what can be done so i could discuss with my Audi to see what her thoughts are and see if it's worth getting the 4 back on but to be honest if i am doing far better than they thought it may be best to sweep those back in the files and forgotten. The other 18 electrodes does the job of 22 so i am not too worried.
 
cahrlotte,

i apolizie for my tpos, my cts is still botherin gme. you could try to see if the 4 electrdes yu have turned off could be turned back on. in my case, i'm noty going to becase i'm hering so mufh better than i have in 4 years. i don't see te point of changing smething that worksl. as far as my ct scan is conerned, i'm hopng to har back from my audi tomorrow. she reutns toher office then, so i hope that she will get bak to me to let me know what the reslts of my ct scan arer.
 
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